{File By EX} - Drilling the Commissioner

Maria's task is to prepare the Commissioner and his core management team for an impending Parliamentary Committee grilling in front of the National media. A task akin to leading lambs to the slaughter in Maria's eyes, for the object of her ministrations are old and decidedly beyond their 'best before date'. A recently-retired senior public servant is hired as a consultant but he hardly inspires confidence when he wears his past trauma so noticeably. Maria drills her troops mercilessly through various dry runs focusing on the various talking points she has prepared within binders for the impending grilling.
For this month's edition of File By EX, I focused on the hapless management team in their attempts to put in to practice Maria's teachings. I used a turn-0f-the-century 'finishing school' metaphor where poise and posture was taught by having pupils carry books on their head while uttering the mantra: "The Rain In Spain". The Commissioner and his team try to display poise by balancing those binders Maria so carefully prepared on their heads however, the results are decidedly mixed and the mantra gets lost in translation.
File By EX is a monthly feature in the Ottawa Citizen. For past installments visit: http://www2.canada.com/ottawacitizen/features/exfiles/index.html