"Amico Nostro"

The Quebec Liberal Party is preparing to depart its place of governance, to make way for the new minority-led government of the Parti Quebecois.  And so, the courtesy of the election-delayed enquiry into corruption in the Quebec construction industry has been initiated.  The Charbonneau Inquiry has had an interesting 100-page introduction to Italian mafioso.

An Italian-born scholar, Velentina Tenti, an expert on the Italian Mafia has testified before the Inquiry, and her testimony on the history and the far-spread tentacles of the Italian Mafia is compelling indeed.  What she revealed to the Inquiry must have made the Inquiry members rapt with attention.

Detailing as she has the fascinating Italian heritage of the "men of honour".  "Mafioso are made and not born.  You need to undergo a process, a right of affiliation", she asserted.  Perhaps that much most people already know, given the popular acclaim of the television series, The Sopranos and the film series "The Godfather".

The Mafia life she described as "Come in with blood, go out with blood", referring to the Mafioso rite of cutting a finger to shed a drop of blood on a holy object.  And perhaps concluding with the reality that the holy order of the Mafia is replete with the commission of countless acts of violence in the course of protecting their territory, resulting in endless pools of blood.

The Commission learned, and so did we, that protection money is a high earning enterprise for the Mafia; in 2007 a study concluded that the Sicilian Mob was successful in 'raising' 160 million euros from island business; roughly 70% of Sicilian businesses saw it to their security advantage to pay the 'pizzo', representing about 50,000 euros from each hapless business owner.

The Sicilian Mafia is called the Cosa Nostra which offers such protection services, even financing to companies in need; ergo a rather controversial kind of bank.  Just think of the colossal interest rates.  And then there's the Camorra from Naples, the 'Ndrangheta from Calabria, though the Cosa Nostra remains the dominant Mafia.

In Canada we are proud to host the Calabrian group in Toronto and Thunder Bay, Ontario; heavily involved in drug trafficking.  The Cosa Nostra on the other hand is the dominant Mafia group in Quebec.  And they represent the honourable thugs involved in the corrupted construction trade in that estimable province.

In her testimony, Ms. Tenti offered the "Ten Commandments of the Sicilian Mafia" known as the "Cosa Nostra" (translated as Our Thing):

1. No one can present himself directly to one of our friends ("amico nostro").  There must be a third party to do it.
2. Never look at the wives of friends.
3. Never be seen with cops.
4. Don't go to pubs and clubs.
5. Always being available for|Cosa Nostra is a duty - even if your wife is about to give birth.
6. Appointments must absolutely be respected.
7. Wives must be treated with respect.
8. When asked for any information, the answer must be the truth.
9. Money cannot be taken if it belongs to others or to other families.
10. People who can't be part of Cosa Nostra: Anyone who has a close relative in the police, anyone with a traitor for a relative, anyone who behaves badly and doesn't hold to moral values.