Protesters converse in the street on the 15th day of the protest against COVID-19 restrictions that has grown into a broader anti-government protest, in Ottawa, on Feb. 11.Justin Tang/The Canadian Press
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Take care
Re You’re Blocking The Way Out Of The Pandemic (Editorial, Feb. 9): Like the protesters, I too want freedom – the freedom to live rather than to die.
I’m over 84 and have diabetes and high blood pressure. I dread the day when all mandates are lifted and we “learn to live with COVID.” Mandates are what keep me more safe.
The other day at the supermarket, I asked a girl, who was talking with her mother right above the produce I was about to buy, to please lift her mask up over her nose. She complied, but then conferred with her mother and lowered it again.
The mother was incensed at my request, telling me angrily that they just want to lead a normal life again. Her final throwaway line: “I don’t care about you!”
That’s the same message I’m getting from the protesters.
Sheila Arkin Toronto
Something rotten?
Re Nobody Wants Restrictions. The Challenge Is Ending Them Responsibly (Feb. 8): Denmark is, indeed, the latest poster child for an ideal pandemic response. But let’s not lose sight of one advantage that Danes enjoyed over us through this journey: They received clear and consistent public-health advice from a single source – their national government.
By profound contrast, Canadians were left to interpret complex, incoherent and often contradictory guidance and rules from various levels, styles and stripes of jurisdictional authorities.
This may be the easiest lesson to glean from our pandemic experience: Simple and consistent messaging can drive higher public engagement and trust.
Andreas Souvaliotis Toronto
It looks like Canada and Denmark have similar vaccination rates. I think our governments are doing terrible jobs at moving from pandemic to endemic.
We are being held back because of mediocre health care bureaucracies. We have great people in health care, but our system isn’t working.
Perhaps what we should be examining is why health care in Denmark seems better than in Canada.
Erika McDonald London, Ont.
Nearly 40 per cent of Denmark’s 5.8 million population has been infected by COVID-19, compared to about 8 per cent in Canada. Denmark’s current infection rate far exceeds that of its neighbours in Sweden, Norway and Germany.
The reason is not lack of vaccination, but lax restrictions. COVID-19 “loves” crowds of unmasked people. Death and long-COVID are the elephants lurking in the room.
Walter Davies Abbotsford, B.C.
Free to be
Re The Alt-right Has Weaponized ‘Freedom’ (Feb. 9): All sides could benefit from a reminder of how a representative democracy works – that it includes mechanisms to express disagreement with the government any time we wish.
In a democracy, nobody is right or wrong. We all get one opinion, which happens to equate to one vote. That opinion is likely not entirely aligned with any other of the millions of opinions in Canada.
This is understandably frustrating. But democracy is imperfect and fragile. I believe we should be careful about undermining it when we disagree with its laws.
In my opinion, these protests are advocating to make us a less-free country, not the other way around.
Mike Fedryk Toronto
Canadians are among the most free people on Earth.
We can live in any province, marry whomever we choose, vote for any political party, read whatever we want, practice any religion – and criticize the government and protest its policies.
It’s hardly necessary to base a political platform on making Canadians the most free people on Earth. We’ve already achieved that goal.
T.S. Ramsay Guelph, Ont.
Places to grow
Re A Plan For Ontario To Grow Up (Feb. 10): While the report from Ontario’s housing task force identifies a number of progressive steps, particularly the move away from exclusionary zoning, it also proposes edicts that would severely restrict the jurisdiction of municipalities and the rights of the public to participate in the planning of their communities.
These efforts would give developers free reign, as if the market has shown itself capable of managing the well-being of communities. Municipalities have spent years planning for needed types of housing, which the industry has failed to provide. How can it build capacity to do so?
Victor Doyle Toronto
In Ontario, I find the problematic roots of the affordable housing question, answered by “more housing,” to be in municipal planning and zoning bylaw offices.
It takes too long and far too much work to bring a project on side. Instead, investors choose to buy, rather than build, to avoid lengthy delays and uncertain costs. This has had the inflationary effect of stimulating demand and bidding up prices to record levels.
There should be an imperative to reduce complications in gaining approvals for new inventory. The result would be lower prices to meet growing demand.
Municipalities should also consider the reduced tax base to residents when more commercial real estate begins paying local taxes.
Neil McLaughlin President, Raelo; Burlington, Ont.
The Globe and Mail makes clear the case for greater density in existing single-family neighbourhoods in Toronto, an imperative broadly understood and accepted. But I believe the discourse falls short when it is reduced to a black-and-white paradigm, where increased density is seen as an obvious good and resistance to it is seen as NIMBY-sim.
Developers and architects have the capability and moral obligation to manage the consequences of these proposed intensification projects through design, in a manner that acknowledges existing residents and their legitimate concerns, such things as privacy, oversight and shadowing.
The polarizing argument before us fails to capitalize on its potential to engage the public in a productive and illuminating manner.
Ian MacDonald Architect, Toronto
Affordable housing seems to be the latest oxymoron, made obvious by the idea that new housing will be less costly. Why would profit-driven developers build anything for less than current market prices?
A building frenzy with designed shortcuts will likely not solve much, nor will squeezing more citizens into tighter spaces. As long as population growth is greater than the ability to comfortably and methodically absorb and provide for more humanity – from housing, education, health care and jobs to clean air and water – we better prepare for more dissatisfied “truckers” and extreme politics driven by unaffordable housing and greed.
Bill Bousada Carleton Place, Ont.
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