OUTSIDERS tend to think of Canada as a wholesome, boy-scoutish kind of place. Many Canadians have the same view. Yet their country is as shockingly slow as many in Latin America when it comes to dealing with allegations of corruption and white-collar crime, as a rash of recent cases demonstrates.

Public hearings began this week in a judicial inquiry into the relationship between Brian Mulroney, a former prime minister, and Karlheinz Schreiber, who was once a lobbyist for Airbus and for Thyssen, a German defence and steel company. The matter under investigation dates back to 1993, when Mr Mulroney is alleged to have accepted the first of three envelopes stuffed with cash from Mr Schreiber. It is six years since these payments became public knowledge.

Yet the inquiry is the first attempt by the government to get to the bottom of the affair. Mr Mulroney says that the cash—C$225,000 ($170,000 at the time) he says; C$300,000 says Mr Schreiber—was payment for lobbying work carried out after he ceased being prime minister, and he insists he has done nothing wrong. But should the inquiry's findings lead to criminal charges against him, the subsequent trial would probably drag on for several more years.

This is what happened in the case of Garth Drabinsky and Myron Gottlieb, two Canadian theatre impresarios from a company called Livent who were convicted of fraud on March 25th. They were indicted in the United States in 1999, and promptly fled to Canada where they were not charged until 2002. Justice has moved only slightly faster in the case of Larry O'Brien, the mayor of Ottawa, who was charged 16 months ago with trying to bribe an opponent in an election in 2006. His trial begins next month.

Canadian sloth in these matters is shown up by American zeal. Conrad Black was jailed for fraud south of the border but was never charged in his native Canada, although some of the press baron's offences were committed there. The contrast stems in part from differences between legal systems. America's grand juries, which have no counterpart in Canada, allow investigators to subpoena witnesses and require them to testify under oath. Plea bargaining provides another tool to extract evidence. Canadian police must rely on voluntary co-operation from busy businessmen. If they procrastinate, cases may be dropped because witnesses die or because of undue delay, as happened with Robert Topol, a third Livent manager. Another time-consuming Canadian procedure requires police to disclose all documentary evidence when they file charges.

A bigger factor may be public attitudes. Canadians tend to defer to authority and trust their institutions. Although the main parties, the Liberals and the Conservatives, play up corruption claims to gain political advantage, their outrage rarely provokes a public groundswell in favour of speedy action or change. The exception was a scandal over Liberal advertising spending, which cost the party the 2006 election.

The Liberals have had little success in trying to tar Stephen Harper, the Conservative prime minister, with the problems of Mr Mulroney, who formerly acted as a mentor to him. Mr O'Brien has refused to step down as Ottawa's mayor. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation plans to air a new series of a talent show in which Mr Drabinsky is one of the judges. Mr Mulroney continues to sit on several corporate boards. “Canadians are complacent about these things,” says Tony Coulson of Environics, a polling firm. At this rate they won't earn their boy-scout's badge for housecleaning.