Mike McCormack, head of the Toronto police union, has vowed to block any attempt to have disciplinary charges laid against five police officers involved in the arrest of a protester in 2010 (Watchdog Accuses Officers Of Excessive Force At G20 – Jan. 21).
His stated position is that it took too long to investigate this particular incident. He made no apparent mention of the fact that the five officers involved refused to co-operate with the investigation or that other officers who might have shed light on this incident also refused to testify.
Malcolm Brown, Porter’s Lake, N.S.
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Common sense
Your editorial Getting High On Renewal (Jan. 19) characterizes the Liberal proposal to legalize marijuana as an “appeal to the political left.” But Republican presidential hopeful Ron Paul also advocates legalization. So it seems only The Globe regards libertarians as left wing.
Perhaps it’s best to dispense altogether with this unhelpful division of the world into right and left. Ideology isn’t that simple. And most of us manage to occupy both poles at various times.
Why not just restate “appeal to the left” as “appeal to common sense”?
Dr. Brian Green, Thunder Bay
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Viable land
In our territory, all the commercially valuable land was taken and divided up among settlers and corporations a long time ago (Land In Common – Letters, Jan. 21).
At a time when it was illegal for first nations to hire lawyers and when government Indian agents pretended to be looking out for our interest, the final recommendation on our reserve land allotments was that the land was worthless, useless even for agriculture, so there was no harm in turning it into a reserve.
If the federal government wanted to use land as a basis for first nations to attain their lost independence, it’d best for our first nation to be offered land that is at the very least commercially viable.
Ellis Ross, Haisla Nation Chief Councillor, Kitimaat, B.C.
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A Kodak moment
Kodak changed my life and I shall always be grateful to them (Say Cheese, Buzz – Jan. 20). As a high-school and university student in the 1960s, the company enabled me to pursue my dream of a postsecondary education, leading to an excellent career.
Student loans were rare and my parents struggled for every dollar, but Kodak hired me as a “summer student” from 1967 until 1971, paid me well and welcomed me back to work until I started teaching. Words cannot express my heartfelt thanks to T. Lang Moffat and the staff of the order-invoicing department at the Weston plant in Toronto.
Edie Linscott Lewis, Brantford, Ont.
