Don't railroad safety
We are fortunate that in matters of transportation safety, the aviation industry and its regulators do not respond in the same way to adverse incidents as the rail business and its regulators appear to do (Track Safety – letters, March 16). If they did, then any airliner crash might result in demands for sturdier planes, capable of remaining intact following any impact with the ground.
Rod B. Taylor, Georgetown, Ont.
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The key tool of a thorough investigation of an incident is determining the root cause. Northern Ontario may pose particular risks, given the types of terrain and age of some of the rail lines. Are current standards for track outdated? Are older lines able to handle the weight and frequency of these long, loaded trains?
Yvon LeBlanc, Calgary
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Celebrate the women
The weekend saw many exciting year-end championship events for Canadian Interuniversity Sport (5 – Sports, March 16). Among the highlights were results in both women's and men's basketball, where both the Windsor Lancers women's team and the Carleton Ravens men's team won their fifth consecutive national championship. Congratulations to both.
Judging by The Globe and Mail on Monday, women's basketball is less important. The front of the Sports section heralded five consecutive victories by the impressive Carleton men's team. The five consecutive victories by the equally impressive Windsor women's team managed a small sidebar inside. Online, the Carleton victory warranted inclusion in the banner stories in the Sports section. The Windsor victory made a transient appearance lower down.
In the same way that we should not keep the tribulations of women in the shadows, we should not keep their successes on the margins.
Alan Wildeman, president and vice-chancellor, University of Windsor
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No protests? I protest
Two pictures of demonstrations on Copacabana beach in Monday's print edition of The Globe and no articles or photos about the public protests against Bill C-51 that were held on the weekend in most major cities in this country. Surely the abuse of power in Canada which this bill represents is more newsworthy than yet another protest against the abuse of power in Brazil.
Robert Swain, Kingston
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I'd be interested to see how the connection between the Supreme Court's decision to allow cellphone searches by the police (We All Should Worry About Phone Searches – March 16) and the introduction of BlackBerry's SecuTablet (BlackBerry Boosts Security To Woo Corporate Users – Report on Business, March 16) plays out.
With BlackBerry already facing heat over its secure encrypted data (that governments are unable to access/hack), coupled with the new surveillance capability by the police, it brings up again the debate of national security versus personal privacy.
Since police have the chance to "accidentally" destroy files while searching, it can be argued that even Secusmart tablets, which protect anonymity in consumer applications, won't be enough security for some Canadians. Is the government trying to scrutinize our every move under the pretense of anti-terror concerns?
Sunny Kim, Toronto
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Parole then, now
From what I've been reading in the press, it seems some people are under the impression that current punishments for murder, and especially the rules regarding parole eligibility, are more lenient than in the past. Not so.
Between 1961 and 1976, murder was either capital or non-capital. The mandatory penalty for non-capital murder was life imprisonment, with eligibility for parole after seven years. If the death penalty for capital murder was commuted to life imprisonment, which after 1962 it invariably was, parole eligibility was extended to 10 years. Between 1968 and 1974, the average time served by convicts whose death sentence was commuted was 13.2 years.
When the death penalty was abolished in 1976, capital murder was reclassified as first degree and non-capital as second degree, both punishable by mandatory life imprisonment. Parole eligibility for first degree murder was increased from 10 years to 25. Parole eligibility for second degree murder was increased from seven years to a minimum of 10 and a maximum of 25, should the judge, taking into account any recommendation the jury might have, decide that 10 is insufficient.
A philosopher once wrote that we should distrust all those in whom the urge to punish is strong. Others may differ.
But we should at least wonder why we are being asked, when the homicide rate is significantly lower than in 1976, to be even more fearful and harsh than we felt we had to be then.
Hamar Foster, Victoria
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Fats' chances
Re A Big Fat Surprise For Dietary Dogma (March 14): It is telling that Margaret Wente clarifies the science about diet and heart disease by providing excerpts from a sensationalist book by a non-scientist and then goes on to provide anecdotes about her fat-loving great-aunt Finney.
The science at the cellular and whole-body levels is complex but well understood. Indeed, saturated fats and cholesterol are an essential dietary component for animal models of heart disease.
The population evidence is robust. In the 1960s, North Karelia and other parts of Finland had the highest heart disease death rates in the world. In 1970, a concerted population effort was made to reduce smoking rates, treat hypertension and change the national diet. This achieved an 80 per cent decrease in the intake of dairy fats and a reciprocal increase in liquid vegetable oil consumption.
Heart disease deaths declined by 80 per cent, with the most important single contributor being the 22 per cent decrease in serum cholesterol induced by dietary change.
Excess refined carbohydrates are dietary culprits, but they should be replaced with whole grains, vegetables, nuts and oils, not animal fats.
Ruth McPherson, professor, Department of Medicine; Merck Frosst Canada Chair in Atherosclerosis; Research Director, Lipid Clinic and Atherogenomics Laboratory, University of Ottawa Heart Institute
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Bong, bong, zzz
As a young child, I sometimes slept at my grandparents' farmhouse (Love, This Is My Song – Facts & Arguments, March 16). Day and night, I'd be both fascinated and soothed by the regularity of the bonging of the grandfather clock in the living room.
Some 60 years later, that clock sits in my living room. If I don't remember to wind it every third day by pulling the chained weights, I'll awaken during the night with an uneasy feeling that something's amiss. Alas, it is the absence of the bonging. I am compelled to get out of bed, go downstairs, open the clock and pull the chains.
Once that comforting sound is restored, I can fall back to sleep.
Carol Janson, Ottawa
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