An oil pump jack pumps oil in a field near Calgary in 2014.Todd Korol/Reuters
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Speaking out
Re Coercive Control: the Hidden Pattern Behind Domestic Abuse (March 14): Kudos to the brave women sharing their stories. Victims first need to know what abuse is and that they aren’t alone.
Thirty years ago with my truth well concealed, I shocked family and friends by walking out on my 20-year marriage. The cruelty was not overtly physical. Only my self-worth and confidence were at risk. But reading the photocopied sheet from a therapist entitled The Circle of Power and Control, I was stunned to see my “normal” staring at me in black and white.
Today, still ashamed of my weakness as I wrap up my memoir, I am finally preparing to share my story. The idea remains frightening.
Community awareness is key.
Joanne Betzler New Westminster, B.C.
Having worked with men who use violence against women, coercive-controlling behaviour is often a central issue.
Men who hurt usually have experienced childhood trauma. Within a culture based on hypermasculinity, sexism and power, violence can be the only tool they know when asserting themselves against women.
Let’s start by raising our children, particularly boys, with care and positive attachments, in non-violent homes where women are respected as equals. End a culture where violence against women is normalized in popular culture, pornography and sexist, misogynist attitudes.
The criminal justice system often fails women, and I believe its punitive nature only emphasizes masculine beliefs in power and control. Let’s break the cycle of violence not through punishment but community interventions based on care, accountability and clear messages that controlling behaviour against women is not okay.
Joachim Ostertag Owen Sound, Ont.
In Ukraine
Re Putin’s Invasion Of Ukraine Has Nothing To Do With Religion (March 11): The Ukraine invasion has nothing to do with religion but nevertheless the Pope and the Russian Patriarch might help to stop the war? Something seems to not quite fit here – yet.
Vladimir Putin’s war is no crusade but I believe it has everything to do with cultural issues connected to religion, especially masculinity and LGBTQ inclusion, in the same way that religion, culture and politics are deeply connected in Central Europe and the United States.
Religion, and how it relates to liberal democratic culture, should be absolutely crucial to understanding the war and finding a way out of it.
Matthijs Kronemeijer Toronto
Re When Do We Call This The Third World War? (March 14): Much is in a name. Knowing this, Vladimir Putin himself refrains from calling this appalling slaughter a “war” at all.
If, and until we do accept that the Third World War is upon us, I suggest we refer to it as “Putin’s war.”
Ron Beram Gabriola, B.C.
Historical analysis suggests that the risk of nuclear weapons is very high in two scenarios: where a superpower is being crowded in its perceived sphere of influence (think the Cuban Missile Crisis) and when a superpower finds itself unexpectedly losing a conventional war.
(The United States had threatened a non-nuclear China with a nuclear strike during the Korean War; declassified documents also show nuclear strikes were suggested during the Vietnam War.)
Can we rely on Vladimir Putin to show the same forbearance as past U.S. leaders thankfully did? Not a gamble I would take with the fate of the world at stake.
We should remember that, when it comes to playing nuclear poker, one plus one equals zero.
Tom MacDonald Ottawa
Ukrainians have fought bravely and forcefully against the Russian onslaught. Will they ultimately succeed in defeating the invaders?
Russians are succeeding in their campaign to occupy Ukraine by, effectively, destroying it. Will they succeed in laying waste to all of it before they can be defeated?
That prospect should give Volodymyr Zelensky pause to assess whether Ukrainians should keep on resisting and inherit a wasteland – or concede and plan to fight another day under different, perhaps more favourable, conditions. After all, Vladimir Putin will not live forever.
Michel Cote Ottawa
To the world
Re Canada’s Oil Conundrum (Report on Business, March 12): We have an abundance of natural resources. Do we not have an obligation to see that our friends get them when they need them?
I’m sure we could direct a pipeline through François Legault’s living room and not spill a drop. We could also build a refinery, liquefied natural gas ports and transfer facilities in Cornwall, Ont., then ship everything to the East Coast by rail and water. While we’re at it, we could use electricity from Churchill Falls to produce hydrogen and ship it from a new port in Labrador.
When there are real needs, there are real solutions. We should always have the facility to move product whenever and where it’s needed.
John Burrows Toronto
How many pipelines did Jean Charest build? One, and in Quebec no less.
How many pipelines did Justin Trudeau build? Half, and with only $21-billion spent.
How many pipelines did Jason Kenney build? Zero.
How many pipelines will Pierre Poilievre build? Who are you trying to kid?
Mike Priaro Calgary
More, please
Re Rogers Will Work With Regulators To Ensure Shaw Takeover Doesn’t Eliminate Fourth Player, CEO Says (Report on Business, March 9): So BCE CFO Glen LeBlanc believes that Freedom Mobile will have a hard time competing if it is cut loose from Shaw/Rogers.
It is telling that one of the main reasons for this is that unlike BCE, Telus and Rogers, Freedom Mobile will be unable to provide “bundled” discounts for internet, television and phone. Perhaps the answer would be for the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission or the Competition Bureau to prohibit this kind of “bundling” as an anti-competitive practice.
Ed McDonough Toronto
Re Ottawa Sends Mixed Messages About Wireless Competition (Report on Business, March 11): The Competition Bureau’s answer to high wireless prices for Canadian consumers would be to switch providers. It seems impossible that reducing the number of providers from four down to three (as Shaw disappears) will bring any relief.
I recently got notice that my phone bill will go up 6 per cent in April.
David Enns Cornwall, Ont.
Canine care
Re My Pit-bull Epiphany (First Person, March 10): We too had a pit-bull epiphany.
Joey had been on death row at the shelter for three months when my husband discovered him. The love shown us by this gentle soul was in sharp contrast to the harmful and pervasive myths about the breed.
Fran O’Heare Kingston
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