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Not just history
Re Genocide Or Not, We Are The Authors (June 3): Your editorial describes what happened to First Nations, Inuit and Métis families – parents and children – in simple, descriptive words. And it is heartbreaking.
I have no time for discussions, for irrelevant letters to the editor about the words used – "genocide," "Holocaust." Forget about words: It's what we did, not what we ought to call it. And it raises the question: What are we going to do now to make it right?
Philip Weinstein, Toronto
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As a person related to family members who entered and never left Auschwitz, I find the rhetorical linkage of engineering six million deaths to a misguided attempt to educate a subject people unbelievably distasteful.
Nothing that has befallen the aboriginal population of this country approaches in terms of human misconduct that singular historic event. To suggest otherwise, no matter how heavily qualified, is nothing short of mischievous. There is a difference between mass murder and education that defies all adjectives.
Boudewyn van Oort, Victoria
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As the daughter of a mother who survived the Nazis, who has worked for more than 10 years to help Holocaust survivors record their stories, please, please, please, let's not quibble about the use of the term "cultural genocide." Hundreds of years of systematically crushing a people's culture, language, ability to parent, and being party to the systematic abuse and deaths of thousands of children is, at the very least, cultural genocide.
This is not just history; it continues today in the execrable living conditions for First Nations communities, racism, discrimination, the removal of their children into a dysfunctional foster system, the ongoing murder and disappearance of aboriginal women.
Let's call it what it is: genocide.
Naming and acknowledging horrific experiences for what they are is as important for First Nations survivors as it is for Holocaust survivors.
Andrea Fochs Knight, Toronto
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Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin should do two things this week. First, she should read Jeffrey Simpson's column, Fixating On Past Is Not Productive (June 3), with its balanced view of the impact of the residential school system on aboriginals.
Second, she should resign. How can a judge who has publicly promoted an extreme interpretation of this dark chapter of Canadian history pretend to have the level of objectivity required to act as final arbiter on the many social issues that come before the Supreme Court?
Raphael Girard, Ottawa
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Jeffrey Simpson's column gives comfort to those Canadians who don't want to be reminded about a truly shameful period of our history. We won't move toward true justice and a hopeful future in partnership with aboriginal people unless we take responsibility for our past sins.
Harry Oswin, Muskoka, Ont.
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Quebec's stage
The similarities between Pierre Trudeau and Jacques Parizeau notwithstanding, the former was the more able political actor (An Independent Man Of Passion – June 3). It has often been said that were Trudeau a separatist, Quebec would have separated years ago.
Howard M. Greenfield, Montreal
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As an ardent federalist, the name "Jacques Parizeau" was anathema to me, especially after his accusation against les allophones in the 1995 referendum. Thank you for Lysiane Gagnon's thoughtful commentary, which showed me another side to this clearly gifted, thoughtful individual – who was, of course, on the "wrong side."
Janet Wright, Toronto
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Back-bench power
Re Don't Mess With Jenni Byrne (May 30): We in the ridings go through an elaborate procedure to select a bright and dedicated party candidate, then bust a gut trying to get them elected.
If they're successful, they'll likely sit in the back benches and are directed what to say, do and vote by faceless staffers in the PMO. Folks like Jenni Byrne are not elected and are not accountable to the people. Party discipline is necessary, but why is it not maintained by whips and other elected, accountable individuals?
I quite understand the position of Brent Rathgeber, who resigned in 2013 from the Conservative caucus to sit as an independent to escape the "boys in short pants" – his nickname for the zealots in the PMO.
I wish backbenchers who are similarly disgruntled would band together and challenge the PMO. I'm reminded of the British Conservative Party 1922 Committee, founded (after guess which election) to counter the power of the cabinet. Membership is restricted to backbenchers; the committee has played important roles in the selection and ousting of leaders.
If Conservative backbenchers are truly fed up with being treated like "trained seals," why don't they form a 2013 Committee to combat the PMO?
Malcolm Stott, Kingston
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Academic adventure
Seemingly without talking to any of the nearly 9,000 researchers at the Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences, Margaret Wente decided to single out descriptions of conference sessions that she deems silly (Adventures In Academia: The Stuff Of Fiction – June 2).
In doing so, she ignores the tough, often uncomfortable questions being raised at congress about who we are and where we may be heading as a society.
Research stimulates debate – all sorts of debate on all sorts of subjects. It provides new insight for understanding, empathy, and ultimately action on the issues, big and small, of our time.
On the day that the Truth and Reconciliation Commission released its report, she might well have reflected on the role of research in bringing challenging notions such as cultural genocide out of the shadows to the centre of a badly needed national conversation.
Stephen Toope, president, Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences
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Margaret Wente has it right about the state of English studies. They used to be about the best that has been thought and said; now that approach is replaced by twaddle of the kind she describes.
One almost wishes some authoritarian academic patriarch, or matriarch, would descend from the mountain brandishing Frye's Anatomy of Criticism, and intone, "Enough of this preposterous nonsense. You're fired, the whole lot of you!"
Colin Norman, Kingston
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Hmm …
Re Ottawa Pledges Funding For Space Travel (June 2): So the International Space Station is "as wide as five National Hockey League rinks and as long as one NHL rink."
According to the new uniquely Canadian system of measurement cited by Steven Chase, the station circles Earth at an altitude of about … 6,550 hockey-rink lengths.
John Freeman, Toronto