Re Lenient Justice Begets Yobs – And London Burns (Aug. 11): Author Theodore Dalrymple’s name alone – not to mention his ideas – qualifies him as a character in a Dickensian novel. He would make a fine beadle or master at Dotheboys Hall. He and David Cameron are obviously on the same page. After giving the Peelers carte blanche, he would no doubt restore “ethical inhibition or prudential reason(ing)” to Oliver Twist and “the radically unemployable” section of British youth with a long term picking oakum in a prison hulk followed by a one-way voyage to Australia.
Mike Rapsey, Ottawa
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Retired British prison doctor and psychiatrist Theodore Dalrymple worries that the current anarchy in England is partly due to a deeply embedded criminality in the culture and minds of at least some of the British population. He also faults a lazy and dishonest political and intellectual class. Others have pointed to hopelessness, joblessness, lack of education and a trickle-down morality. All contributing factors no doubt, but for Mr. Dalrymple or anyone else to conclude that tougher laws and their enforcement are the whole solution is shortsighted.
Clearly ethical inhibition is lacking and rioting can be entertaining. But is it really such a leap of the imagination to conclude that these poor, disenfranchised youth who are social media savvy enough to organize using technology are also amusing themselves with violent, morally bankrupt forms of electronic entertainment that reinforce the glamour and normalcy of criminality in their minds? Countless studies over several decades have demonstrated that this is one of the many harmful effects of media violence to society at large.
Rose Dyson, EdD, Canadian Peace Research Association, Toronto
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Meat inspection
Re Food Inspection Cuts Put Canadians At Risk, Union Warns Ottawa (Aug. 10): All meat produced in Canada – whether in federally or provincially inspected plants – must meet the safety requirements of the federal Food and Drugs Act.
Canada has always had federal and provincial inspection systems, and the assertion that provincially inspected meat is somehow less safe is wrong. The main purpose of federal inspection is to enable meat for sale through exports and interprovincial trade due to federal jurisdiction in these areas.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is working with British Columbia, Manitoba and Saskatchewan to return provincial inspection duties to provincial inspectors by 2014. During this transition, we are ensuring that all needed training and guidance is provided so that those provincial meat inspection systems continue to meet Canada’s stringent food safety requirements.
Catherine Airth, associate vice-president, operations, Canadian Food Inspection Agency
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Unnnhh!
With all the furor over grunting and screaming in women’s tennis, I’d like to report that a plane just flew over York University going toward Pearson International while Maria Sharapova was playing a point and it actually drowned out her shrieking. Of course, I have to admit that she had her back toward me.
Bruce Reid, Toronto
