Freedoms lost
The Conservatives' new anti-terror bill (C-51) misses the point in regard to national security. To dismiss the parliamentary oversight of CSIS is to destroy the most reliable foundation of that organization's credibility and virtue. The biggest enemy of CSIS is public distrust, which, in other jurisdictions, has resulted in shutting down various agencies or desks within those agencies. Accountability and stealth are not polar opposites in democracies.
Intelligence is a must as a domestic deterrent to terrorism, but more importantly to maintain an effective foreign policy, which appears to have suffered in all Western states in the past 20 years. A stronger oversight for national security policy in the U.S. in regard to, say, Cyprus in the 1970s and in Iraq post 9/11 might have prevented a great deal of the death and suffering that followed.
The danger is a Red Queen's race, and Stephen Harper just stopped running.
Miles Tompkins, Antigonish, N.S.
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Re Stephen Harper's Secret Policeman Bill (editorial, Feb. 2): The international jihadi movement has declared war on Canada. Canadians are being targeted by jihadi terrorists simply because they hate our society and the values it represents. These threats require a strong response.
That is why our government has put forward measures, such as the Anti-Terrorism Act, which protect Canadians against jihadi terrorists who seek to destroy the very principles that make Canada the best country in the world to live.
As the Prime Minister said, our government rejects the argument that every time we talk about security, our freedoms are threatened. Canadians understand that their freedom and security go hand in hand and expect us to protect both. There are protections in this legislation to do exactly that. CSIS is not becoming a secret police force. The key powers of the new legislation are subject to judicial review and judicial authorization. In addition, a highly respected law school dean was appointed to the existing oversight body last Friday.
Providing CSIS with new tools will ensure that gaps in sharing information about suspected terrorists do not limit its ability to prevent attacks on Canadians.
Steven Blaney, Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness
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Whenever politicians begin by saying "Let me be perfectly clear," we can be pretty sure that the next words will obscure, confuse and obfuscate the issue.
I think of the lyric "Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose" every time I hear Stephen Harper's war cry of "terrorism on our shores." He will keep us free by removing as many of our freedoms as he can. He isn't winning on the economic front, so he has "nothing left to lose" but to talk about our freedom.
Sally Barker, Victoria
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Another imperative
Re 'Moral Imperative' (letters, Feb. 4): Where's the morality in closing veterans' offices, underfunding aboriginal education and health, and cutting services such as food-safety inspection to fund income-splitting and other boutique tax credits?
The real "moral imperative" is for the Harper government to stop cutting taxes and balance the budget with increased revenues instead of robbing us of the services we need in order to give the wealthiest Canadians a tax break.
Elizabeth Woods, Victoria
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That's the point
Jeffrey Simpson grouches about the memorial to Victims of Communism being "ugly" and its location "dreadful" (Baird Hit Peak Politics – And Picked The Right Time To Leave – Feb. 4). Is placing a taxpayer-funded National Holocaust Memorial in the shape of a Star of David across from the Canadian War Museum comforting, inoffensive and advantageous? Is it beauteous, picturesque and pretty-pretty? I think not.
Perhaps that's the point.
Lubomyr Luciuk, Kingston
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Accuracy: M.I.A.
Re The Less You Know, The Less You Know (editorial, Feb. 4): So there's another private member's bill next month that proposes restoring the long-form census. This one, you tell us, will remove an aspect that is problematic for some Conservatives – automatic public disclosure after 92 years.
Damned right! When I'm 150, I don't want people to know what I revealed on the census.
Jim Hickman, Mono, Ont.
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Recent program cuts and policy changes to Statistics Canada, such as the elimination of the mandatory long-form census, are making it difficult for Canadians to track critical issues that affect their communities, resulting in a rapidly increasing knowledge deficit that is inhibiting innovation.
The National Household Survey is getting significantly lower response rates than the long-form census which it replaced. Additionally, at-risk demographics are underrepresented, which means organizations that co-ordinate programs to assist these groups don't have the data they need to plan accordingly. The question remains: Where are people meant to turn when a historically trusted source of information is no longer generating valuable data?
Valoree McKay, executive director, Canadian Library Association
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How is it consistent that the Harper government would not want the information that arrives with a mandatory census, and at the same time wants a new law that expands surveillance on all of us?
Barbara Klunder, Toronto
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Aboriginal tragedy
Re Toward A Successful Day For All Canadians (Feb. 2): A true start to ending our aboriginal tragedy will only come when Canada acknowledges its colonization and abuse of aboriginal people as a genocide, one that fits many aspects of the legal definition of genocide, including "causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part [known commonly in residential schools as "beating the Indian out of you"] … forcibly transferring children of the group to another group."
And these are only parts of the definition and examples. There is much, much more. Canada acknowledged Stalin's genocide in Ukraine – how about the genocide in our own backyard?
Nadia Senyk, lawyer, Ottawa
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Life, lived twice
Re Looking Back On Life In Letters To Myself (Life & Arts, Feb. 2): Over a span of 40 years, I, too, have written letters to myself.
Those read in succession are a story with many characters, a fascinating plot and, when all is said and done, (I hope) a happy ending. These letters serve as wonderful reminders of a solo pilgrimage to a private inner destination without ever having to leave home.
I realize when I sit with them how simple and uncomplicated my life is. I think about how far I have come, and how my divorce 20 years ago has been such a catalyst for change in my life. As Anaïs Nin so famously wrote: We write so that we can experience our life twice – once in the moment and once upon reflection.
Debra Dolan, Vancouver