The letter and the law
Ethics Commissioner Mary Dawson's finding that Helena Guergis, having not used ministerial letterhead in her letter to Simcoe County advocating a project in which her husband had an interest, did not act as a cabinet minister and is therefore not subject to the Conflict of Interest Act, is highly unfortunate ( Jaffer's Firm Sought Federal Funds As Guergis Promoted Its Project, Files Show - April 23). Either the act is inadequate or the Commissioner's reading of it is too narrow if a minister can be freed of its provisions thanks to her or his choice of letterhead.
Joel MacDonald, Saskatoon
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Helena Guergis touted a green technology company to Simcoe County officials while her husband, Rahim Jaffer, was involved in a potentially lucrative business plan to take the firm public. Last September, Ms. Guergis sent a letter to Tony Guergis, her cousin, a municipal politician for Simcoe County, suggesting council consider doing business with the recycling company - an overture, apparently, now freighted with problematic conflict of interest issues for the unhappy couple.
Kermit the Frog had it right: It isn't easy being green.
Orest Slepokura, Strathmore, Alta.
Sex: Turn to page …
There goes my cartoon idea ( Premier Pulls Plug On New Sex-Ed Program - April 23): mom looking sternly down at 8-year-old with caption, "I don't care what they teach you in school, we don't use that language here."
Irwin Silverman, Toronto
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Grade 7 students already know about all the stuff people are trying to shield them from - but what they know is actually not always accurate. You'd think religious groups would like this reform, because countries with more explicit sex-ed have fewer teen pregnancies, and that would mean fewer abortions.
Emma Harris, 13, Ottawa
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Letter-writer J.E. Kraulis (ABC's Of S-E-X - April 23) equates withholding sex and gender information from children to wisely denying them the right to drive until achieving the "age of responsibility." This comparison is valid - as long as the family also: stops their children from playing with toy cars; protects them from hearing about cars of different makes; has them cross the street blindfolded; refers to gas and brake pedals as the "vroom vroom" and "eeeek eeeek." And on their 16th birthdays, hands them the car keys and lets them go at it.
Patricia Chartier, Toronto
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I am as dyed-in-the-wool a Christian as anyone (my family has had Anglican priests in every generation since the early 1700s). I am committed to transmitting Jesus's core teachings to my young daughter. In addition to what we teach at home, I expect the school system to teach a clear curriculum on sexual education that promotes responsibility, independence and tolerance where children might otherwise be indoctrinated at home on the submission of women to men and intolerance toward homosexuals, among other destructive views.
The Premier should rethink again.
David Harris (Rev.), Aurora, Ont.
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The teaching of sexual practices to children is only one part of a broader agenda by the institutionalized left to indoctrinate young people into their illiberal ideology of "diversity," and "inclusiveness," in order to remedy the innumerable "-isms" that allegedly plague our society. Dalton McGuinty stated that the sex-ed policy requires a serious "rethink." Ontarians should seriously "rethink" what types of people we put in office to appoint the bureaucrats who come up with these policies in the first place.
Jim Hutchinson, Hamilton, Ont.
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I doubt if there are a 100 people in Ontario who have bothered to read the province's ill-fated new sex-ed plan. However, the media did a great job of boiling the 208 pages down to anal intercourse, vaginal lubrication and masturbation. Based on this, two years of good work gets thrown under the bus. It was too much to hope that the media - which have much to answer for in terms of promoting the sexualization of the young - would have taken a more balanced approach to this story.
David McKinley, Toronto
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Sex-ed will save lives by teaching tolerance. Without talking about the different kinds of individuals who make up our country, and without teaching children about the variety of families that exist, we cannot and will never reduce the victimization of gay and lesbian children, families, and individuals.
Erika Jahn, Montreal
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My son, a Grade 5 student, calls the basic anatomy of the male body he's been learning in class "disturbing" and "embarrassing." I wonder what he would say if this sex-education plan - including discussion of oral, anal and vaginal intercourse - was introduced. The word "horrifying" comes to mind. It is obvious the people who wrote the failed plan have no clue about the true emotional and intellectual capacity of elementary school children.
Sandra Upeslacis, Toronto
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The real reason Dalton McGuinty pulled the plug on the new sex-ed program? How fast can you say erec, sorry, election?
Geoff Williams, Stratford, Ont.
A T rek on the Rideau
Thousands of people have signed on to a Facebook page suggesting Canadian-born actor William Shatner, best known as Star Trek's Captain Kirk, be beamed into Rideau Hall to replace Michaëlle Jean as Governor-General ( The Starship Rideau Hall For Shatner? - Review, April 23). Not only would we go where no one has dared, we'd have "The Negotiator" to price-chop our way to prosperity.
David Campbell (Canadien errant), Napa, Calif.
Guns and the law
A rifle or a shotgun in the wrong hands is just as deadly as a handgun ( Gun To Their Heads - editorial, April 22). They are most often the guns police officers face, particularly in rural areas. They are the guns most often used to kill police officers and spouses in domestic homicides. In 2009, between January and October, they accounted for 40 per cent of recovered firearms related to a criminal act.
With stronger controls on rifles and shotguns, we have seen significant reductions in gun-related death and robberies. The savings from eliminating the registration of rifles and shotguns are estimated at $3-million per year, a pittance compared to the costs of gun death and injury.
Yves Francoeur, président, Fraternité des policiers et policières de Montréal
Criticize, satirize, ridicule
As free citizens of free societies, we have every right to criticize, satirize, ridicule, question or skewer whatever we want, including Islam, the Koran, Mohammed or Allah, and any attempt to prevent us from doing so is a direct frontal attack on our civil liberties and way of life (Muslim Group's Threats Put A Chill On South Park's Heated Humour - April 23).
Threatening the creators of South Park with violent retribution for depicting Mohammed in a bear suit is saying to all of us that we cannot express ourselves in any way that may be seen as disrespectful by the Muslim extremists among us for fear of being attacked or killed like Theo van Gogh. If that doesn't spur us to defend our right to express ourselves freely, nothing will.
Pushing back is long overdue. Freedom of expression is one of the cornerstones of Western civilization. If we lose that, we will lose everything else as well.
Jerry Philipson, Comox, B.C.
Earth and her tenants
Given the spectacular volcanic eruption and its consequences, it is only natural for the media to reflect on the unbalanced relationship between the Earth and her arrogant tenants ( One Modest Belch, Endless Moralizing - April 22.) To use the incident as a humbling learning experience is hardly the same as attributing Eyjafjallajokull the Unpronounceable goddess-like intents as the ancients might have done. As for the notion that the volcano has merely thrown up a practical problem we are more than capable of resolving, we're all ears. A giant cork?
Michael Derblich, Toronto
Tacking left
I came to live in this wonderful country in 1969 ( Michael Ignatieff Is Tacking Left - Finally, April 22), attracted by the social democracy of Lester Pearson and Pierre Trudeau. I think I've contributed to Canada as they would have wished - only a brief time on pogey and no time in prison. Over the decades, I've watched as Canada has shifted into the thrall of corporate interests. I've been shocked by leaders who believe humans and dinosaurs walked the land together. I'm saddened that gay people have been excluded from our country's citizenship guide. I've watched with chagrin as our values of fairness, openness, and compassion have been subsumed by redacted documents.
I don't like living in Stephen Harper's Canada but I'm too old to learn Swedish, Norwegian or Danish and can't move where my soul would be at ease. So, I encourage Mr. Ignatieff to embrace the principles of Lester Pearson. And yes, social reforms can be sought within a balanced budget.
Rupert Taylor, Waterloo, Ont.
A coy test?
The proposed sex classes that have taken up much of the news - educate me here - has it all been for naughty? Has the whole thing been a case of coy test interrupt us?
Frank W. Morgan, Perth, Ont.