Work of Idle Hands

John Walker is a professor of Spanish studies at Queen’s University.

In much of Latin America during the 1970s, military dictatorship and
government repression of citizens in the name of antiterrorism were the
norm. The “Dirty War” in Argentina was especially brutal. Work of
Idle Hands tells a story of that time and place.

Amnesty International worker Peter Quinfell has witnessed oppression,
corruption, and murder on three continents (Asia, Africa, South
America). Seeing justice denied, he takes the law into his own hands.
His campaign of revenge takes him to various countries (ending in
Argentina) and provokes an international manhunt. Another Canadian, RCMP
Harry Bruckner in 1980s Ottawa, is a seedy, sad Cold Warrior,
disillusioned with government, politics, and his loveless marriage.
Bruckner’s career, now reduced to a desk job in the Records Department
owing to his lack of discipline and insubordination, takes a surprising
and dangerous turn when the mysterious loss of a file sets him off in
pursuit of an ubiquitous assassin—a pursuit that leads him to Buenos
Aires.

The background material—political shenanigans, secret groups,
clandestine meetings, CIA intervention, government-approved spying and
assassination—is detailed and convincing. In fact, some of the
material is so sensitive that the author, a former Ottawa civil servant
now living in Winnipeg, wrote Work of Idle Hands under an assumed name
to protect himself and his ex-colleagues, not to mention national
security. If the human-rights violations in Argentina appal us, we can
hardly be proud of some of the dirty tricks orchestrated by government
agencies in Canada. This political thriller has much to say about the
moral ambiguities involved in the portrayal of good and evil.