Passengers check in for flights to the U.S. at Vancouver International Airport, in Richmond, B.C., on Dec. 2, 2021.DARRYL DYCK/The Canadian Press
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Omicron Action
Re Despite the Sense of Déjà Vu, Omicron May Be the Storm Before the Calm (Opinion, Dec. 30): Omicron may not be as deadly as earlier variants, but it will not be the last. As the authors point out, this shape-shifting virus will afflict us in unpredictable ways until the world is vaccinated. Our Prime Minister has, as usual, addressed this latest global challenge with wonderful words and insufficient action. Canada needs to get off the fence and join more than 120 other nations calling for a cost-effective, long-term strategy to fight COVID-19: a targeted waiver of vaccine patent protection plus technology transfer to make generic vaccines affordable in the poorest countries, where few people have received even a first dose and boosters to protect against Omicron are totally out of reach. This is a moral imperative we disregard at our peril.
Norm Beach Toronto
Re Now Is Not The Time To Give In To Omicron Despair (Opinion, Dec. 29): André Picard’s column encapsulates so much of the wisdom that has encouraged me in my career as a pediatrician over the past 50 years. Vaccines are not perfect, but they are hugely beneficial in stemming the tide of infectious diseases and represent the single most important advance in my professional career. A maxim that has motivated me all my life is that “perfection is the enemy of the good.”
Paul Thiessen MD, Vancouver
Seeking ‘Net Zero’
Re Oil Patch Sees Carbon Capture Tax Credit As The Future. Opponents Say It’s A Lifeline To Prolonging The Use Of Fossil Fuels (Report on Business, Dec. 30): When a hydro dam starts leaking, you don’t catch the water and pump it back into the water body behind the dam – you stop the leak. Similarly, if you are a high emitter of carbon dioxide attempting to get to “net zero” emissions, you do not capture these carbon emissions to inject them back into the ground to enhance oil recovery and produce more emissions. The cheapest way to get to net zero is to leave these polluting fossil fuels in the ground, end of story. Let’s stop with the oil and gas industry’s one-step-forward-one-step-back approach.
Chris Gates Quinte West, Ont.
Hockey Heroes?
Re NHLers Frustrated With Olympic Decision (Sports, Dec. 30): How much more must we read about the bruised egos of hockey’s millionaires and the Beijing Olympics? Is there not a cadre of players standing against participation on a moral basis? Do spoiled athletes, professional and amateur, have any appreciation of the very dangerous time in which we exist?
W. Selby Martin Bracebridge, Ont.
Weighing Words
Re The Catalogue of Banned Words at the National Assembly Offers a Portrait of Quebec’s Distinctive Language and History (Dec. 27): Banned words recalls banned books, something that will be quite familiar to most older Quebeckers. The Index Librorum Prohibitorum, established in 1560, was a regularly updated list of publications deemed heretical or contrary to morality. Catholics were forbidden from reading these works without first obtaining special permission from church authorities, which was sometimes denied. In April, 1966, Cardinal Alfredo Ottaviani stated that there was too much contemporary literature, and the church simply could not keep up with it. In June, 1966, the index was formally abolished by Pope Paul VI. Does the same fate await the National Assembly’s index of banned words?
Mary Jane Chamberlain Toronto
I feel pity for the hapless Speaker of the Quebec National Assembly who must attempt to stay abreast of the growing list of banned words deemed too offensive for parliamentary discourse. The reality is that each language is a living organism that is constantly evolving, and the process of word wrestling becomes a hopeless exercise in herding lexicographic cats. Stop already.
Paul Thiessen Vancouver
Christmas Magic
Re The Big (Santa) Lie (Opinion, Dec. 24): In her opposition to lying to her daughter about Santa Claus, Amberly McAteer’s views are reminiscent of those of Dr. Brock Chisholm, the Canadian first director-general of the World Health Organization, whose views on Santa seven decades or so ago aroused great controversy. But Ms. McAteer does not go so far as Dr. Chisholm, whose objection to “supernaturalism” led him to criticism of the Christmas myth accepted by millions worldwide – that that day celebrates the birth of a child whose mother, uniquely, was a virgin.
Whether or not fostering belief in Santa is harmful, everyone can judge from their own experience. In my own case, when budding cynicism led me to express concern at the numerous Santas in stores, I doubt that my mother’s reassurance that they were just helpful brothers and cousins left me with a scarred psyche.
John Edmond Ottawa
Blues Fan
Re Feeling Blue? (Opinion, Dec. 24): This is a fascinating article on the inherent difficulties in producing a true blue colour in living organisms. As a long-time orchid grower, however, I would like to correct the assertion that orchids “don’t bloom blue.” While most don’t, the sun orchids (Thelymitra sp.), for example, include a number of intensely blue species. A particular favourite is Thelymitra crinita.
John Taylor Victoria
Truth in Fiction
Re Make Adam McKay Great Again, Please (Film Friday, Dec. 10): Just as the hit movie M*A*S*H gave us permission to laugh at the Vietnam War, Adam McKay’s satirical comedy Don’t Look Up does the same for the insanely inadequate response of our governments, banks and businesses to climate change.
I wish Don’t Look Up had come out 20 years ago, but better late than never. It skewers the shallowness of the U.S. political establishment, popular media and some evil genius billionaires.
Leonardo DiCaprio is brilliant. He hams it up for comic effect, but in those moments he is expressing the rage that any sane citizen should feel right now.
John Stephenson Toronto
Kindness to Animals
Re The Pandemic Could Shift Our Views On Animal Captivity (Opinion, Dec. 24): Thank you, Robyn Urback, for your uplifting article on freeing Kiska the orca, who is held captive at Ontario’s Marineland. I agree with the writer that if anything good can come out of this pandemic, it would be that more people will stand up and show compassion (empathy and action) for Kiska, who actually is banging herself into the sides of her concrete tank. We must stand up and tell our governments to put an end to Kiska’s suffering. No sentient being should have to dance for their dinner as that demeans us all. This holiday season, I think we should all join in a loud rendition of, “Nobody loves Marineland!”
Judith Goldberg Richmond Hill, Ont.
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