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Letters to the Editor should be exclusive to The Globe and Mail. Include your name, address and daytime phone number. Try to keep letters to fewer than 150 words. Letters may be edited for length and clarity. To submit a letter by e-mail, click here: letters@globeandmail.com

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Sex and the military

Re Sexual-Abuse Scandals Eroding UN's Credibility In Peacekeeping, Dallaire Says – May 13: Roméo Dallaire notes the UN sexual-abuse crisis may be one reason developed countries such as Canada are reluctant to participate in UN peacekeeping missions, because they don't want to be tainted by association with the scandal.

Yet it is the very subject of sex scandals within Canada's own armed forces that is hitting our media daily. How ironic if our government and military leaders do not want to be associated with sex scandals abroad, yet seem unwilling or unable to curtail such scandals in our own armed forces.

Laurence Wade, Ottawa

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How does the fact that the UN provides immunity to peacekeepers for their abusive actions during missions square with the 1949 Geneva Convention, which prohibits attacks on civilians, and the UN's 1968 resolution on the respect for human rights in armed conflicts?

Innocent civilians have been murdered and raped by soldiers and their mercenary cousins since the beginning of warfare. Yet to get countries to commit to peacekeeping, we have to excuse this behaviour.

Esther Shannon, Vancouver

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Heckling fallout

Re Dismissal Of Hydro One Staffer Could Lead To Severance Payout – May 14: It may not hold up in court, but the man has been shamed publicly, and what employer is going to think highly of him as a present or future employee? Who would want to work with him? The damage has been done.

Douglas Cornish, Ottawa

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I commend Hydro One for taking firm action, and if the dismissed employee is in a union that pursues a defence on his behalf, then that will only damage the reputation of unions in the minds of many Canadians.

An employer, and a union, has to preserve some sort of sanity, respect and dignity in the workplace. Meanwhile, television reporter Shauna Hunt deserves some sort of award for her forthrightness.

Ian Guthrie, Ottawa

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B.C. gas exports

Bravo for the members of the Lax Kw'alaams First Nation, who have rejected a king's ransom in their stewardship of the land (Petronas Exploring Options To Salvage LNG Terminal Plan – May 14). They care about the gifts that money cannot buy.

Hugh McKechnie, Newmarket, Ont.

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Re AFN Urges Action On Development As UN Goals Expire – May 14: At the same time as the Assembly of First Nations is demanding that Ottawa close the inequality gap between aboriginals and other Canadians, the Lax Kw'alaams turn down $1-billion in exchange for their support for a B.C. liquefied natural gas export facility.

As this type of anti-development decision on the part of First Nations multiplies, the inequality gap will indeed close, as we all get poorer and poorer together.

Peter Best, Sudbury

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Nortel lesson

The Nortel liquidation demonstrates yet again that traditional lawyer-driven adversarial litigation is thoroughly broken (Judges Rip Squabbling Nortel Lawyers – Report on Business, May 14).

Justice will never be done in civil disputes, from the smallest domestic squabble to major commercial battles, until legal hired guns are removed from the process entirely, and dispute resolution entrusted to a class of highly trained adjudicators.

J. David Murphy, Barrie, Ont.

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TPP treaty

Democrats like Elizabeth Warren are right to point out that the Trans-Pacific Partnership treaty being pushed by President Barack Obama is "about giant multinational corporations finding new ways to rig the economic system to benefit themselves" (Obama Gets Stinging Rebuke From Own Party – May 14).

Provisions in the trade treaty seek to extend patent rights and increase drug prices as countries' economies improve. That will make it more difficult, for example, for lower-income countries to access affordable medicines to treat people with HIV and AIDS.

Ron Rosenes, Toronto

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The Alberta vote

Re Time To Rebuild Conservatism In Alberta – May 14: In all of what he had to say about rebuilding conservatism in Alberta, not once did Preston Manning take a moment to congratulate Rachel Notley and the NDP for their victory and the vision for Alberta they presented.

And perhaps he could have humbly acknowledged his own culpability in paving the way for the Conservatives' defeat in advising Danielle Smith, then leader of the Wildrose Party, to cross the floor last December – a move that clearly angered a great many Albertans.

Linda C. Hunter, Calgary

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Give it up, Mr. Manning. Albertans spoke against your style of conservatism. And about time.

Judy Hedayat, Calgary

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Re Rachel Notley's Victory Shows The System Does Work – May 12: The outcome of the Alberta election merely demonstrates how our electoral system works, not that it does work.

As usual under first-past-the-post, a minority share of the popular vote (41 per cent) resulted in a majority of seats (54), while more than half of all ballots cast did not elect anybody at all.

The recent British election showed similarly skewed results, and we can expect the same picture in our next federal election.

Ute Thomas, Ottawa

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Name game

Rather amusing to read of the angry reaction to Nicolas Sarkozy's plans to rebrand the political party he leads in France ('Republican' Isn't Just A Brand – May 13). Supporters are apparently aghast that the new name, which translates as the Republicans, belongs to all people and shouldn't be appropriated for political expediency.

What about the Scottish National Party? Or the Swedish Democrats? Or Germany's Christian Democratic Union? Using familiar and comfortable names is as old as, well, politics.

Gordon S. Findlay, Toronto

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Howe it goes

So they are naming the new bridge between Detroit and Windsor after Gordie Howe (New Windsor-Detroit Bridge Named After Hockey Legend Gordie Howe – online, May 14). They have already named the Elbow River after Gordie. I say enough is enough!

Terry Toll, Campbell's Bay, Que.

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