Liberal MP Steven Guilbeault rises in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Wednesday.Spencer Colby/The Canadian Press
Cause, effect
Re “Don’t give Alberta separatists space to gain traction, Stéphane Dion warns” (May 28): The only times Canadians have held referendums were during Liberal governments. Something about how that political party governs seems to ramp up separatists.
Perhaps after the next two or three referendums, the correlation between Liberals and separatists might become more difficult to explain away.
Clay Atcheson North Vancouver
Environmental record
Re “An environmental symbol slips out of Parliament” (May 28): I thank Steven Guilbeault for his long record in the critical environment arena prior to and during his time in government. His lamentable departure deprives us of leadership, which is desperately needed lest we all soon be boiled in a continuous effusion of oil and gas.
As Elizabeth May intimates, our Prime Minister, having benefitted politically from advance billing as a great advocate for a salubrious climate, has adeptly turned his coat in favour of a separatist province and the big interests of corporate carbon.
Pity the poor banker. Where is Justin Trudeau, too long abused, when we need him?
As David Suzuki has pithily remarked: “What the hell?”
Alban Goddard Hill Belleville, Ont.
Re “Sigh!” (Editorial Cartoon, May 29): This captures the disappointment many voters must feel toward Mark Carney and his team’s environmental record and policies.
The Liberals talk well about standing up to Donald Trump, but capitulate on carbon reduction in the face of increasingly alarming climate change. Why pander to the Alberta Premier when the Prime Minister ostensibly understands the urgency of a global switch to renewable energy?
I’ve admired Steven Guilbeault for his honesty, straightforwardness, modesty and ethics. How many MPs in Canadian history have contributed as much?
In the Liberal Party or the government, who will now advocate for Planet Earth?
Tom Perry Vancouver
Military history
Re “The Canadian Armed Forces are right to experiment around recruitment” (May 25): While the shift toward a “fit to the task” approach to military recruitment standards has prompted criticism in some quarters, these changes do not represent a departure without precedent.
As I argue in my book Unwanted Warriors: The Rejected Volunteers of the Canadian Expeditionary Force (2015), a comparable evolution occurred during the First World War in response to the needs of an increasingly complex Canadian Expeditionary Force.
By 1918, the CEF moved beyond simple binary classifications of fit or unfit, which had prevailed in 1914, toward a system that recognized varying degrees of military fitness. Individuals who did not meet physical standards for frontline combat could nonetheless make valuable contributions in essential roles in the rear and mid-echelons of the force.
Initial adjustments to CEF physical requirements predated manpower shortages. Rather, they were driven by the evolving character of modern warfare and the growing demands it placed on the force.
Nic Clarke Ottawa
Root cause
Re “A ban won’t shield kids from social media” (Editorial, May 26): Because the idea of social media bans is presented as regulating Big Tech, I think people tend to overlook its roots in right-wing populism.
The Australian ban was campaigned for by the Murdoch newspapers; the woman in charge was an American who used to work for a Republican politician; Jonathan Haidt, whose book popularized the idea, was previously best known for attacking universities as a “progressive monoculture.”
We already know the Australian ban isn’t working. It hasn’t kept children off the Internet, but by forcing them to pose as adults, it has kept them from being protected.
Enforcing these dubious benefits has required surveillance of the entire population.
David Arthur Cambridge, Ont.
In review
Re “In Yiddish, Fiddler on the Roof embraces tradition – or traditsye" (May 26): We recently attended the Yiddish version of Fiddler on the Roof in Toronto.
The production was superb. It felt as if author Sholem Aleichem himself was on that stage.
I loved seeing such a mixed crowd, a testament to the universal message of this iconic play. But I wondered whether theatregoers, patiently waiting in long lines to go through security, realized the link between the historical underpinnings of the play (the ever-present danger of the Czar’s thugs faced by Jews living in Russian villages) and the current reality that many Jewish or Jewish-adjacent events in Toronto require this or a greater level of security.
On the other hand, Torontonians do love to wait in lines.
Gary Kapelus Toronto
Greater good
Re “Inside a university anatomy lab where researchers study bodies Canadians have donated to science” (May 27): This reminded me of my mother, Magdalena (Wolfram) Botchett.
She was born in 1905 in Manitoba and died in 2002 at 96, in her sleep in her own bed. Posted on her fridge was a note to donate her body to the University of Manitoba. That, of course, happened.
As a Unitarian chaplain, I had the privilege of officiating her celebration of life. For years, she said that donating her body was the only way she would get to university. I used that line in her service.
As the child of a pioneering family, she had little formal education but was a reader all her life. I sent a copy of her service to the university and asked it be shared with the student doctors who learned from her gift, so they would know who she was as a person.
I intend to follow her example with McMaster University.
Doreen Peever St. Catharines, Ont.
As a graduate of Western University, I spent many years working as an assistant in the anatomy lab. I made my decision then to donate my body to medical education.
With all the advances technology has to offer, there is still no substitute for the learning that comes from working with a cadaver. Students learn about the human body, of course, but also respect for who this person might have been.
One day they will stand at a patient’s bedside and show the same respect and dignity.
Sylvia Davidson Toronto
My father and mother donated their bodies to medical education and I will, too.
I attended an annual University of Ottawa ceremony of gratitude, a moving and lovely tribute to donor families. “We are honoured to have your father teaching with us.” Such a beautiful expression of the legacy of donation, a gift that truly keeps on giving.
I hope this article inspires others and their families to consider this generous choice.
Paul Sarkozy Ottawa
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