Rogers Communications signage in Ottawa on July 12.Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press
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Take a second
Re Tories Seek Legal Guidance In Response To Brown Appeal Request (July 12): I believe the Conservative leadership race is tainted so badly that it should be put on hold or restarted.
The party should either release the information it has on Patrick Brown so the accusations are transparent, or stop the race until Elections Canada determines if Mr. Brown was acting illegally.
As it stands now, I cannot trust the Conservatives to do the right thing. Any leader elected would face a suspicious public. How does the party think this is going to end, unless it releases more information?
David Bell Toronto
Down and out
Re The Rogers Outage Is An Opportunity To Change How We Think About Our Digital Infrastructure (July 12): I find it unconscionable that Rogers, one of the largest and most successful technology and media companies in the country, looked completely inept in fixing a problem that left Canadians without the means to communicate for close to a day.
Rogers should be held accountable for its disruption of service, in every way.
Selma Edelstone Toronto
As I read about the outage, my mind inserted an R. And outrage it certainly is, especially when one considers that Canadians pay exorbitant cellular and internet fees, reportedly among the highest in the world.
I read that Australians pay about $45 for 30 gigabytes of cellular data while Canadians pay $75 for 10 GB. High price, lousy service.
How on earth can the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission conclude that we’ll be well served by the Rogers-Shaw merger?
Michael Craig Owen Sound, Ont.
Much of the blame should also be directed to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission. It should have had sufficiently robust oversight of Rogers as to have anticipated such problems and ensured that they could not happen.
It feels almost farcical that the CRTC may now oversee an investigation of a problem that the CRTC could and should have prevented.
Clive Rock Vancouver
It’s one thing for Rogers to inconvenience its subscribers. It’s quite another to discover that one’s WiFi-based diabetes app does not work.
It’s bad enough when an outage affects a single service such as an airline’s booking system. But any outage of underlying infrastructure brings a whole new meaning to the phrase “we’re all in this together.”
Given that this is a repeat incident, I wonder if Rogers is up to shouldering such responsibility.
Kope Inokai Toronto
My friends and family call me a dinosaur because I still insist on carrying cash.
When digital payment systems across the country went down as a result of the Rogers crash, my adherence to this archaic method of commerce proved prescient when I had to fill my car with gas – and those around me could not.
David Morgan Ottawa
I was home with my wife, electronically cut off from the outside world. She was happy as could be in her garden, but I was feeling the loss of connectivity.
My Rogers home phone, cellular and internet services were down, and there was an urgent phone call to make. After many frustrating attempts throughout the day, I finally complained to my wife around dinnertime.
She said, incredulously, “Just use my phone, I’m on Bell.” Five minutes later, my Saturday patio brunch with a friend from out of town was arranged.
I should talk to my wife more often.
Rudy Buller Toronto
Short of it
Re Premiers Call For More Health Care Funding (July 12): I think The Globe and Mail recycles this headline every time the premiers meet. Every time, a consolidated demand for more money from Ottawa without a business plan. “Trust us, we know how to best spend your money.”
According to the Fraser Institute, Canada is the second-highest spender, as a portion of GDP, of any OECD country. We are eighth in spending per capita. However, we rank 26th in physicians per capita, 14th in nurses and 25th in acute beds out of 28 countries.
Before we give massive amounts of money to the provinces, shouldn’t they come to the table with an explanation as to how the current sum is being spent? We have a crisis and need to shore up resources, but fundamental questions should be answered before long-term commitments are made.
Randy Tait Toronto
Re Burnt-out Canadian Nurses Are Shipping Out For Better Working Conditions And Pay (Online, July 5): Maha Hassan’s decision to work as a registered nurse in the United States is a loss that demands urgent action.
In our recent research, we found more than 75 per cent of Canadian nurses are burnt out. Sixty-nine per cent say they’re planning to leave their positions within five years. And among those, 42 per cent plan to leave the profession altogether. Coupled with severe wage restraints across Canada – and especially in Ontario through Bill 124 – this has led nurses to look for jobs elsewhere, retire early or leave the profession for good.
Resolving Ontario’s nursing crisis would require repealing Bill 124, expediting the processing of 14,000 internationally educated RNs who already reside in Ontario, and building flexible bridging programs for thousands of registered practical nurses to become RNs.
Otherwise, our health care system will likely continue to crumble as more nurses like Ms. Hassan seek jobs elsewhere.
Doris Grinspun RN, PhD, O.Ont; CEO, Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario; Toronto
Fun of it
Re Kyrgios Plays His Usual Role In Another Djokovic Wimbledon Win (Sports, July 11): One book I treasure is Tennis for the Bloody Fun of It by Rod Laver and Roy Emerson, two of the greatest to play the game. Both Australians, Mr. Laver and Mr. Emerson highlight what’s missing today: fun.
Love him or hate him, fellow Australian Nick Kyrgios certainly injects that long-lost ingredient back into tennis. It was fun watching the Wimbledon men’s final for the first time I can remember since the days of John McEnroe, Jimmy Connors and Ilie Nastase. Those were matches of passion and exuberance, while today’s game is played mainly by grimacing automatons.
One match I will never forget was between Mr. Connors and Mr. Nastase. The former hit a high lob and the latter, while waiting for the ball to land, jumped into the stands, kissed an enthusiastic female acquaintance, ran back onto the court and made the shot.
That was what I’d call fun.
Nancy Marley-Clarke Cochrane, Alta.
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