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Life and death
Re In Death (Letters, Aug. 27): Dean Chamberlain writes that he doesn’t understand why his mother couldn’t have been offered medical assistance in dying (MAID) instead of suffering for a year before her death. As a doctor, he is all too aware of his own impending health issues at 84, and worries about his end of life. I watched the deaths of my mother, who had MAID, and my husband, who didn’t. My mother had some control and choice, my husband had none and he was forced by ridiculous rules to suffer until the very end. Watching someone die like that will haunt the rest of my days. I believe we all need the choice to go with dignity when we are ready – not just because we have a terminal illness. Death will happen to us all, and for many of us the dying process will be full of unnecessary pain and suffering, both for the person dying and for those who have to watch and suffer along. We need MAID rules changed now.
Jennifer Mann Victoria
Re One Step Too Far For Assisted Dying (Editorial, Sept. 1): Ottawa would do well to follow Quebec’s lead in recommending prohibiting medical assistance in death solely for psychiatric suffering. The unbearable physical suffering experienced by the dying is, to some degree, a failure of medical pharmacology, but the unbearable mental suffering of those wanting to die is inevitably a failure of hope, a condition of the spirit that humanity has struggled with from the beginning of time. Let’s not give up any time soon.
Joan McNamee Kamloops
Money matters
Re Biggest Banks Block Clients’ Access To High-Interest Cash Funds (Report on Business, Aug. 27): How can any institution that prevents a customer from purchasing a pretty vanilla and low-risk product purport to have their customers’ best interest at heart? The banks are being untruthful. They want to sell in-house products that produce more profit than another product that might financially benefit their customers. If the regulators are unwilling to take action on this, then the government (be it federal or provincial) should step in.
Gary S. Raich Toronto
Vaccination mandates 101
Re ‘Only The Beginning:’ Hundreds Protest Western University Vaccine Mandate (Aug. 27): To everyone opposed to vaccine and mask mandates, such as those wisely imposed by Western University (and others), please consider the consequences of no such mandates or defying them: Many more people will refuse to get vaccinated or to wear a mask. The number of professors, students and others who will, as a result, contract COVID-19 will spike and, because of increased absences, courses will be delayed or cancelled, and will take much longer to complete.
Oh yeah, and hospitals will continue to burst at the seams. Is that really what you want?
Jerry Steinberg Surrey, B.C.
Respect our elders
Re Seniors Are Being Sacrificed To Save Hospitals (Opinion, Sept. 1): Alberta has had what Robyn Urback calls “coercive relocation” for years. Fifteen years ago, my father was sent to the first available long-term care bed, which was in a horrible facility straight out of Dickens. I wept every time I left there after a visit. After almost a year, a place became available in the long-term care location we preferred and it was like night and day. Nonetheless I was horrified at the state of things in the province, and nothing has changed since then. LTC is expensive, beds are scarce, and apparently we are not, as taxpayers, prepared to pay what it costs for quality care. People here can now be charged the minimum LTC rate (about $1,800 a month) while waiting in hospital. Nevertheless I would not say “seniors are being sacrificed”: Acute-care beds are needed for people with acute issues – not for the frail elderly with chronic treatable conditions.
Hope Smith Calgary
Re PCs Pass Long-Term Care Law (Sept. 1): Ontario’s strategy of freeing up acute-care hospital beds by mandating the transfer of the apparently large inventory of patients requiring only long-term care to LTC facilities other than their preferred choices appears to be predicated on the belief that there is a significant inventory of empty LTC beds lurking in distant corners of our cities or in remote regions of the province. However, I have yet to read any news item asserting that such numerous vacancies exist.
Is this simply an exercise in smoke and mirrors to obscure the fact that the province has not only neglected to plan for an obvious need but has yet to develop a realistic plan to address it?
Rod B. Taylor Georgetown, Ont.
Bold idea I
Re Sale of Warren Buffett Portrait Will Benefit Girls Inc. (Aug. 31): I was disappointed that one of Warren Buffett’s favourite charities, Girls Inc., wasn’t given a description in this article. I would think that many Globe readers would be interested in the purpose of a charity that Mr. Buffett supports. Looking it up, I found that it is an advocacy group that encourages all girls to be “strong, smart and bold.” Good for him.
Linda Lumsden Peterborough, Ont.
Bold idea II
Re TMU’s Renaming Of Athletics Teams To “the Bold” Is Ludicrous (Sports, Sept. 1): The most interesting thing about Toronto Metropolitan University changing their name to “Bold” was Cathal Kelly not saying (in the print version) what the previous name was, therefore making us all suspect that it must have been something so notorious as to require them to borrow the name of a laundry detergent in order to scrub away that past.
Nope, it was “Rams.”
The folks at Procter and Gamble must be doing high fives over this new unintended marketing coup.
Brett Kelly Dunnville, Ont.
Some time ago Cathal Kelly quipped that he didn’t understand why teams needed a “nickname” at all, their geographical location would suffice and we could avoid the “wonderful farce” we are now enjoying in trying to fit the perfect moniker on a sports team. Having said that, I believe the best sports team name (at least in the professional world) is the Detroit Pistons – power, energy and a nod to the heritage of their city. Doesn’t get any better.
Robert Milan Victoria, B.C.
I’ve always thought that Toronto Metropolitan University’s sports teams should be named the “Cosmopolitans” or “Cosmos” for short. Metropolitan is good, cosmopolitan is even better. Not only would it reflect a worthy concept, it would also honour the great Canadian journalist and visionary Amor De Cosmos.
Alternatively, perhaps a name could be derived from their new mascot, the falcon. The obvious name, “Raptors,” is already taken but since falcons have very good eyesight, perhaps the teams could be called the TMU “Visionaries.”
Bruce Couchman Ottawa
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