Mr. Big and the Canadian election

A story of belief, teams, and regret

For over three years, Rhonda Black got away with murder.

In 1998, Black’s husband Keith abruptly disappeared. Eleven days later, Black told police Keith had gone hunting and had not returned. A few days later, police found Keith’s car parked beside a trail leading into the wilderness near Kamloops, British Columbia. There was an empty rifle case in the car.

Police were suspicious that Keith had been murdered by his wife. They had grounds for suspicion. Before Keith’s disappearance, the couple operated some Taekwon-Do studios which were in financial trouble. There were lots of quarrels. Black had begun researching which mushrooms were poisonous and had taken to feeding her husband hand-picked mushrooms for supper. After Keith stopped eating these meals, Black attempted to hire two different people to kill Keith. After Keith disappeared, Black immediately filed for a divorce and put the family home up for sale.

So – yeah.

The police were suspicious.

But they had nothing to go on. Because of the delay in Black filing a missing person’s report, it was impossible to prove or disprove an alibi. There was not forensic evidence. Black kept her mouth shut. Nothing could be proven. Black had gotten away with murder.

Then Black met a man – known as “Mr. Big” – for the first time. She told this stranger that she had stabbed her husband while he was asleep on a couch in their basement. She got Keith right through the heart, so there was very little blood. Black rolled Keith’s body onto a mattress and dragged it up the stairs and out the door. She deposited Keith’s body in the trunk of her car. She put their 18-month-old child into his car seat and set off for Revelstoke – about 200 km away. She was seeking the help of a family friend who, it seems, had the hots for Black.

Black’s friend was both willing and resourceful. After the Black family – both living and dead – arrived, he took them out on a remote road. He cut off Keith’s head, shot it with a shotgun (to prevent identification from dental records), and buried it. Next to get cut off and buried separately were Keith’s hands. Then the rest of him. Black told Mr. Big she and her helper returned to Kamloops, staged the disappearance with the car and gun case, disposed the bloody couch, and generally cleaned up.

Mr. Big said that was quite a story. Could Black show him where the various parts of Keith were buried?

Black said she could not. The body disposal had been conducted at night. She was in a strange place and was, well, distraught.

\Mr. Big asked if the friend could show where the body pieces were. Black acknowledged that he probably could, but that she was in no position to ask. It seems that the helpful friend’s romantic feelings had not been reciprocated. After being so helpful in body disposal and crime scene staging, his disappointment had turned to bitterness.

Mr. Big then went and asked the helpful, bitter ex-friend about what happened. The friend confirmed Black’s story and took the police to help dig up the body parts. The handcuffs came out. Black was convicted of murder and the friend sent to prison for being an accessory after the fact and committing an indignity to a body.

Here is the question.

Why did both Black and her helpful friend both give their detailed disclosures to a stranger? – especially after they’d proven their ability to keep their mouths shut for over three years.

You’ve probably figured out by now that Mr. Big was an undercover RCMP officer. His appearance was the culmination of an undercover operation in which police pretended to be members of a powerful criminal gang. Both Black and her friend told their story to the putative boss of the gang – Mr. Big – to seek membership in the imaginary gang. It sounds strange, but over 300 murderers have fallen for the Mr. Big sting to talk their way into prison.

What make’s Black’s case more interesting than most is that she had been warned by her lawyer about the potential of a Mr. Big operation soon after Keith’s disappearance. After being befriended by a female “gang member” and an oh-so-sexy “brother”, Black consulted her lawyer. She described her new friends and asked if they were undercover RCMP officers. The lawyer assured Black that the “friends” were police officers and that if she told them anything about Keith’s disappearance, she would go to prison. Directly to prison. No passing go and no collecting $200.

Two weeks after this explicit warning, Black told Mr. Big everything.

Black’s decision to loosen her lips seems incomprehensibly stupid.

Why did Black talk her way into a prison cell after being explicitly warned? Why did the helpful, bitter ex-friend also fall for the same gag? (In his defense, he had not received the same lawyerly warning that Black received.)

There are, I think, two reasons.

First, we believe what we want to believe. Black wanted to believe that she had found a new BFF with a sexy brother. She wanted to believe that her new friends could get the police off her back. Desire builds belief.

Second, in addition to the tangible benefits of friendship, potential lust, and getting clear with the police, Black wanted to be part of a team. So did her helpful, now bitter friend. Most of us are joiners.

The logic of Mr. Big and Mark Carney

As I’ve watched the election campaign unfold, I’ve been watching a lot of my old friends suddenly declaring themselves to be disciples of Mark Carney. It baffles me. Many of these folk spent decades as good, old-fashioned, Liberal-hating New Democrats. Now they are suddenly cheering for not just a Liberal – but a banker.

What in the name of Tommy Douglas is happening here?

My brooding about this made me think of Rhonda Black. She believed what she wanted to believe. She wanted to be on a team. These two things led her to put her faith and future into the hands of a stranger whom she had no rational reason to trust. She’s had lots of time to contemplate the errors of this decision.

So here is what I think is happening in the election.

A lot of my old friends believe that Pierre Poilievre is the embodiment of evil. Nothing new here. They’ve thought that of every Conservative leader. This time, however, the normal NDP loathing of Conservative leaders is boosted by the belief that Poilievre is “just like Trump.”

These folk want to believe there is an alternative they can vote for with enthusiasm and conviction. In fact, their wanting to believe what they want to believe has reached desperation levels.

But whom to believe in?

In recent years, the federal NDP has been – lets just say – “disappointing” to a lot of people. It’s left a lot of traditional supporters looking at the orange jersey in their closet only to tell themselves it no long fits.

So they need a team. They want to join …. Something.

Even a Liberal party run by a banker who has been keeping his plans for the country close to his chest.

To election day and beyond

If you really don’t like Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives, there is a case for strategic voting. That is, one could vote for the candidate (Liberal or NDP) with the best chance of defeating the Conservative candidate. That’s a rational strategy, but there is no joy in voting for someone because they are “not as bad as the other guy.”

As a result, a lot of people seem to be falling for the lure of Mr. Big.

Believing what you want to believe.

Wanting to join a team.

I’ve never met Rhonda Black (and probably never will) but I suspect she regrets the choices she made.

More specifically, she did not show a lot of remorse at trial, so I suspect she does not really regret her choice to stab her husband in the heart.

But I am willing to bet that she regrets her decision to put her trust in a mysterious stranger because she wanted to:

• Believe Mr. Big was who she hoped he was, and

• Join a team.

Rhonda Black was explicitly warned. She chose to ignore the warnings. For myself, I think back to my mis-spent youth in the early 1970s as I developed the habit of going to NDP events. I can remember Allan Blakeney warning:

“A Liberal is a Liberal is a Liberal.”

You didn’t want to get him going on bankers.

If you are thinking about voting for Carney’s Liberals because you want to believe that a Liberal is not really a Liberal – and because you want to join a team – think about the possibility of regret. I don’t think your regret will be as profound as Rhonda Black’s, but I am willing to bet you will feel some.

Because just because you want something to be true does not make it so.

And not every team is a good one to join.