'Help these people'
The 95 remaining Canadian victims of thalidomide have suffered their entire lives, and will continue to suffer until the day they die (Special Report – Nov. 22, Nov. 24).
The government of Canada must accept its responsibility for their enduring struggles and do whatever it can to ameliorate them. It wouldn't even cost very much: $100,000 a year for 20 years for each of these 95 people would come to less than $200-million, less than one-fifth of what the government spent to entertain a group of politicians at the two-day G20 summit in Toronto in 2010.
Perhaps the government's lawyers are worried that this might set a dangerous precedent. They should be: It would set a precedent for doing the right and honourable thing, something which the government of Canada has been woefully incapable of for far too long.
Dave Hare, Waterloo, Ont.
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I had the pleasure of interviewing Dr. Frances Kelsey last spring for an upcoming biography. Far from being forgotten, there are a number of us working on highlighting her work, not only on the thalidomide case but on her decades of work at the Food and Drug Administration thereafter (she only retired at 91!).
Under the auspices of Vancouver Island University, researchers are uploading the vast Kelsey collection at the Library of Congress, and others are rebuilding it at VIU for the benefit of future researchers.
Thalidomide victims certainly deserve their due from the reprehensible neglect of Canadian health authorities in the early 1960s. However, prenatal health continues to be endangered, not only from prescription drugs, but from alcohol, tobacco, narcotics and other sources, and disproportionately among the most vulnerable populations: teen mothers, First Nations and the poor.
The rightful compensation of the thalidomide victims should be an essential first step in all governments' commitment to the protection of fetal health.
Cheryl Krasnick Warsh, executive director, Western Association of Women Historians, Nanaimo, B.C.
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From the beginning, the Canadian federal government made this promise: "It is our job to ensure that these [thalidomide] victims are cared for in the best possible manner, that their needs are met to the fullest extent we can devise and to ensure, as much as possible, that a similar tragedy will never occur again."
The words are those of J.W. Monteith, minister of health and welfare, on Jan. 29, 1963.
Gavin Bamber, Vancouver
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I am growing weary of the Harper government's refusal to engage Canadians on issues that speak to our humanity. What Canadian would disagree with the notion of providing financial assistance to ease the increasing difficulties of the remaining 95 thalidomide victims? Certainly not the Harper government's base supporters.
Federal regulators made an egregious error in allowing an improperly tested drug to be placed on the market; the government then dragged its heels about removing the drug after compelling evidence of harm was presented. Health Minister Rona Ambrose needs to do the right thing: Help these people.
Steve Wadlow, Chelsea, Que.
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Another money pit?
Re Ex-TDSB Chair Ignored Edict to Freeze Education Director's Salary (Nov. 21): Will Ontario's Education Minister order a rollback of the improper pay raise to the Toronto District School Board's education director and force the release of information on the $200,000 food services contract signed by the director for which The Globe and Mail could find no supporting documentation?
Or will this be another taxpayers' money pit to be swept under a Queen's Park carpet?
David Platt, Toronto
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What J.J.'s mom said
Re Native Mother Seeks End To Publication Ban (Nov. 22): I so appreciate that you published the interview with J.J.'s mother.
It takes her from the realm of gullible, uninformed, anachronistic parent, willing to let her 11-year-old die of leukemia to make a point, to a loving parent wanting treatment for J.J., but wanting that treatment to be suffused with the respect due to her aboriginal culture.
It seems McMaster Children's Hospital in Hamilton did initially provide that respect, co-operating with the use of a healing ceremony, however, something went wrong. I hope that J.J.'s mother, who took offence at the treating doctors' question about the nature of the traditional medicines being used, will realize that for doctors not to ask such questions would be medical incompetence. There are many ways in which medications, natural or pharmaceutical, can interact with chemotherapy.
As for the nurse who allegedly made that sarcastic comment, shame on her, I say, as one nurse to another, for that level of insensitivity. However, perhaps J.J.'s mother could consider that she heard that comment secondhand.
As those of us who have played the telephone game know, the message can change dramatically in transition from one to another.
Patricia Bruckman, Tecumseh, Ont.
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Kids and poverty
Re Canada Has Failed To Create Equality Of Opportunity (Nov. 24): Ed Broadbent notes that the all-party motion to end child poverty failed because "a goal without a plan turned out to be merely a hope." But it also failed because child poverty can only be eliminated in tandem with the elimination of parental poverty.
Providing a basic income guarantee to all adults would raise most Canadians out of poverty, provide an income for young people as they struggle to gain a toehold in the labour force, and ensure that employers would need to offer decent wages.
The societal payoff would be tremendous: lower health costs, better education outcomes and lower crime rates.
It is also worth pointing out in our market-driven society that only those with decent incomes can be reliable consumers.
Roberta Hamilton, Kingston
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Grief has its literacy
My thanks to Joy Tyndall for a beautiful piece on widowhood (Life, After – Facts & Arguments, Nov. 19).
I experienced much of the same in our "grief-illiterate" society when my husband died five years ago. And, yes, learning to be a widow has been very hard.
However, I spent 20 years of my life in South America and travel every year to Spain, and so have experienced other cultures.
After my husband died, I wore black for a year. My family disapproved; few other people here even noticed.
When I e-mailed to book a room in Madrid and told the manager my husband had died, he replied that as soon as he got off work, he would go to a nearby church and light three candles. While I was in Spain, still dressed in mourning, I was treated with great respect by everyone I met, including the driver of a tourist horse and buggy in Seville. Halfway through the trip, he asked for my camera, jumped down, and took a picture of me. When he dropped me off, he kissed me on both cheeks and said, "God bless you."
Naomi Stinson, Edmonton