Paranoid? RCMP 'picking on men' with request for his fingerprints, Toronto teacher charges

A highly respected Toronto educator, who pioneered programming for gifted students during a 30-year career with the Toronto District Catholic School Board, is questioning the need for him to provide fingerprints to the RCMP to teach an elective course at a private school.

Otto Schmidt, 67, who is now retired but is listed by the Ontario College of Teachers as a teacher in good standing since 1971, reached out to CBC Toronto after learning about the RCMP's request.

A letter he received from Toronto police said the requirement stems from the "match of your gender and date of birth to their pardoned sex offender registry."

Schmidt, who retired in 2002 but has continued to work in education ever since, thinks he's being discriminated against.

"Obviously they're picking on men. And secondly, it's date of birth," he told CBC Toronto.

"Are all the men in the country or province or whatever going to be selected to hand in their fingerprints?"  (more...)

Paranoid? RCMP 'picking on men' with request for his fingerprints, Toronto teacher charges

Yours truly was directed to obtain a Top Secret clearance in order to do some rather mundane work for the defense sector. Yes, the security apparatus gets excessively exercised in this true north.