Troops' treatment
With thousands of our soldiers and their families forced to live in squalor, Stephen Harper should be too ashamed to go anywhere near a cenotaph on Remembrance Day – or any other day for that matter (There Is Only One Veteran – Nov. 8).
Alison Murphy, Vancouver
.........
During the Afghanistan conflict, thousands of yellow "Support the Troops" messages appeared on cars, windows and T-shirts. With the government's shoddy treatment of vets injured in that war, perhaps it's time for someone to produce a modified version that adds the line: "Now That They're Home" – and make it available on Remembrance Day.
George Tough, Peterborough, Ont.
.........
Universality of Service is not a rule, but a legal contractual requirement of any full-time service man or woman in the Canadian Armed Forces. This requires that any member of the forces be fit to deploy at all times, either at home or abroad. While some members are deployed to work in Canada, they may be subject to deployment overseas at any time during their career.
The forces are not a social services agency. For every member who is allowed to remain even if they do not meet the Universality of Service requirements, some other member is required to fill the slot for overseas deployment. This leads to even greater hardships for that member and his or her family and even greater inefficiencies in the forces.
While I am certainly sympathetic toward the plight of corporals David Hawkins and Glen Kirkland, the concept of Universality of Service must prevail.
Curt Shalapata, Oshawa
.........
It is one thing for Canada's enemies to injure and maim our troops, but it is quite another matter when our federal government exacerbates their pain and anguish.
Lloyd Atkins, Vernon, B.C.
.........
They're not spies
Re An Eye On Spies (editorial, Nov. 7): Intelligence is expected to forecast change in a target environment in time for action to be taken. Negative change means threat; positive change, opportunity. While security intelligence is primarily aimed at threats to the national security, it should also identify opportunities to reduce the potential for harm through policy or influence.
That expectation applies also for foreign intelligence, and for military, economic, criminal, scientific and technological intelligence, among others.
Similarly, in business, competitive intelligence is tasked to forecast both threats and opportunities emerging in a company's competitive environment.
Canadian intelligence activities are shaped by legislative mandate and by intelligence priorities issued on cabinet authority. Whether the priorities are "too broad," as you suggest, might merit closer examination, but they constitute tasking to which the agencies must respond.
Any fault lies more with government than with the dedicated, professional employees you mischaracterize as spies. Like me, they are outraged when a traitor, or an oath-breaker cloaked as a whistle-blower, brings their work into disrepute.
Alan Breakspear, Victoria
.........
State(ed) values
Re Ostentatiously Dogmatic (editorial, Nov. 8): The problem with the charter of values introduced in Quebec's National Assembly is not, as you assert in your editorial, that it is "ostentatiously dogmatic" or "negates freedom."
The charter is not against "religious freedom." In no way does it interfere in the life of churches, mosques, synagogues, temples or sweat lodges. It sensibly proposes that icons of religious belief – implicit within which are guidelines for action – should not be displayed in the halls of state.
It bases that proposal on an assessment of what happens when the policies and services offered by the state are influenced by the transcendental longings of the religious mind. Crosses don't belong in public daycare centres any more than swastikas do.
C. X. Adamson, Toronto
.........
Kindergarten math
Re A Growing Problem (editorial, Nov. 8): Before full-day kindergarten is sacrificed to deficit reduction, let's assess its money-generating potential.
First, there are 20,000 new jobs for early childhood educators; economists estimate a 90-cent return on the dollar from public spending on this type of job creation. Then there are the mothers who delay returning to work until their children are in school full time. Full-day kindergarten gives these moms a two-year jump on work-force reentry. That's two more years of paying taxes and a smaller draw on social transfers as their family income rises. Studies calculate this returns $1.05 to provincial coffers for every dollar spent. These are the immediate financial returns.
Still looking for cost/benefits? Half-day kindergarten isn't intensive enough to deliver enduring academic and social benefits for children and actually reduces the productivity of working parents. Finding reliable child care to wrap around a two-and-a-half-hour program makes the kindergarten years tops for work conflicts.
Guided by the evidence, the province should either eliminate half-day kindergarten due to its minor return, or stay the course with the full-day program that is already paying for itself.
Kerry McCuaig, Atkinson Centre, Ontario Institute For Studies In Education, University of Toronto
.........
B.C.'s farmland
Re Agricultural Body Eyed For Breakup (Nov. 7): B.C. Energy Minister Bill Bennett says nothing the government is contemplating would undermine protection of the province's farmland, but the changes the government is planning will do just that. It's ridiculous to give more power over the Agricultural Land Reserve to the Oil and Gas Commission. Oil and gas companies already have authority to drill on farmland. Farmers and ranchers do not have subsurface mineral rights.
Premier Christy Clark is determined to get as much gas and oil out of the ground in B.C. as quickly as possible. I'm left wondering if she is in any way cognizant of the unfolding disaster of climate change.
Michael Sather, Maple Ridge, B.C.
.........
Ford on film
Re Another Day, Another Apology (Nov. 8): At last, Toronto Mayor Rob Ford has discovered his true calling: to make Canadian senators look good.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper owes him big time for the distraction.
Teri Jane Bryant, Calgary
.........
Surprised that TIFF is in November? Not that TIFF. The Toronto International Ford Festival. Now in its second week … drawing a worldwide audience every day. Playing at any multimedia device near you.
Ajay Rao, Toronto