A U.S. Customs and Protection vehicle stands beside a sign reading that the border is closed to non-essential traffic at the Canada-United States border crossing at the Thousand Islands Bridge, to combat the spread of COVID-19, in Lansdowne, Ont.LARS HAGBERG/Reuters
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À la carte
Re Why Vaccine Branding Is Bad For Us All (Editorial, June 22): I read The Paradox of Choice a few years ago and it seems so relevant in this moment. While it intuitively seems like more choice should make us happier, it often has the opposite effect. We live in perpetual anxiety that we made a less-than-optimal choice and others fared better.
The idea that a public-health pandemic can be solved through consumer choice should be a false narrative. I find it asinine to believe that even the brightest and most curious among us can do a career immunologist or biostatistician’s degree of research to inform our vaccine choices.
If we all just looked at legitimate experts to answer the basic questions of “does it work?” and “is it safe?” we would be a lot less anxious. We would be able to focus on the fact that success looks like population immunity, not personal immunity.
Emily Ames Pickering, Ont.
Stuck at the border
Re Trudeau Defends Cross-border Restrictions (June 19): I spent the first 69 summers of my life on the Canadian shore of Lake Erie, first at a cottage bought by my grandfather in 1920, then at a cottage I bought in 1986.
Like most people in my situation, in March of 2020, I fully understood the need to close the border between our countries. But as someone who has been fully vaccinated since March of 2021, I have grown increasingly frustrated by the monthly cycle of closure extensions.
Never is there an explanation of just how fully vaccinated Americans with valid reasons to cross the border (to visit loved ones, inspect property et cetera) pose a risk to Canadians. Logic would suggest the opposite: That each fully vaccinated visitor increases the vaccination percentage that Justin Trudeau seeks to expand!
Brian Brady Buffalo, N.Y.
Re Vaccinated Canadians To Be Exempt From Travel Quarantine (June 22): We are both fully vaccinated. Our daughter and family are fully vaccinated. They are 100 kilometres from us in Washington State. We haven’t seen them for more than a year.
Others can visit from all around the world. What is wrong with this picture? What is wrong with our government?
Roger and Rosemary Burrows Cultus Lake, B.C.
Going forward
Re Canada Is Bringing UNDRIP To Life (June 21): I am more than sympathetic to the thrust of Perry Bellegarde’s case for the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
When he says that it affirms Indigenous people’s “right to make our own decisions based on our own values, through our own governance institutions,” it would be helpful if he could follow up with some details on what he has in mind with respect to how these institutions will be funded.
Michael Berry Qualicum Beach, B.C.
Re Reconciliation Will Require A Paradigm Shift (Opinion, June 19): Contributor Allan Gregg believes an Indigenous veto – based on the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples – will produce certainty for development. Certainty, yes, but hardly favourable to development.
This veto is virtually absolute, limited only when “strictly necessary [to recognize] the rights and freedoms of others and [to meet] the most compelling requirements of a democratic society” – a high hurdle indeed. It may be invoked without grounds. Mr. Gregg suggests a veto could serve as a toll gate; hardly a principled basis.
Bill C-15′s vague obligation on government to “ensure that the laws of Canada are consistent with the Declaration” will likely lead to a decade or more of court interpretation. I believe the current consultation-accommodation framework gives exactly the results that Mr. Gregg seeks.
This doctrine has produced substantial benefits to Indigenous groups. It should not be lightly cast aside.
John Edmond LLB, LLM; Former Commission Counsel, Indian Claims Commission; Ottawa
Off-air
Re Why Is The CBC Letting Canada: A People’s History Die? (June 22): I was dismayed to read that CBC has not renewed the copyright for Canada: A People’s History so that it can be accessed on its Gem streaming service. I have used the documentary series in my Canadian history classroom for 20 years and can vouch for its obvious excellence. It has withstood the test of time, a not-inconsiderable feat.
The whole point of CBC moving to a more digitally based platform was not only to cut costs, but also to increase its reach. It seems sad commentary, indeed, that no one in the CBC brass stood up and said, “These are our stories of the country and they must stay in circulation.”
As Oscar Wilde once said, it looks like the CBC “knows the cost of everything, but the value of nothing.”
J.D.M. Stewart Toronto
Canada and China
Re Anti-China Sentiment Is Becoming Anti-Chinese Prejudice In Canada (June 21): I find it concerning that a university chair and senator would come to the defence of China’s United Front and other institutions, when China has been identified as a serious strategic threat to Canada by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service.
John MacDonald Victoria
The stakes involved in Canada’s troubled relationship with China call for a sophisticated and multifaceted response. It does not lend itself to simplistic and unilateral measures that would only inflame the situation further, before forcing all sides to find a compromise.
The anti-China discourse in Canada has unfortunately monopolized the media’s attention, as Professor Paul Evans and Senator Yuen Pau Woo suggest. When one side fails to acknowledge that no easy solution exists, they resort to character assassination that imputes immoral motives to detractors, such as pecuniary rewards or disloyalty to Canada.
Let us hope that Prof. Evans and Mr. Woo’s call for a broader and open discussion – and a move away from what is looking more and more like a witch hunt – will be heard.
Richard Desjardins Cantley, Que.
Be forewarned
Re It’s A Bad Year For Ticks, And They’re No Longer Just A Rural Menace (June 22): Most days, I take my morning constitutional along the many paths of the Gillies Grove forest. So I appreciate the preventative measures mentioned such as tucking long sleeves and pants into socks and waistbands, keeping to cleared trails and, of course, applying anti-tick spray.
So, unlike the ancient Trojans, I shall heed Cassandra’s warning: “Be wearing DEET barring ticks!”
Ken DeLuca Arnprior, Ont.
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