Man up, woman up
Re Speaker Offers Help To Harassment Probe (Nov. 20): I don't know who or what I'm more exasperated with – Justin Trudeau for suspending two Liberal MPs without any proper investigation into the allegations made against them, or the two female NDP MPs who refuse to come forward and speak publicly on this matter, or a Parliament that is so ill-prepared to deal with such allegations that the Speaker has to offer to bring in outside experts. This is the lot that's governing us?
Mason Wilson, Calgary
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I take great exception to the characterization of Justin Trudeau's intervention in the harassment-allegation issue as "rushed and awkward … another sign of his appalling lack of judgment" (Quebec's Own Revelations – Nov. 19). Once an NDP MP complained directly to him, he had to act immediately, and the step taken had to be a serious one.
Instead of faulting Mr. Trudeau, Lysiane Gagnon – and all of us – should be pressing the two female NDP MPs to come forward and make their charges known. I understand their lives may be adversely affected, even in the pursuit of appropriate sanctions for possible wrongdoing. But I have a 19-year-old daughter. What are we to conclude about the state of justice in this country if even two members of our national legislature won't come forward and demand accountability?
This may be the most significant act of their entire careers. I want to say to them: Woman up, grab your ovaries, and get going. Don't let politicians make politics out of Canadian women's right to safety, security, and employability. Because sometimes hashtags aren't enough.
Beverly Akerman, Montreal
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Uber uber UberX
Re The Ubers Are Destined To Win The Taxi Wars (Nov. 20): I used Uber daily for two months (knee surgery). Every driver I had said they loved the service: easy, they knew they were going to get paid and get a tip, and safer than picking up on the street because the clients were identified.
Using the app, I had the choice of a taxi, black car or SUV. All of them were licensed taxis or limos – regulated, trained, insured. They were the same cars and drivers I'd have received if I'd called a taxi or limo company – no problem there. UberX, the ride-sharing service, is different. Uninsured, untrained, unregulated. I won't use UberX, but I will use Uber.
Customers like it, drivers like it, it really is "the better way."
Tim Broughton, Toronto
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Middle East morass
Patrick Martin's analysis of the perilously complex web of actors and interests surrounding the Islamic State, and responses to it, is most insightful (Untangling The Middle East – Folio, Nov. 20).
While it would be impossible to exhaustively deconstruct this morass, a few parties are conspicuous by their absence: Egypt, whose reinvigorated, tacitly Western-approved, military authoritarianism can only fuel Sunni militancy throughout the broader region; Libya and Yemen, now failed states (or rapidly approaching that status) whose travails owe, in part, to outside powers' ill-considered interventions; and the Palestinians, whose living conditions remain a festering wound, readily seized upon by others in the name of their own concerns.
If any kind of cohering theme emerges, perhaps it runs something like the following: Self-interested strategic support for some forms of brutality, but not others, coupled with the further violence of similarly self-interested interventionism, seems hardly a balm for whatever ails the region.
Andrew M. Wender, Victoria
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Your conflict graphic evokes memories of a Kingston Trio song from the Cold War days, which summarized the situation then with lyrics that included: "The whole world is festering with unhappy souls/The French hate the Germans, the Germans hate the Poles/Italians hate Yugoslavs, South Africans hate the Dutch/And I don't like anybody very much!"
After describing natural crises that befall nations, the song concludes with a summary also reflective of the current situation in the Middle East: "What nature doesn't do to us, will be done by our fellow man."
Ab Dukacz, Mississauga
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Outlook: partisan
Re A Message From The Harper Government (editorial, Nov. 19): I regularly access the Government of Canada's online weather forecasts. The site was recently changed and now features extensive advertising of the Conservatives' policies, such as proposed tax cuts and child benefit payments.
The forecast is bleak: more of the same from this shamelessly partisan government, which spends hundreds of millions of dollars of public funds promoting itself while cutting funds to a multitude of worthwhile public services.
Ross Hedley, West Vancouver
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ABCs of $468-million
Re Peace With Teachers Had Hidden Costs (Nov. 20): So Ontario Education Minister Liz Sandals cut a sweetheart deal with the teacher unions that cost taxpayers almost half a billion dollars and kept it under wraps.
I suppose that $468-million can buy a lot of "persuasion" when brokering peace with the unions. How very McGuinty-like of her.
Vic Bornell, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont.
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A carbon something?
I find it a little rich that Preston Manning advises we avoid using the word "tax" in connection with carbon pricing because, according to Mr. Manning, "the public understanding of a tax is government constantly reaching into their pockets" (How To Communicate A Good Idea – Nov. 19). Now I wonder where the public would ever have gotten that idea?
Perhaps if he and his political ilk didn't spend so much effort poisoning the public mind against any form of tax, more Canadians would understand that – with an honest government – taxes are essentially payment for goods (roads, schools) and services (health care, potable water) rendered in a civilized society.
I won't even get started on the advice to "be honest about the ultimate costs to consumers [i.e. citizens]" when discussing the Conservatives' lack of action on climate change.
Paul Rowe, Ottawa
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It's not a carbon tax – it's a carbon "user fee." Was that so difficult?
Steen Petersen, Nanaimo, B.C.
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Seat, jersey, $400+
Re Kessel Says Jersey-Tossing 'Classless' (Sports, Nov. 20): To put my letter in perspective – and before I get into Phil Kessel's claim – I was 22 when Toronto last won the Stanley Cup. I'm now 70!
The Leafs coach's claim that tossing the team's jerseys on the ice is classless is laughable. When you realize how much a jersey costs and how much a seat close enough to be able to throw the garment on the ice fetches, one realizes how sincerely upset Leaf fans must be. Methinks the laddie doth protest too much.
Brendan Rodgers, Toronto