Hold the 'help'
Re Supreme Court's Land Claims Ruling Harms Canada's Business Environment (Report on Business, July 14): Gwyn Morgan posits that court decisions on questions of consent regarding First Nations land claims might undermine "projects that could help First Nations lift themselves out of poverty."
Canada's First Nations have, over and over again, made it clear that they don't want Mr. Morgan's or anyone else's so called "help" shoved down their throats, particularly "help" that involves the destruction and/or endangerment of their rightful lands.
Peter A. Lewis-Watts, Barrie, Ont.
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Scary stuff
Re New Jobs Report Is Bad News For Harper (July 14): It appears Stephen Harper and his Conservatives are afraid of nothing: not a massive public debt, not regular rebuffs by the Supreme Court, not a useless census. Not even moribund economic performance concerns them. But they should be scared of the next election.
Thor Kuhlmann, Vancouver
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Mideast fault lines
Re Defying Hamas, Thousands Flee Gaza (July 14): There is, of course, a multitude of opinions as to who is at fault – or most at fault – in this seemingly endless scenario of tragedy.
Patrick Martin writes that after Israel warned the people in northern Gaza to evacuate in view of imminent bombardment, Hamas "told them to stay." He goes on to say that the tactic "exposed Hamas as trying to use human shields as their first line of defence." Hamas's actions speak volumes. How, I wonder, is it possible to deal constructively with such a mindset?
Alan Rosenberg, Toronto
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Your headline reads "Defying Hamas, Thousands Flee Gaza." Am I missing something here? What about, "Fearing Israeli bombs, thousands flee Gaza"?
Or the well-worn "A plague on both your houses"?
Ken Klonsky, Vancouver
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Politics' nobodies
Jeffrey Simpson says there is an argument that party-leader veto over local-candidate nomination is essential to modern-day Canadian political success, that this prerogative enables a leader to "build the strongest possible team and the strongest possible government" (Party Democracy Is Great, Except When It Isn't – July 12).
Such dispassionate realpolitik bypasses local constituencies and their assumed democratic candidate preferences. The deeper implication of top-down nomination control goes to the very heart of why political engagement, particularly as measured by voter turnout rates, continues to crater.
Where candidates are anointed, and the local political process is deemed inconvenient to the party's broader ambitions, all political involvement is neutered.
Pierre Trudeau once dismissed regular MPs as "nobodies." When intra-party democracy does not apply to the most important local political decision, the "nobody" contingent gets a lot bigger.
Local party democracy, even if sometimes dishevelled and often discordant, is at least genuine.
Bryan Davies, Whitby, Ont.
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Fuel tax fantasy
Air Canada says the Ontario government's "punitive" fuel tax will make it uncompetitive, cost it $50-million a year, and drive its customers to U.S. airports (Airlines Object To 'Punitive' Ontario Jet Fuel Tax – Report on Business, July 14).
With Air Canada's revenues, that works out to a couple of dollars on a $500 ticket. Who would drive to the U.S. to save $2?
Canada's airlines may be overburdened by fees, but the fuel tax is not the problem.
Glen Estill, Lion's Head, Ont.
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Who we are …
Re He Needed Help. He Got None (editorial, July 14): You ask: Is cruel and unusual punishment "who we are"?
The mentally ill, so over-represented in our prison and death-by-cop statistics would with one voice, answer: Yes.
Gerald Saunders, Winnipeg
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After New Brunswick closed its oldest psychiatric hospital, I visited the building, erected in 1835, before it was demolished. In the basement was a "therapeutic" room, dungeon-like, small and dark, where patients (read inmates) were put in isolation as a form of therapy.
Psychiatry and mental health have advanced considerably since the 1800s. The same can't be said of Correctional Service Canada. The use of solitary confinement and the treatment of incarcerated people with mental illness like Edward Snowshoe and Ashley Smith is shameful and disgusting.
Ken Ross, Sussex, N.B.
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It's a compliment
Re Watching Men Watching Sports (July 12): Relegating women to "making the popcorn" and dismissing female athletes as being notable "because they play like men … though usually not as well," discredits the growing group of women who embrace sports as athletes or spectators – not to mention those playing an enormously important role in the facilitation of youth sport.
In Margaret Wente's generation, "playing like a girl" might have been an insult, but in mine it's a compliment. Ms. Wente needs to get with the times.
Greta Hoaken, Toronto
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Speaking for myself, a woman in her late 50s, I scream, cry, paint my face and live and die for my World Cup team (the Dutch). The only person I bring popcorn to is myself; my husband may take a handful if he wants. Perhaps if Margaret Wente had bothered to look up from the "phenomenally attractive Dutch players" (thank you, by the way), she would've noticed all the female faces in the stands, screaming their hearts out. (Just a note: I also remember the 1972 Canada-Soviet series and the final glorious game.)
Dominique van der Graaf, Ottawa
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The beautiful art
While kudos are being given for outstanding players in the World Cup, a special award for fabulous reporting should go to The Globe's John Doyle and Cathal Kelly. Both are gifted in the extreme, but what I liked best about their reports was how their literary skills echoed the poetry, humanity, beauty and even theology of what they were describing.
If soccer is "the beautiful game," these two Canadians showed us that sports writing can be an equally beautiful art. Bravo to them and thank you to The Globe.
Anthony (Tony) Campbell, Ottawa
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Waxing indignation
Re Wax On (Arts, July 12): Whoever picked the gown for the Duchess of Cambridge's waxwork at Madame Tussaud's made her into a frumpy middle-aged woman. As for the handbag – words fail me.
Shirley Greenwood, Nanoose Bay, B.C.