Hold an inquiry
Re An Inquiry Is The Quickest Route To The Slowest Response (May 21): Benjamin Perrin presents the typical response that we have come to expect from the current PMO and from those who have worked there: Focus on punishing the criminals.
These aboriginal women don't just want the perpetrators of violent acts against them punished, they want to be heard.
They want to give voice to the 1,181 dead and missing aboriginal women who were addressed in the RCMP report (Native Women Live In Peril – May 17).
They want to find out why they are disproportionately the victims of violent crime in Canada and they want it to stop. Yes, take action to deal with those who commit these crimes, but first and foremost, aboriginal women don't want to be victims any more. Give them the inquiry.
Randy Tait, Toronto
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Benjamin Perrin's commonsense approach to this tragic issue will never fly. There is too much emotion at play here.
Roger Campbell, Calgary
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My jaw dropped when I read Benjamin Perrin's opinion piece arguing against a national inquiry on missing and murdered aboriginal women. Given the overcriminalization and overincarceration of aboriginal people, women and men, how can he, with a straight face, argue for "amendments" to the Gladue principle?
Contrary to his statement, the Gladue principle does not entitle aboriginal offenders to "special treatment." It instructs judges to take into account "all sanctions other than imprisonment that are reasonable in the circumstances for all offenders, with particular attention to the circumstances of aboriginal offenders."
Given Mr. Perrin's previous role as a legal adviser to the Prime Minister, perhaps it is not surprising that amending this provision is entirely consistent with Stephen Harper's criminal justice strategy: Throw 'em all in jail.
It is truly disheartening that part of Mr. Perrin's solution to the "tragic reality" facing aboriginal girls and women is to incarcerate even more aboriginal people.
Surely a national inquiry could do better.
Renu J. Mandhane, director, International Human Rights Program, University of Toronto, Law Faculty
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The irony is not lost on Canadians when our government is supportive of the hunt for the missing Nigerian schoolgirls, providing assistance to help find them, at the same time it is rejecting an inquiry into the hundreds of missing and murdered women in this country, all of them aboriginal.
Gale Tyler, Vancouver
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Nurses nailed it
Re Clocked: How Shorter Shifts For Medical Residents Can Harm Patients (May 21): Perhaps residents and doctors can learn from patient-handover innovations in nursing. I just spent three days at the Ottawa General Hospital and was impressed with the protocol the nurses followed.
First, there is a white board on the wall at the foot of each patient's bed identifying the patient and nurse by name, leaving space for comments re treatment. Second, at shift change, the outgoing nurse introduces the incoming nurse and does the patient-information exchange in front of the patient. Third, a check-in is done with the patient to make sure no important information is missing. The process was efficient and impressive.
Is anyone taking notes?
Renate Mohr, Ottawa
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Web of deceit
If CSEC were opening letter mail, or tapping phones without a warrant, there would be hell to pay(Privacy Fears Ended Anti-Spy Effort – May 21). We need to think of Internet snooping the same way. It is a huge intrusion into our private lives, and unacceptable in a democratic society.
John Anderson, Burlington, Ont.
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The Chinese aren't just spying on government and business websites, they're spying on everything (U.S. Pursues China Over Cyberspying – May 21).
I took over webmaster duties for the Morgan Sports Car Club of Canada a few years ago. Out of curiosity, I installed a statistics package. Google would visit once a day to keep its search list up to date. China's search engine, Baidu, would visit twice an hour, every hour. Even after switching the package to ignore those Web robots, roughly half the visits to our site originate from China.
There is no personal information on the site, no online purchasing, no interactive programs. Morgans are beautiful but, come on, they must be tired of looking at them every day by now.
Dave Farmer, Mississauga
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Courage to speak
Re: Freedom? It's An Academic Argument (editorial, May 21): Universities play a unique role in democratic society – a place where critical thought and debate are encouraged on all matters, including the operation of the university itself.
There is no duty of loyalty, only a duty to speak openly, honestly, fearlessly and thoughtfully.
While deans are managers, they are also senior academics who head schools, faculties and colleges within the university. Their voices are an important part of any debate about the future direction of their institution. It has long been the understanding in Canada that deans have the same academic freedom as all other academic staff to enter the fray about the future of the university where they work. To silence them through a bogus call to solidarity with the president's wishes is to remove important voices from the discussion and to undermine the very essence of the university.
A bad decision may have been averted at the University of Saskatchewan because Robert Buckingham, the head of public health, had the courage to speak out. Rather than being fired, he should be celebrated and, at the very least, have his position as head of public health restored immediately.
James L. Turk, executive director, Canadian Association of University Teachers
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Medium as message
Her fashionable red jacket and red wellies notwithstanding, Liberal Leader Kathleen Wynne's political handlers should know that you do not wear light-coloured pants on a farm for any reason (Wynne, Hudak Vie For The Rural Vote – May 21).
And PC Leader Tim Hudak's advisers must have known they were taking a chance having their boy around a manure spreader, even if it was just to pretend to tighten the nut on a bolt.
You won't win the farm vote by learning on a tractor making a fashion statement, and manure spreaders are fraught with political innuendo.
Jim Meyers, St. Catharines, Ont.
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The Liberals spent over $1-billion to cancel two gas plants and everyone knows it. Now Tim Hudak wants to spent millions more of our taxpayer dollars on a judicial inquiry just to rub salt in the wound. I suppose this is the kind of backward thinking you can expect from someone who promises jobs for Ontarians and then uses footage of Russian actors in his TV commercials.
Ron Hodgins, St. Marys, Ont.
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"Tim Hudak tightened the bolts on a manure spreader."
Would that be a euphemism for controlling the message?
Stuart Cryer, Gatineau, Que.