A sign advocating for support for the homeless is seen through a fenced-in homeless encampment in Victoria Park in Halifax's downtown, March, 2024.Darren Calabrese/The Canadian Press
Follow through
Re “Canada needs to follow through on its promise to help Palestinians” (Opinion, July 12): As a child in the 1950s, I learned first-hand how much refugees contribute to Canada’s culture.
My friends at school were Polish, Hungarian, Ukrainian, Italian and German, whose families arrived in our small town ready to work hard to create a better life for their children, safe from war and hatred.
They and their children went on to contribute their hard work in factories, and to study, and become fine teachers, business leaders, scientists, doctors, diplomats, artists and musicians.
Our great country was developed by people who fled their homelands for a better life. My ancestors did so, too.
Canada must provide refuge for Gazans who wish to come to safety and to live in Canada for the values we claim to cherish.
Margaret Booth Port Colborne, Ont.
Who promised?
Canada has homeless citizens everywhere.
Palestinian refugees need housing. Proponents of rescuing them will deprive Canadians of affordable housing by giving it away to more refugees.
I helped support a Syrian family when they came in 2016, but the rental housing situation is much different now.
House the Canadians first, then provide for more refugees.
The needs of homeless Canadians are no less dire. Cold is just as deadly as bombs, only less visible.
J.M. Anderson Burlington, Ont.
Enough is enough
Re “We need to talk about antisemitism” (Opinion, July 12): Canadian Jews are quite rightly afraid and Marsha Lederman’s opinion piece explains why in a succinct and vital way.
Jew hatred is indeed tolerated even by those who must and need to know better. In fact, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) recently released a report on antisemitism indicating nearly one in four Americans believe that attacks against Jews are “understandable.”
A short time ago, I was asked by a young Jewish couple if it was safe to enroll their son at a local Jewish day school. I explained that the Jewish community takes every necessary precaution to ensure the safety of Jewish schools, and our community.
And yet even a year ago, such a question would have been unthinkable.
Bernie Farber Former CEO, Canadian Jewish Congress; founding chair emeritus, Canadian Anti-Hate Network; Thornhill, Ont.
Second glance
Re “Pessimism, anger still dominate Canadian attitudes toward Americans, poll shows” (July 12): The Nanos Research poll says more than 70 per cent of Canadians pick a negative emotion such as anger to describe their feelings toward Americans.
It is crucial to be more specific and clear in surveys about attitudes and feelings toward a country.
Feelings about the U.S. President are vastly different than feelings toward American citizens. They should be separated in polls so that our emotions towards an entire country are not inflamed in this time of turmoil in our countries.
For example, I, like many other Canadians, am angry at Donald Trump and his MAGA supporters. But I have sympathy and compassion toward most other American citizens.
Mr. Trump is now polling in the 40-per-cent range. Considering that less than 50 per cent of voters supported him in the 2024 election, there is no reason to be angry at all Americans, the majority of whom are fine people.
Bruce Hutchison Ottawa
On hold
Re “My family’s 40-year tradition of travelling to the U.S. for baseball games pauses in the Trump era” (July 12): Like the Scanlans, our family has put our annual baseball pilgrimage on hold until sanity returns to U.S.-Canada relations.
Our collective love affair with baseball started in the 1940s when my dad rooted for the then-Cleveland Indians, and flourished in the next two generations via the Boston Red Sox.
Dad, daughters, sons-in-law, and grandkids have trekked together to Yankee Stadium, Detroit, Fenway Park (more times than we can count) and Cleveland (to celebrate Dad’s 80th birthday).
We always root for extra innings and usually get good-natured ribbing for wearing Expos and Blue Jays gear.
This year’s trip was supposed to be to Baltimore’s Camden Yards, but it will have to wait.
It wasn’t an easy decision – multigenerational travel is a precious, precarious privilege – but it was a unanimous one.
Game called on account of politics.
Elizabeth Moreau Ottawa
Damage control
Re “Toronto should welcome the new Ontario Place” (July 12) and “The Ontario Place spa: new drawings, still a disaster” (July 12): Alex Bozikovic and Marcus Gee have decidedly different takes on the province’s redevelopment of the former Ontario Place site.
Given the multiple flaws in the Therme piece of the puzzle and the Ford government’s less than stellar record of large project execution, it is hard to believe Mr. Gee’s expectations will be the result.
Redevelopment of the site and improving the waterfront are noble ambitions, but the partner the province has chosen as the major tenant and beneficiary of the massive investment of public dollars is fatally flawed.
I agree with Mr. Bozikovic – it’s time to cut bait with Therme and reimagine the site, rather than proceed and find out in a couple years that the main achievement is an enormous white elephant and bankrupt tenant that neither pays rent, nor generates taxes for the province.
Frank Malone Aurora, Ont.
Garden gifts
Re “How loving flowers can save the planet” (Opinion, July 12): Like Sonia Sedivy, I, too, am an avid fan of the Chelsea Flower Show. I completely agree with her regarding our gardens being a place that provide critical habitat for wildlife.
Since moving to Hamilton two years ago, I have created a small ecosystem primarily with native Ontario plants and I take pictures like a crazed paparazzi when native bees land on their flowers.
But I also have four David Austin roses that I planted this year after watching the flower show, because I love their beauty and their scent.
A garden can be an oasis both for wildlife and the human spirit – something that is even more critical as we live through these most difficult of times.
Christopher White Hamilton
Greetings and salutations
Re “Out with ‘tu’ and in with ‘vous’ as Quebec aims to restore respect in public schools“ (Opinion, July 12): As a non-French-speaking Canadian, I’ll leave the question of le vouvoiement versus le tutoiement to my francophone neighbours.
Living, and I might add growing elderly, here in English-speaking Canada, I am not infrequently addressed by complete strangers as “honey,” “love” and once, quite memorably, as “sweetie pie.”
Such familiarity does not bother me in the slightest although, for the record, some might argue that a sweetie pie I am not.
Farley Helfant Toronto
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