Fraud à la Gandhi

A jobless computer technician, briefly confined to the Pinel Institute last month for writing Lucien Bouchard a letter describing how he would begin a life of crime if he weren't given a job, has finally taken the plunge.

Daniel Guibord pretended to deposit $3,000 in each of his two bank accounts early this month via automated teller, and immediately withdrew $1,000 from each of them in cash. In a letter included in each of the two deposit envelopes, he described why he committed the crime: "If you want to recuperate your money, it is the simplest thing in the world: find me a job." As of today, he has still not received word from the banks or the police as to whether they will press charges, attempt to recoup the money or place him in their employ.

Guibord, who has been without work for the past two years, sees his action as an act of civil disobedience against a government uninterested in the plight of the unemployed. He compares his action to Mahatma Gandhi's non-violent struggle to free India from British colonial rule.

In a separate letter to the Mirror, he writes, "In my view, Gandhi would have attained his goal much faster, had instabank cards existed in his day..." Jacquie Charlton