Commuters drive in Tehran on Thursday. A protest movement across Iran, initially sparked by economic grievances, has turned into one of the biggest challenges yet to the clerical leadership since it took power in 1979.ATTA KENARE/AFP/Getty Images
False promises
Re “Iran signals protesters will face execution while U.S. says plans halted” (Jan. 15): Does anyone really expect Donald Trump to stand up for the people of Iran? No. Far from invoking the American ideal of calling for democracy, free and fair elections and an end to tyranny, I expect Trump to cut a deal with the ayatollahs. And this after dangling the prospect of American support to Iranians. Only long enough to lure them into the streets.
As the bodies pile up, and with yet another “peace in our time“ in hand, Trump will pursue his insane, narcissistic quest for his own Nobel Peace Prize. All at the cost of trashing America’s true strategic power: its example.
Ron Beram Gabriola B.C.
Citizen to the rescue
Re “Citizen website aims to connect Regina residents with family doctors taking patients” (Jan. 14): So it took the skills and goodwill of a 23-year-old immigrant, now a Canadian citizen, David Nnamdi, who volunteered his time to create an online service called DocMiyo to address a pressing public health need: a more efficient way for people to connect with clinics and doctors accepting new patients, in this case in Regina.
The reported response to Nnamdi’s initiative by the Saskatchewan Health Authority was to say it had taken down its own online registry of clinics taking on new patients because it felt the “most reliable way to determine if a particular physician is accepting new patients is to call their clinic directly.”
The optics of such an officious statement is that with all the health authority’s high-priced professionals, they simply weren’t prepared to do the work that such a service requires – work that a 23-year-old has now done for free because he cared enough for his fellow citizens in Regina to address the problem. Duh!
Leo J. Deveau Summerside, PEI
More than victory
Re “Canada’s response to the Olympic skeleton ‘scandal’ should be, in a word: tough” (Sports, Jan. 15): Whether Canada broke the written or unwritten rules or conventions of the Olympics, it’s worth noting that neither the ancient nor modern Olympics were envisioned originally as a “ruthless competition between nation-states.” In Ancient Greece, athletes participated individually, and even if their home city states shared in the glory of their victory, they did not represent them in any true way, nor did athletes receive much support.
More to the point, modern Olympic founder Pierre de Coubertin was deeply opposed to the idea of an Olympics entirely focused on competition or even victory. The Olympic creed speaks to that ideology. Much of the perceived value of the Olympics, if they have any, comes from their self-representation as being about more than sport and more than victory, such that ethics and morality, as much as “ruthless competition,” are part of the modern Games.
Peter Miller Winnipeg
Olympic leverage
Re “Two more Russian athletes allowed to compete at Milan Cortina Olympics with neutral status” (Sports, Jan. 13) and “Trump threatens tariffs on countries that don’t back U.S. control of Greenland” (Jan. 16): If Russia has effectively been banned from the upcoming Milano Cortina Winter Games because of its invasion of Ukraine, will the United States be banned from the Olympics if it invades Greenland? Or is that something different?
Ian Spears Toronto
We’re No. 1
Re “Trump shrugs off ‘irrelevant’ USMCA ahead of trade deal’s renegotiation” (Jan 14): There he goes again, dissing the Canada-U.S.-Mexico trade deal and claiming the U.S. doesn’t need Canadian stuff. Maybe so, maybe not. Has President Trump forgotten that the U.S. can’t begin to meet its own aluminum needs, that Canada is its largest supplier and that it would take years for the U.S. to become self-sufficient? Has he forgotten that Canada is the No. 1 trading partner for 34 U.S. states – maybe they don’t need our products but they sure like selling to us. Let’s not despair, we have a few cards up our sleeve.
Joyce Rowlands Toronto
Time for tough talk
Re “Protesters clash with agents in Minneapolis” (Jan. 14): I do not envy the job of The Globe’s headline writers – having to capture the essence of a story in a very few words and in a way that encourages the reader to engage with the substance of an issue. However, in the case of this story, the headline does it a disservice. It is an account of the invasion of a city by an internal army, of a federal government willing to use deadly force against its own citizens and the courage of some to oppose this.
Might I offer some alternative headlines? “U.S. continues state-sanctioned violence on citizens in Minnesota” or “Whistles and guns: Minneapolis under attack.”
Let us not make any of this seem like an everyday crowd control operation by legitimate law enforcement. Some of our nearest neighbours are justifiably afraid for their lives at the hands of their own government. Now is not the time for soft words.
Scott Grills Parksville, B.C.
Not rocket science
Re “Military to help Manitoba First Nation dealing with water issues, chief says” (Jan. 12): The repeated failure of water systems on reserves is not an inevitability; it’s a failure to design systems for northern climates. There are plenty of people who live comfortably in northern communities because they’ve built homes adapted to subzero temperatures.
In Northern Ontario, for example, many homes are plumbed with flexible plastic lines that don’t burst like copper tubes when a speck of frost gets lodged in them. Likewise, water storage tanks are housed in insulated basements and kept from freezing with a single light bulb powered by solar panels. Water is sourced from wells and lakes using submersible pumps below the freezing level. Finally, drinking water is separated from wash water and filtered through systems ranging from charcoal drip to reverse osmosis.
Surely the federal government, with its armies of consultants, can figure this one out by looking around and seeing what’s working for communities not dependent on it to provide adequate infrastructure for First Nations.
Alex Phillips Thunder Bay
Who’s in charge here?
Re “Legault steps down, upending Quebec’s political landscape” (Jan. 15): Canadians have often complained, with reason, about a lack of political leadership. Increasingly this is becoming true in the most literal sense, as there are now four parties that are leaderless – two in Quebec, plus the Ontario Liberals and the federal NDP.
The three provincial parties may remain politically relevant, depending on who takes over. As for the NDP, they face the challenge of finding a new leader, but more immediately they must be wondering where to hold caucus meetings given the paucity of telephone booths.
Steve Soloman Toronto
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