Double standards
One must understand Russia and China's reasoning in blocking Security Council action on Syria (In Backing Al-Assad, Russia Reveals A Willingness To Defy The West – online, Feb. 5). Both are candidates for popular uprisings and certainly wouldn't want to weaken the option of jackbooting their own serfs by voting Yes to even a diluted, nay impotent, UN resolution. After all, they wouldn't want to be accused of contradicting themselves.
Jean-Claude Lefebvre, Sutton Junction, Que.
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It's easy to condemn Russia for blindly backing Syria, its regional client. But how different is that from Canada's backing of Israel?
Duncan Bath, Peterborough, Ont.
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While the Syrian regime massacres its own people, where are the demonstrations and calls for boycotts and sanctions demanded by those shrill “defenders of human rights” in academia and CUPE? Could it be they're all on a boat trying to break the Israeli blockade of Gaza?
Alex Hacker, Toronto
Truculent standards
Jeffrey Simpson's truculent disdain for our government's Middle East policy is wrong-headed (Truculent Moralizing For A Domestic Audience – Feb. 4). The Harper government has been supportive of Israel because Canadians and Israelis share common values, including a commitment to democracy and human rights. If the Harper government were only interested in pandering to a domestic audience, surely it would make it a priority to cultivate the “Muslim vote.”
Our government's stand is consistent with that taken by the international Quartet that the Palestinian Authority negotiate directly with Israel. Canadian taxpayers have contributed millions of dollars to the development of the West Bank and Gaza and shouldn't be timid about expressing views that might be unpopular in the Arab world.
Joel Eisen, Richmond Hill, Ont.
Sad and sober
Your coverage of the job losses at locomotive maker Progress Rail in London and the reminder of recent closures of Talbotville's Ford factory and Chatham's Navistar truck plant were indeed sobering (Caterpillar Pulls Plug On London Plant – Report on Business, Feb. 4). Yet, I was cheered when I saw the labels of historic London beer makers such as Carling and Labatt in your Focus section (Through A Glass, Smartly – Feb. 4).
The label for the product Carling's Stout for Invalids seemed a staggeringly appropriate cure for the ailment of manufacturing job losses in the London area. But, alas, Carling is gone, too.
Steve Buchanan, London, Ont.
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Remember when Ronald Reagan and the Bush boys said overtaxing corporations would make them move jobs away? Remember they kept corporate tax rates low and the jobs moved away anyway? Remember when Stephen Harper touted corporate tax breaks for companies such as Caterpillar? Remember to give to the food bank this week?
Peter Keleghan, Toronto
Sad and shocking
Your editors hit a new low with the headline Ontario, Lie Back And Think Of London (Feb. 4) atop Adam Radwanski's column on austerity measures. Am I to understand that the metaphor is of a woman (Ontario) about to submit to being screwed over against her will (economist Don Drummond's austerity plan) and being exhorted to think of her rapist (Caterpillar)?
Perhaps someone thought this would be amusing. It's not; it's appalling and offensive.
Sylvia Leigh, Kincardine, Ont.
Brave new world?
Margaret Wente (We're Ripe For A Great Disruption In Education – Feb. 4) commits the common error of assuming that the only purpose of education is to transmit determinate knowledge from those who have it (teachers) to those who don't (students). But education is a critical and argumentative exploration of a “great ocean of truth” whose content always exceeds the personal knowledge of any individual.
