By Walter Kish

Last week’s news headlines were dominated by the judging scandal in the pairs figure skating competition at the winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. The Canadian pair of Sale and Pelletier skated a flawless and obviously winning performance. However, five of the nine judges awarded the gold medal to the Russian pair of Berezhnaya and Sikharulidze, whose performance, though good, included a number of obvious stumbles and faults. The arena crowd jeered the judges mercilessly over the blatantly unfair marking and the North American media turned it into a major scandal. After two days of unrelenting journalistic attacks and growing public outrage, the Olympic governing council and International Skating Union (ISU) caved in, awarded Sale and Pelletier gold medals as well, and suspended a French skating judge who admitted to being pressured to favour the Russian skaters in return for support for a French ice dancing pair who were to compete several days later. Unfortunately, too little attention was paid to the other four judges from Russia, Ukraine, Poland and China, who allegedly were also part of the collusion.

To those who are familiar with the sport, this is nothing new. Apparently, this type of cheating has been going on for decades, with judges from the Eastern bloc and former Soviet Empire being practiced masters of the game. This should not be surprising, since the Communist system created a culture and mindset where cheating was a way of life and an essential element of survival. Though the Communist system may have collapsed, many of the ingrained habits live on.

In North America, we have been brought up in an environment where we expect fairness and justice from our governments and other bodies that represent power and authority. We expect a level playing field in all endeavours and a high degree of honesty and integrity from those with whom we deal, whether it be in business, government, or sports. To be sure, our society does not lack in those with flexible scruples who are not above taking a few moral shortcuts to satisfy their greed, lusts and ambitions, but by far the vast majority of our population are basically honest and hard working folks for whom a sense of ethics is an essential measure of a successful and good life.

For those who grew up under Communism however, the lessons were much different. Despite its original promise, most Soviet citizens soon came to realize that “their” government, and the Communist party in particular, cared little for their individual rights or well-being. To survive meant learning how to lie, cheat and steal as a way of life. Creative accounting and falsified statistics were pervasive. Numbers became separated from reality. When the state owned everything, and cared nothing for the individual, stealing from the state stopped being a crime, and became common practice. Where no democracy existed, and power was everything, success came from mastering the arts of conspiracy, manipulation, bribery and extortion. The legal system was a shameless faзade. Judges received their direction from the party and the outcome of any trial was usually determined before the proceedings ever started.

It is no surprise therefore that many of the people that came from that environment have different perspectives, values and morals than most of us brought up in western society. We see this in all spheres of life currently in former Iron curtain countries. Their economies and business environments are riddled with greed and corruption. Their political systems are beset with graft, factionalism, mistrust and authoritarianism. Their legal systems have inadequate impartiality, independence, and little authority or capability to enforce justice and the rule of law.

By and large, most of the business, political and other leaders in eastern bloc countries learned their trade and modus operandi in the amoral Communist system, and it should not surprise us that they behave the way they do. It will take a generation or two for the ingrained bad habits of that era to be unlearned, and it is our responsibility in the west to do everything we can to get the message across that we will not condone or tolerate this type of behaviour in our dealings with them. If they want to join the “western” world and partake of its benefits, then they must accept a higher standard of ethical behaviour. This applies to business and government as well as sport.

The Olympic governing bodies and the ISU must not be satisfied with making the French judge the scapegoat for the scandal that occurred in Salt Lake. She was more a victim than a perpetrator of the scandal. They must attack the root cause as embodied in the collusion of the four eastern bloc judges, and eliminate their ability to perpetuate an unethical and unfair practice. We must ensure that cheating is made as difficult as possible and that it will never be tolerated.