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The spirit, the letter of the law
Re Top Court Deals Blow To Indigenous Peoples (Nov. 3): Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin says that "the Charter protects the freedom to worship, but does not protect the spiritual focal point of worship." In Australia, climbing on Uluru (Ayers Rock), will be banned as of 2019, out of respect for Uluru as a spiritual focal point for the Anangu Aboriginal people. It is regrettable that our Charter does not permit such respect for the spiritual focal point of the Ktunaxa Nation in British Columbia.
Reiner Jaakson, Oakville, Ont.
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Kathryn Teneese of the Ktunaxa Nation Council says protecting the disputed land is a "task that was given to us by the creator and no one else can take that away from us." Her right to that belief is protected under the Charter; further, she has every right to disagree with the court's ruling and protest it in a civil fashion. But the Supreme Court deals with justice within our Constitution and the rule of law. It does not rule on faith-based opinions. Nor should it. Canada is not a theocracy.
Ken DeLuca, Arnprior, Ont.
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The Chief Justice's message to developers, governments and First Nations is clear: "The process is one of 'give and take,' and outcomes are not guaranteed." In street-speak, or what my kids like to call "mom-speak," it's what I tell them when they quarrel: "Respect each other. Listen to each other. Listen more than you talk. Work it out. If you can't, I'll decide. But there are no guarantees when I do that. And you may not like the outcome."
Sarah Michaels, Edmonton
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Pot-and-kettle financial conflicts
I have been reading with interest the many letters to the editor on Finance Minister Bill Morneau's perceived conflict of interest. I am somewhat surprised that the Liberal Party did not see this coming.
Clearly, the solution is to ensure that all future finance ministers have no money, and that the role is restricted to those living below the poverty line – which sadly leaves a large number of Canadians still eligible.
Conflict is not restricted to the minister of finance, of course. Always trying to be helpful, I propose the following guidelines for other ministerial appointments. The minister of agriculture must have no connection to farming. Perhaps a resident of Nunavut would qualify? The minister of oceans and fisheries must be from Alberta or Saskatchewan for at least three generations; the defence minister must belong to a pacifist religion, such as the Quakers or Doukhobors; the minister of justice must not have any legal training as we don't want any bias based on knowledge of the system and the law.
I am sure you get the idea …
Stuart McRae, Toronto
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The fact that the economic benefits realized by a holding company will ultimately accrue to its shareholders is so blindingly obvious that Finance Minister Bill Morneau didn't even bother to mention it in his months-long tax-revision campaign. He was so confident that everyone understood this premise, that even in a campaign filled with divisive language the connection didn't merit a mention. Yet he violated the obvious intent of the ethics rules because he found a loophole.
Now where have I heard that word before?
I think it was a pot talking to the kettle …
Darryl Squires, Ottawa
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People complain about politicians, yet the way we treat them just makes it harder to attract qualified, successful individuals to run for public office.
Fred Ringham, Vancouver
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Canada, by the numbers
Re Trudeau Rolls The Dice On Immigration (Nov. 2): The federal Liberal Party's proposal to increase immigration to Canada in 2020 to 340,000 permanent residents is a very big deal, and should be sidelined until voters have their say about it in the next federal election.
How can increasing the size of our cities with increasingly large numbers of immigrants possibly improve our Canadian standard of living, cut pollution, improve our environment, pay for our bankrupt health-care system, lower the cost of housing, lower the cost of education, improve our highways and mass transit systems, get people out of debt, lower taxes, and so on, and on and on?
The Liberals say more immigration is the answer – based on what?
Dal Corran, Toronto
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The government, in an attempt to bolster Canada's aging working population, wants to admit 300,000 or so new immigrants into the country in 2018. There is the possibility that as many or more "dreamers" in the United States will face deportation by Donald Trump's government before 2018 ends. These "dreamers," educated in the United States, may be delighted at a relocation offer. This is an avenue worth pursuing.
Peter Blunt, Cobourg, Ont.
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Four minutes, 33 seconds. Burp
Cathal Kelly argues that something is not a sport if it happens in a bar or if it can be done effectively while drunk (A Guide To What Is And Is Not A Sport, Oct. 27).
Sports-law professor Jon Heshka points out that pole-dancing is well on its way to Olympic sport status, a development which calls into question Mr. Kelly's criteria about bars and being drunk (Pole-Dancing Podium, letters, Nov. 2).
I would argue that Mr. Kelly's bar and drunkenness criteria also cannot stand in the face of the "beer mile," an event where competitors must chug a beer before each quarter-mile of a one-mile race, with the clock running throughout.
On Oct. 28, Ontario's Corey Bellemore set the world record for the event at 4 minutes, 33 seconds. If this result doesn't astound you, try drinking four beers in five minutes and just staying on your chair. The beer mile is not only a sport, it's the quintessential Canadian sport.
Rudy Buller, Toronto