A do-it/say-it divide
Stephen Harper criticizes the European Union's proposed ban on seal products, saying: "It is a disgrace that [Canadian sealers are]treated this way in some countries based on no rational facts or information whatsoever." It's fortunate that we Canadians are not subject to such actions domestically.
That wouldn't make census …er, sense (EU Seal Ban Suspended Amid Inuit Challenge - Aug. 20).
Tom Brewer, Pickering, Ont.
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Criticism of the EU for making decisions "based on no rational facts or information whatsoever" is somewhat disingenuous coming from a man whose government has just turfed yet another person who offers expert advice to the government (the Veterans Ombudsman), refuses to incorporate harm reduction into the government's illicit-drug strategy and is abandoning the census long form. I am waiting for Mr. Harper to take his own opinion to heart.
Jane McCall, Delta, B.C.
The Cheliak chill
Ready, aim, fired - sorry, sent for language training - just before he was to get an award for his work in bringing three police associations together in their support for keeping the long-gun registry so disliked by Stephen Harper.
Chief Supt. Cheliak's ouster was not done to appease the Conservatives, according to William Elliott (RCMP Commissioner Fires Back At Allegations Of Political Interference - Aug. 20): "The media and others just made this up. It's not true, it's not true, it's not true."
Leaving me to think, just true to form.
Rachel Evans, Toronto
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It is a bit naive to think the Liberals are just looking for a diversion by raising the Cheliak issue (Mountie's Removal Seen As Attack On Watchdog - Aug. 19). The issue is much more serious. Nine months ago, Chief Superintendent Marty Cheliak was vetted and deemed sufficiently qualified to be the acting director-general of the RCMP's Canadian Firearms Program. Why is now the appropriate time for language training, and not the weeks after he was appointed? As a francophone, I would rather see Chief Supt. Cheliak stay in his post, ensuring the continuation of a public safety program that is very popular in Quebec, rather than learn French grammar.
With a vote on a recommendation by the Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security (SECU) coming up in September to scrap Bill C-391, Chief Supt. Cheliak has been effectively silenced just before he was to have addressed the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police on the success and importance of the long-gun registry.
Something like the gun registry, which is such a small inconvenience and yet promotes public safety, should not be subject to political games.
Philippe Bellon, Toronto
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It is not the job of the police to advocate for more laws, especially useless ones like the firearms act. Their job is to uphold the laws that are passed by Parliament. By co-ordinating what amounts to three police lobby groups, Chief Supt. Cheliak placed himself squarely in the political arena. Why then should anyone be surprised when he's put in his place?
Bruce N. Mills, Hamilton, Ont.
Collective wisdom
If one out of five Americans believes that President Barack Obama is Muslim, one begins to see the wisdom of the Electoral College (Myth Of A Muslim Obama Stubbornly Persistent - Aug. 20).
Lesley Byrne, Toronto
Potash rivals
It is disheartening that we do not have a visionary who has built or is prepared to build a mining giant comparable to BHP (Australian), Rio Tinto (Anglo-Australian) or Vale (Brazilian). With our vast natural resources, it leaves one pondering why this is so (Potash Corp. Attracts List Of Would-Be Rivals To BHP Bid - Report on Business, Aug. 20). When combined with Canada continually lagging in areas such as productivity, this lack of ambition in corporate Canada speaks to a state of complacency that does not bode well for our long-term economic health.
Jodie Parmar, Ottawa
May I speak to ...
Susan Copland of the Investment Industry Association of Canada can cry me a river over her objection to the CRTC's decision to treat cold calls from stock brokers as calls from telemarketers (Hold The Phone: CRTC Reins In Financial Advisers - Report On Business, Aug. 20). As part of their prospecting for new clients, brokers are big cold callers and frequently hire assistants precisely for that purpose. What the difference is between that and someone calling me to sell me windows, I don't know. Both are unsolicited and intrusive and should be subject to the same rules. No sympathy for the insurance industry, either. Why does everyone think their industry is special?
Norman Levine, Toronto
'He's my hero'
I have to disagree with Marlene Santin's characterization of Steven Slater as "a disgrace to those hard-working flight attendants who've laboured tirelessly to build this occupation into a recognized service profession" (A Disgrace To His Profession - Aug. 20). He did not "delegitimize the reputation of flight attendants," he overwhelmingly expressed the pent-up frustrations of workers whose abuse is practically celebrated in the press and fodder for cocktail conversation. He took one for the team. I don't know one flight attendant who doesn't smile broadly at the mention of his name. We all have a fantasy exit strategy to end the constant abuse by passengers and management. We just don't act on it. As far as I'm concerned, he's my hero… and the "wind beneath my wings"!
Blair Boudreau, Toronto
The task of the refugee board
In a posting on its website, "Sri Lankan Refugees Return," the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees states "tens of thousands of internally displaced people are returning to their homes in the north and it seems that some refugees abroad are also opting to return" (Refuge And Refugees - letters, Aug. 20). While the article refers mainly to Sri Lankan refugees in India, it goes on to say "Sri Lankan refugees in other countries are also starting to express interest to UNHCR offices about returning home voluntarily."
It would seem that the sentiments expressed in this article are at odds with the claims of those who booked passage on the Sun Sea. I am confused about this disconnect, and I imagine that it will make the task of the refugee board a difficult and unenviable one.
Derek Patterson, Mississauga, Ont.
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It's misleading to frame the controversy about the Tamil refugees as an ethnic matter. Canada benefits from immigrants. The problem is political; it has to do with a guerrilla movement, the Tigers, whom most governments have identified as terrorists. They extorted money from other Tamils in Canada and, after the civil war ended, did not give up their separatist aspirations. How many Canadian Tamils still are, or must pretend to be, pro-Tiger? (Ask anyone who knows that community.) Tamils in Sri Lanka, however, are more politically diverse, as perhaps the new refugees also may be. However, in joining the Canadian Tamil community, they'll face enormous pressures to adopt a harder line. Canada may again become the stage for a renewed civil war.
Two measures could help prevent that. First, each refugee claimant can be examined carefully, as the immigration officials are presumably doing. Second, the newcomers should be settled in dispersed areas around Canada where they will not have to integrate into the local Tamil subculture and be subjected to its pressures.
Metta Spencer, Toronto
Theft in a digital age
John Mellencamp predicts that the sky is falling on the music business because of the Internet (John Mellencamp Likens Internet To A-bomb - Aug. 18). What he suggests isn't false - to a point. When the music business was centred in "Tin Pan Alley," the focus was on sheet music and music rolls that people could buy and play on pianos at home. The phonograph changed all that. As radio came along, the music business adjusted. With the rise of digital and the Internet, music production is changing, yet again. The problem isn't the shift to digital and the Internet. Legislative protections for copyright aren't adequate for a digital age. One European study predicts more than a million lost jobs and $328-billion in lost revenue by 2015.
Digital piracy is responsible for the 50 per cent reduction of Canada's music recording market. Even so, cultural industries - production, marketing, and retail - represent 3.8 per cent of Canada's GDP. Cultural industries employ 633,200 Canadians - more than the forest products industry. The entertainment industry's ability to remain healthy and continue to deliver content to consumers in innovative ways is dependent upon a copyright framework that both discourages massive online piracy and encourages legitimate commerce. That's why Bill C-32, the Copyright Modernization Act, needs to be taken seriously as a starting point for moving Canada's copyright protections into the digital - and Internet - age.
Randy Bachman, Canadian guitarist, songwriter, performer and producer
Truly a bottom line
Social Studies (Aug. 20) reports that e-Bay has listed J. D. Salinger's toilet at $1-million. One would indeed have to be flush to consider its purchase.
Jim Sanders, Guelph, Ont.