Whose Pride?
Queers Against Israeli Apartheid, in its zeal to hijack Toronto's pride parade to denounce Israel's role in the Mideast conflict with the Palestinians, has shown a disregard for the plight of the very population it professes to support: gay Palestinians (Pride Shoots Itself In The Stiletto - Life, June 25).
QuAIA has abandoned the cause of the oppressed gay Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank who suffer under laws that mete out harsh punishment to gays, and deny them basic equality and human rights.
Until the equation shifts so that QuAIA and the Pride Committee show more love for gay Palestinians than they show animus toward Israel, Pride Week will continue to be infected with political vitriol that has no place in Pride.
Gilda Berger, Toronto
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"What has Israel got to do with gay pride?" Actually, a whole a lot.
The gay pride parade is about calling out injustices, often against the gay community; the Israeli apartheid activists are doing the same, except that the injustice is being committed against Palestinians.
The wonderful thing about large-scale direct action, like Pride and even G20 protests, is that these events allow activists to form coalitions, making their movements richer and more diverse.
Calina Ellwand, Toronto
Anatomy of an apology
I was moved and encouraged by Stephen Harper's address to Canadians and to relatives of those lost in the Air India bombing (On Behalf Of The Nation: "We Are Sorry" - June 24). It was indeed fitting, if long overdue, that such a sincere apology be given.
Yet I am still bothered by one remark made by the Prime Minister: "The protection of its citizens is the first obligation of government."
While I agree with that, I wonder if some future Prime Minister will feel obligated to apologize for the well-documented lack of support given by the federal government to Canadian citizens Abousfian Abdelrazik and Omar Khadr.
Campbell W. Robinson, North Vancouver
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Stephen Harper's apology to the families of the Air India victims is welcome and should have come years ago.
But it is also deeply disturbing. While he acknowledges that the attack was home-grown, he asks us to fear "others" who come to Canada to "travel the old roads to the blood feuds of the past."
This attempt to fan anti-immigrant sentiment was a disgusting addition to what was, ostensibly, an act of contrition.
Jacob Schiff, Toronto
G8/G20, on the outside
Before dismissing them as fringe elements (Why Some G20 Protesters Won't Condemn Violence - June 24), Marcus Gee should read Walter Benjamin's foundational 1921 essay "Critique of Violence" and Slavoj Zizek's 2008 book Violence.
Mr. Gee's liberal "be reasonable" sensibilities won't tolerate subjective acts of violence, but he disavows the constituting forms of violence implicit in the status quo systems we've learned to regard as normal.
What is a police force but a standing reserve of law-preserving violence?
Mr. Gee can take issue with the litany and contents of grievances posed by protesters, and the corollary production of "Fortress Toronto." He can't, though, pretend the quietly coercive social and political economic forces sustaining or propping up the summits and their ecology of effects are on the side of "non-violence."
Neil Balan, Saskatoon
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Michelle Gage of Toronto appreciates the "swarms of gorgeous, large, buff, heavily-armed" security types in Toronto for the G20 (Letters - June 25).
Like most dyed-in-the-wool Montrealers, I've always heard you have to jump though hoops to get a date in Hogtown.
K.G. Aldridge, Vancouver
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What are the wives doing at the G20 summit (Primary Job For Wives Of G20 Leaders: Do No Harm - June 25)? It's a meeting of elected representatives, not Noah's Ark.
And what does their presence say to girls? Unless you're the exception, don't go to the bother of getting yourself elected.
Go as "wife of" and get all the glam and none of the grief.
S andra Fairman, Toronto
G8/G20, on the inside
James Orbinski and James Fraser argue for more funds for HIV treatment in Africa (Will The World Forfeit Victory In The Battle With AIDS? - June 24), but they don't comment on cost-effectiveness.
I don't disagree with the urgent needs of Malawi, but there are also other health priorities in Africa. There is only so much money available - how can donors decide where best to direct limited resources?
One way is by comparing the costs of preventing death and disability caused by various medical conditions, using the Disability Adjusted Life Year (DALY) as a measure of disease burden.
Motor vehicle trauma and maternal deaths from lack of access to safe caesarian section account for 15 per cent of the DALYs lost worldwide, and yet HIV research receives over 100 times the funding of research into injury.
The estimated cost-effectiveness of providing essential surgical services is $11 to $33 per DALY prevented, compared to anti-retroviral therapy for HIV which costs more than 10 times as much ($300 to $500 per DALY averted).
Brian Cameron, Hamilton, Ont.
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Thank you for pulling my mind from the small-minded distractions of G20 inconvenience and expense to talk about a G8 broken promise regarding access to AIDS medication (Care, Interrupted - June 24).
I was reminded of living in Malawi in the 1980s when "wasting disease" first appeared, of visiting there in the late 1990s to find that many people I knew had died of AIDS, and of driving through half-empty villages.
It saddens me that the provision of HIV/AIDS medication has fallen low on the list of G8 priorities.
G8 leaders must be challenged to remember their promise, and think about the 10 million global citizens who will die within 36 months if they do not receive treatment.
Cynthia Murphy, Toronto
CBC intelligence work
Norman Spector says that CBC types should be held accountable for the putatively ill-timed airing of the Richard Fadden interview (Heads Should Roll After The Fadden Interview - CBC heads - Online, June 24).
Setting aside the extremely newsworthy revelation about foreign interference in our domestic politics, Mr. Spector seems primarily concerned that this may upset the leaders of China and India arriving for the G20 meetings.
That he suggests a reprimand for the CBC not only shows a shaky commitment to a free press, but implies that the CBC ought to be managed as part of the government's communications strategy. No doubt the Chinese would agree.
Josh Gould, Halifax
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When a major news outlet gets what it calls an "exclusive" story, you would think it would rush to get it on the air, concerned the competition would beat them to it.
We now learn that the CBC got this "exclusive" after approaching Richard Fadden to repeat remarks he made in an earlier speech.
The CBC put the story in its back pocket and pulled it out just in time to greet the Chinese President arriving in Canada. Talk about trying to stir the pot on something not connected to the meetings.
Robert J. Sullivan, Blenheim, Ont.
Hairshirts for Canada
I couldn't disagree more with John Ibbitson's suggestion that Stephen Harper's foreign policy has been a resounding success (Tilting The Global Agenda - Front Page, June 25). Afghanistan has turned out to be a disaster no matter how you square it. The initiative on the North, while well-intentioned, is now being quietly scaled back.
The one professed area of focus has been the Americas - where no new money has been allocated, and Mr. Harper didn't even make an official visit to regional heavyweight.
Brazil (going instead to human rights-compromised Colombia).
Yes, we are now enthralled by the Chinese and the Indians - but we are coming late to the table, and they know it.
If anything, Canada's influence on the world stage has waned during the Harper years.
Peter McKenna, Charlottetown
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Twenty years after the death of the Meech Lake Accord (We Survived The Death Of Meech - June 23), yes Canada continues, but what is the legacy? A near loss in the 1995 referendum and a Quebec that's less engaged nationally; stale and stalemated politics due to the continuing dominance in Quebec of the Bloc Québécois; a Conservative party that's been "Reformed;" and a sapping of our national confidence and momentum.
Our rankings in just about every international comparison are respectable, but eroding.
Canada may indeed some day "get its groove back," but the legacies of Meech and Charlottetown have been that we seem to have lost the imagination and will to try.
Don Dennison, Fredericton