ERIC THAYER/Reuters
Killing the bill
The Senate voted 43-32 to kill the Climate Change Accountability Act (Conservative Senators Kill Climate Change Bill - Nov. 18) in a surprise vote that leaves Canada with nothing on the books as it prepares for climate negotiations in Cancun later this month.
Five years in the making, its abrupt defeat by unelected members of the Senate shows complete disregard for the democratic process and for the thousands of Canadians who have worked long and hard to pass it into law. It was already approved by the House of Commons twice. The Prime Minister justified his decision by raising the spectre of a massive economic calamity as the outcome of the bill's adoption.
John Matchim, Eastport, Nfld.
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The political blame game has begun as to who killed Bill C-311, but the answer is obvious. The Conservatives killed the bill, and the Liberals created the conditions that made this possible. The Liberals have long held the power in the Senate, time they squandered in regards to Senate reform.
If the Liberals had taken their many opportunities to reform the Senate into a more accountable body, perhaps the 15 or so absent Liberals might have actually felt the need to show up at work on Nov. 16, 2010, and save Bill C-311. The Liberals are to blame, and the Conservatives demonstrably feel no qualms about taking advantage of that. Shame.
Daryl Elving-Klassen, Victoria
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As a young Canadian attending graduate school in Sweden, I was horrified to read that the Senate voted down Bill C-311. In Europe, climate change is not viewed as a partisan issue. Both the left and the right recognize the severe impact it will have on the world.
There is a certain arrogance present in a government that believes it understands these issues better than scientists who study these phenomena. We don't need to choose between the environment and economy, opportunities exist to foster growth in both; and there are examples of this happening across the globe.
Josh Darrach, Lund, Sweden
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iPhone fees
Re Tony Clement Won't Stand For A Tax On His iPhone - Or Yours - Nov. 17:
Someone should remind the minister there's already a tax on his iPhone, it's called HST.
What we're taking about is a "levy" and it's not new either. Far from being a way of the past, collective licensing and levies are the way of the future; just ask our friends in Europe, who are seizing on these concepts to build a healthy, thriving digital economy where consumers have access to content, and creators are getting paid for it.
Creators still have a right to own their work and be paid for it.
Ferne Downey, ACTRA national president, Toronto
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Caregiving costs
Re The Cost Of Caregiving For The 'Sandwich' Generation - Life, Nov. 16:
Canadians must know that it is not a matter of whether they will be a caregiver, but a matter of when they will be called upon to fulfill responsibilities for a family member. Taking advantage of federal tax credits is valuable to the caregivers who receive them. However, the effectiveness of the credits is limited by how narrowly they are defined.
They could be enriched by increasing the amount, modifying the caregiver credit to phase out more gradually with the dependant's income and making it refundable, which would extend support to lower-income caregivers.
Nadine Henningsen, president, Canadian Caregiver Coalition, Mississauga
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Rural Internet
Letter writer Jeffrey S. Erlich (Digital Divide - Nov. 18) and his fellow GTA residents should consider themselves fortunate that hard-working farmers, loggers, miners, fishers and families have chosen to live and work in rural Canada and create the resource economy that puts food on tables, roofs over heads, paper and metal products in hands and supplies a large measure of the wealth that has partially protected Canada from the worst effects of this latest recession.
Shouldn't these people at least have access to the same information technology that urban dwellers take for granted? Whether it's for running a business or educating one's children, or simply getting on with day-to-day life, fast, effective and affordable Internet access is no longer a luxury.
Dan Somers, Mayo, Que.
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Afghanistan
Why is it necessary to "lock the doors on the buses" after telling Afghan National Army recruits they are being sent to the south? (Stay On To Train Afghan Soldiers? - Nov. 18) Margaret Wente has revealed an inconvenient truth about Afghanistan. It's tribal - and so is the ANA.
The south is Pashtun country, and most of the Taliban are Pashtun. The army is heavily northern in ethnic composition, which is not surprising as the U.S. supported the Northern Alliance (Tajik, Uzbek, Hazara) in the 2001 invasion. The U.S. reported a year ago that about 70 per cent of the senior ANA officers are Tajik. Most troops speak Dari, not Pashto, making them outsiders in the south. In training and strengthening the ANA, are we simply supporting the north against the south in a civil war?
Millie Morton, Kingston
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In addition to security, which Canadian troops will be addressing, Afghanistan needs improved governance, and who better to provide training to improve this situation than Ottawa MPs? Groups of MPs on equivalent tours of duty to our troops would seem to be appropriate.
Can we expect a bill supporting this approach to be introduced by one of the parties in the House any time soon?
David Lloyd, Kingston
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Canadian content
As a sound supervisor in Canadian television and film, I found Maureen Parker's comments regarding the recent success of The Tudors at the Gemini Awards to be both ill-informed and offensive (The Borgias Eh? - Nov. 17).
I've spent many months over the past four years working here in Canada on The Tudors, alongside some of Canada's most talented television professionals, including producers, directors, actors, composers, editors and sound mixers. I consider The Tudors to be one of the finest television programs Canada has ever produced.
In a world where multicountry co-productions dominate the film and television industry, to be so naive as to think that a television program doesn't qualify as Canadian simply because it isn't set or shot in Canada is to be embarrassingly regressive. Is Yann Martel's novel Life of Pi not Canadian because it's set in India?
David McCallum, Toronto
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Perks
Re Expenses Passed Audit, Ex-Official Says - Nov. 17: Evidently you don't have to visit a casino to hit the jackpot at Niagara Falls. The board of directors should consider changing its name to The Niagara Perks Commission.
Louis Desjardins, Belleville