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How we vote
Re Tories Reject Voting Change (June 22): Pierre Poilievre, the Minister for Democratic Reform, says the Conservatives "will continue to respect the democratic will of Canadians." Mr. Poilievre wouldn't know how to respect democracy if it bit him in the ballot.
The reason he's so keen to protect the status quo has little to do with fairness and everything to do with keeping a system that lets the Tories govern even though they were not the choice of six out of 10 Canadians who voted.
Katherine Murphy, St. John's
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During the Ontario referendum in 2007, I voted against mixed-member proportional (MMP). This was not because I wanted to keep first past the post. I didn't want to pay for the extra MPs the proposal would have created.
What about having a mixed-vote proportional? Instead of adding MPs, simply add votes in the Commons equivalent to the MP count in mixed-member proportional. These extra votes could be cast by a designated MP (e.g. party leader or whip). We would get that degree of proportionality without the extra expense.
Andrew Chong, Toronto
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Robed in the law
Re Law School Grad Plans To Wrap Herself In Aboriginal Heritage (June 22): The Law Society was wrong not to insist this graduate wear her robes for her call to the bar. Barristers' robes represent the "blind" rule of law, as opposed to the merely discretionary and unpredictable rule of men.
In the aboriginal context they should be celebrated, because they represent the substantive, written, collective property rights aboriginals have been granted by Anglo-Canadian courts, rights that had been previously unknown to precontact aboriginal cultures.
They also represent the crucial tools necessary to ensure the protection of those rights – rules of procedure, lawyers, judges, statute law, and common law practices and traditions, all of which in the past 30 years have been used to make First Nations a virtual third constitutional order of government in Canada.
Peter Best, lawyer, Sudbury, Ont.
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Faith, climate
Konrad Yakabuski suggests that the Pope's belief in climate change is essentially a matter of faith, and that we should have faith in the market, since climate change is nothing more than a resource allocation issue (Francis Should Show A Little Faith In Capitalist Economics – June 22).
Neither view is tenable.
First, Francis's encyclical does not express "faith" in the science of global warming. He is responding to the overwhelming evidence of climate science, the same way any rational person should.
As for the appeal to the market, the real problem with climate change is that the scarce resource in question – the absorptive capacity of the planet's carbon sinks – is not a commodity, and cannot therefore be priced.
Evidence, not faith, tells us that left to its own devices, the market will continue to treat these sinks as limitless carbon dumps.
Byron Williston, Waterloo, Ont.
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Spending, spending
Does anybody in Ontario Finance Minister Charles Sousa's government grasp the fact that reducing the deficit does nothing whatever to reduce our huge debt, which was $267-billion at the end of fiscal 2013-14 (Deficits Explored – letters, June 22)?
The interest payments on the debt are now more than 8 per cent of the provincial budget, yet the Liberal government keeps on spending, spending, spending.
Move over, Greece. Ontario is headed your way.
Steve Kirby, Belleville, Ont.
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A gender that fits
Re Race And Gender: I Feel Therefore I Am (June 20): People have been forced by our heavy-handed culture to live their lives as though they are one of the two possible genders assigned to them at birth, whether it feels right or not. Numberless people lead sometimes unbearably sad lives, having to pretend to be a gender that feels wrong.
When culture acknowledges the continuum of genetic expression between the extremes of heterosexual male and heterosexual female, more people than we know will have the right to be what they feel they are.
Barbara Parrott, Kingston
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As the father of an eight-year-old girl who is trans, I take great offence to the suggestion that trans people like Caitlyn Jenner are delusional.
My wife and I have two children – 8 and 10 – and both were born with male bodies. Our children were raised in the same house, yet our youngest identified as a girl from an early age. It took us a while to catch up to her, but nothing we did to restrict her clothing choices changed her strongly felt experience as a girl. She changed her name and her gender pronoun from he to she two years ago and is flourishing at home and at school.
Scott Pearce, Toronto
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India's democracy
Re Jagmeet Singh's Quest To Quash Carding (June 6): India has an extremely diverse population of 1.25 billion people. The country, with its contrasting, multilayered historical influences, has unprecedented issues of governance. No other country can claim to have the experience or expertise to handle such complexities.
Like any other country, India is not immune to occasional aberrations relating to gender, minority and human-rights issues, but there are robust, self-correcting mechanisms of vibrant democracy to deal with them – an independent judiciary, a multitude of media outlets and vigilant civil society organizations. These mechanisms need to be supported and further strengthened.
Akhilesh Mishra, Consul-General of India, Toronto
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Senate logic
Police officers on regular patrol noted what appeared to be a suspicious vehicle slowly cruising a residential neighbourhood (Parliamentarians, Heal Thyselves – editorial, June 22). The car contained valuable items – power tools, a power mower, things that might be stored in a garage.
The driver seemed unable to answer questions about the goods, was vague and confused about their ownership.
He told the officers he was driving in the neighbourhood and saw an open garage. Nobody was in sight. He said since the garage wasn't watched, and he was confused as to the goods' ownership, he felt entitled to take the items, particularly as the rules seemed – to him – somewhat vague.
In the interests of resolving the matter, he allowed he might have taken some items improperly, so he offered to return some, while keeping others. He suggested this would be a fair settlement, and no police action would be required.
The officers considered the suggestion – and agreed upon realizing that this person must be a Canadian senator!
D.F. Connors, Nanaimo, B.C.