Playing it 'safe' on refugees
Liberal MPs are right to be worried about the "safe country" list included in both the original bill and the Immigration Minister's recent amendments ( Pass The Bill - editorial, June 3). Contrary to what your editorial might suggest, there is no ringing endorsement of the "safe country" list by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. On the contrary: UNHCR has stated that safe country lists can only be used to expedite claims administratively, and not to deny appeal rights, as Jason Kenney proposes. MPs were referred to the non-discrimination clause of the 1951 refugee Convention, to which Canada is a signatory. It clearly stipulates that the Convention must be applied without discrimination as to country of origin. Let the MPs do their job.
Pia Zambelli, immigration lawyer, Montreal
............
Everyone involved with refugee claimants wants a "faster and fairer" system - even "vociferous opponents" to an amended C-11. But there are realistic conditions that still need to be met.
Making bureaucrats the first-level decision-makers has been a failure in Britain. Many decisions are litigated, the system is clogged, costs rise and suffering people are treated unfairly. Having trained, specialized members is faster and fairer.
No advisory panel to name "safe" countries will find two "human-rights experts" worth their salt to sit on it. Have five or more members on the panel and the human-rights perspective can be nullified. More significantly, naming a country "safe" is a political act. It challenges an individual's impartial access to human rights. A "human rights expert" will be complicit in that kind of window-dressing? I hope not.
Jack Costello Director, Jesuit Refugee and Migrant Service
Where's the Cancon?
Americans, or any healthy indigenous culture, would not stand for as much foreign programming as we do ( Cancon Conundrum - letters, June 3). That also applies to how much U.S. product we buy as opposed to our own. Visit Starbucks lately? If we had a government with vision and citizens who believed in our own culture, we would be getting the $846-million to make great programming and wouldn't put up with the networks using that dough to buy American. It puts money into their pockets and takes a whole lot more than that out of ours.
Leah Pinsent, Toronto
But accidents do happen
Regulators who insist deep-water drilling off Newfoundland and Labrador is safe are missing the catastrophic point laid bare by the BP leak ( Suspended In The Gulf, Deepwater Drilling Will Continue off Nfld. At Record Depths - June 3). As with medicine, safety is only part of the equation - the preventative and immediate-response parts. But accidents do happen. That is why doctors are trained in treatment. Problem is, there is no proven treatment for a deep-well-blowout leak. Sure, there are treatment strategies, such as relief wells, but to date relief wells are not mandatory and take months to drill after the fact.
Roydon Fraser, Kitchener, Ont.
............
The principal reason why international oil companies such as Chevron, BP and Exxon explore for oil in offshore and frontier regions is the rise in resource nationalism in oil-producing regions, notably the Middle East, Russia, and South America. Rather than relying on foreign companies, these regions often depend on their own national oil companies.
In Newfoundland and Labrador's case, there are at least three additional reasons why deep and ultra-deep offshore exploration is being encouraged in places such as the Orphan Basin. First, because of depletion, production from the existing offshore plays (Hibernia, Terra Nova and White Rose) has peaked and is in decline. Second, the next major play, Hebron, isn't expected to produce first-oil until 2017. The third reason, which is the result of the first two, is that Newfoundland and Labrador is about to experience significant declines in offshore royalties.
Larry Hughes, Energy Research Group, Dalhousie University
Animals and the dinner plate
If the animal agriculture industry and governments care so much about animal transport, why have they failed so miserably ( This is Just So Wrong - letters, June 3). The transport issues cited ( The Dangerous Journey To Your Dinner Plate - June 2) were a mere three-month window on the sickening reality of animal transport in Canada, where animals may legally be transported more than two days and two nights with no water, food or rest, where animals freeze in winter and suffocate in summer, where they are overcrowded and electrically prodded until they collapse, where there are too few inspectors and enforcement is weak.
Industry and governments need to train and police all truck drivers, but they do not, nor do they ensure serious infractions are punished when they occur.
There are serious, ongoing cruelty problems associated with animal transport. Saying everything is fine does not make it so.
Stephanie Brown, director, Canadian Coalition for Farm Animals
............
It is truly one of the great mysteries of Western civilization that we coddle our pets but allow the animals that sustain us to suffer. To which beasts do we owe the greater debt? Saying grace at the dinner table is probably a rare event nowadays, but perhaps those of us who still eat meat should start a new tradition: Why not acknowledge the animal that gave up its life so we could eat?
Lara Mills, Ottawa
............
Chicken farmers follow a national on-farm food safety program that emphasizes health, cleanliness and safety, and follow strict biosecurity measures to protect animal health. Chicken processors, in addition to complying with the poultry code, comply with Canadian Food Inspection Agency regulations. Direct oversight by CFIA ensures that any product arriving at a processing plant in a condition that could pose a risk is not allowed into the food stream. The actual number of birds that die en route to a poultry processing facility represents less than 0.4 per cent, well below Canadian and U.S. standards.
The ultimate goal of breeders, farmers, handlers, transporters and processors is to ensure farm animals are treated humanely and free of injury upon arrival at the plant.
David Fuller, chairman, Chicken Farmers of Canada; Reg Cliche, president, Canadian Poultry and Egg Processors Council
............
It is staggering to read that two to three million food animals arrive dead at slaughterhouses each year, and to observe that transportation conditions are responsible. Some 90,000 horses are slaughtered in Canada for food each year and are transported in trucks designed for shorter cattle. The slaughtering happens in equally inappropriately designed killing pens. The CFIA says they are rewriting the rules. For how many years does the animal-transportation agony have to continue?
Karl Losken, North Vancouver
Ins and outs of the Mideast
Law professor Alan Brudner states that Israel and Gaza are at war, and that Israel's blockade is directed only at the importation of weapons ( What Happened At Sea - letters, May 3). The BBC website has a list of the 81 items allowed in Gaza - I've had longer shopping lists. Entries on the list include such things as aniseed (2009); clothes and shoes (2010). Meat and tuna are allowed but not canned fruits. Sesame paste is allowed but not jam. Tea and coffee are allowed but not chocolate. It would be interesting to know the kind of weapons you can make out of a mixture of canned fruit, jam and chocolate.
N. A. Abbas, Edmonton
............
While the law professor may argue the legality of the blockade, it remains immoral, cruel and arbitrary. The blockade has left the Gazans poorer, sicker, and malnourished. UN reports reveal that 13 per cent of children under 5 in Gaza have stunted growth. It is not the legality of the Israeli blockade that worries me; it is the shear inhuman treatment of the 1.4-million individuals that concerns me the most.
Murtaza Haider, Toronto
Good for the Mounties
It's been years since I've felt compelled to congratulate the RCMP for anything, but its principled stand on not using sound cannons for crowd control deserves praise (Mounties Shun 'Sound Cannons' In Urban Settings Ahead Of G20 - June 3). No responsible civil authority would use a blindness-inducing chemical for crowd control; why would the Toronto police even consider a hearing-destructive device?
Laurie Johnston, Winnipeg
One smart, cool cookie
What? A grudging admission Stephen Harper is one smart, cool cookie who makes our other political leaders resemble the Calvin Coolidge image Lawrence Martin mentions? Whether in Mr. Harper's personal life, at the helm in Parliament, or on the world stage, he handles himself like a real pro ( What's Duller Than Harper? Plenty, in Fact - June 3). As Canadians, we should be extremely proud he's top dog in our government.
Jim McDonald, Dundas, Ont.
............
For something "duller" than the PM, one doesn't have to look much farther than across the House, where the term blandness takes on new meaning, and where substance gets lost in poli-speak by the neg-heads.
Clive King, Sidney, B.C.
............
Thanks to Lawrence Martin for introducing us to a new term, "the full Winnipeg," which he defines as "box suit, checked shirt, orange tie, white belt." Although the outfit sounds quite attractive, I can honestly say that, having lived in Winnipeg for many years, I have never actually seen anyone dressed like that. But maybe I am being too literal-minded. After all, the full Monty does not necessarily refer to men called Monty.
Manuel Matas, Winnipeg