Quebec Premier Francois Legault speaks at the legislature in Quebec City on Oct. 3.Jacques Boissinot/The Canadian Press
New order
Re “New House Speaker Greg Fergus appeals for decorum ahead of Question Period” (Oct. 19): Three cheers for Greg Fergus, the newly elected Speaker, for his speech on decorum in the House of Commons.
It is important for our leaders in all walks of life to deliver questions, comments and opinions in a respectful, kind, thoughtful and intelligent manner. The world is not only watching but following suit, and we have enough rude, disrespectful and hurtful behaviour out there.
To be effective and get one’s message across, it is best done without yelling, swearing, degrading and bullying. People stop listening to the message when they feel threatened.
Jan Vanderwal Toronto
Canada’s part
Re “After Supreme Court’s decision, Ottawa must urgently refocus its climate policy” (Report on Business, Oct. 18): This Supreme Court decision provides important breathing space for Canadians to re-evaluate the national contribution to the “fight against climate change.”
However, government remarks suggest it is determined to somehow wriggle out of restrictions regarding planned interference in provincial jurisdictions. Far from respecting the Constitution, government fixation on climate change seems to include an end-justifies-the-means approach, a development to be very worried about.
Greenhouse gas emissions are a global issue. It is nearly irrelevant to the climate if Western governments undermine their economies in order to reach net zero, if the rest of the world essentially does nothing. In China, emissions have doubled in less than 20 years as that country takes on energy-intensive industries that net-zero rules have rendered politically unwanted or economically unfeasible in the West.
Globally we are going nowhere, because the world’s citizens always want more energy security and a better way of life. Some people call this “populism.”
Andrew Miall Emeritus professor, department of earth sciences, University of Toronto
The emissions math is simple: Forty million Canadians on a planet with eight billion citizens means we comprise ½ of 1 per cent of the global population, yet are responsible for a little under 2 per cent of emissions.
It’s as though we show up every year to the community potluck and shamelessly fill four plates for ourselves. If someone thinks 2 per cent isn’t too much, try taking four plates through a buffet and see what happens.
Jamie Thomson Halifax
Go for it
Re “Quebec’s out-of-province tuition hike is a major loss for the province and country” (Oct. 18): In struggling valiantly to preserve the French language in Quebec, the provincial government is forced into artificial measures such as imposing additional student fees on out-of-province students.
This being Canada, rather than the current nickel-and-diming approach, wouldn’t it be simpler to make it illegal to speak English in Quebec and use the notwithstanding clause to make it stick? Penalties under the law would include deportation.
Tourists would, of course, be exempt – provided they were not from Canada.
A.S. Brown Kingston
Eye of the…
Re “Will the pen be mightier than AI?” (Oct. 18): Thanks to columnist Andrew Coyne for refuting those who fearmonger about artificial intelligence superseding human writers by reframing the problem: The power of meaning rests with the reader.
Such a conceptual shift, focusing on reading rather than writing, reveals the critical thinking advantage that humans possess. AI is not an independent operator; its output depends on a prompt. The final arbiter of meaning is not AI, but independent human readers.
It appears Descartes’s rationalist proof that defines the property of being – “I think, therefore I am” – may be simulated by AI. However Berkeley’s idealism – “to be is to be perceived” – is more relevant when it comes to understanding AI.
Thinking by AI is achievable, but perception is highly improbable. Consequently, it’s reassuring to learn that perception and conception by readers define us.
So use AI to help write, because meaning inevitably rests on us, the reader.
Tony D’Andrea Toronto
As I understand it, artificial intelligence programs operate by sifting through huge stores of information, picking similar or connected pieces and recombining them in new ways, following the rules and conventions of human language.
Looked at in this way, all products of AI are human. My question is whether AI is capable of something on a higher plane.
The field of physics was revolutionized by the development of quantum mechanics and relativity. In the realm of art, the advent of impressionism and cubism introduced a whole new way of seeing the world around us. Comparable outbreaks of brilliance can be found in all fields of human endeavour.
Is AI able, or will it be able, to achieve innovations of this magnitude? If so, we really do have competition.
Douglas Campbell Victoria
Test, test
Re “Canada to phase out Pap test for more accurate HPV detection test” (Oct. 16): I was delighted to see that provinces are moving toward phasing out the Pap smear test for cervical cancer and using tests that detect the human papilloma virus, which causes the cancer.
The Pap smear was revolutionary when it was first introduced. The HPV test is even more accurate and detects problems at an earlier stage.
Apparently the federal government has a goal of eliminating cervical cancer by 2040. However since HPV is transmitted sexually, men should be part of the equation. They should also be tested to see whether they carry HPV.
If so, they are risks to their partners. And they are also at risk of developing other cancers that HPV causes in men: mouth, throat and anal cancers.
HPV cancers are on the rise in men, now accounting for four out of 10 of HPV-induced cancers.
Claudia Cornwall Author, Catching Cancer: The Quest for its Viral and Bacterial Causes North Vancouver
Beeline
Re “My grandkids don’t know how to play outside and it’s maddening” (First Person, Oct. 17): I too am a grandfather who is frustrated with this video-game craze. However, I disagree with the suggestion that kids don’t have a choice.
There is always a choice, but most children bypass the basketball aisle at Walmart and head right for the video-game section, where parents will plunk down $90 for the ultimate babysitter.
Glenn Tooze Belleville, Ont.
The Buds
Re “More sober thinking, less nitpicking over the Maple Leafs’ new goal song” (Sports, Oct. 18): What could be wrong with Clear The Track, Here Comes Shack by Douglas Rankine with the Secrets?
Craig Sims Kingston
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