News

On being Canadian

How ironic The Globe should report on one day, July 1, that Canadians are feeling positively smug about themselves (Canada at 142: We’re Inferior No More - front page), that our economic performance measured by investment in research and development is falling (Canada’s Innovation Gap - Business), and that “these days, being Canadian abroad is, at best, being the Invisible Man” (The Canadian Myth’s Roman Holiday Is Nearly Done).

A wakeup call may be coming as the United States thickens its border - to maintain access to the market on which our prosperity is based, Ottawa may have to propose a continental economic and security pact (Proximity, Reality, Strategy, Destiny - June 27).

Perhaps it is time to recognize that we do not have a sovereign national economy, but a regional economy in a continental economy managed by Washington.

Anthony Westell, Toronto

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In Defined By Undefinability: Works Just Fine (July 1), Ian Brown makes the point that “Canadian” can be defined in many different ways - but so what, we get along just fine. In the same edition, you report that, according to a respected U.S. poll, Americans in different age groups think “old age” begins before 60 or as late as 74, the average being 68.

None of this should surprise us. Apart from technical words, virtually every ordinary word has multiple meanings, as a glance at any reasonably complete dictionary will confirm. Even “or” has more than one meaning, as any logician knows. While we speak of a word’s meaning, words don’t actually mean anything – people mean things and by using words, they can convey their meaning to suitably primed listeners. Speakers encode their meaning, then listeners decode it.

Does it follow that words are indefinable? If that were true, dictionary-makers would be out of business. When a word has multiple senses, there usually is no single sense that stands out as uniquely correct. Thus “Canadian” can mean many things, but none of them is its real meaning.

Does that mean “Canadian” can mean anything? Hardly. Someone who spoke of a Canadian as one who speaks English and French fluently would be wide of the mark, but otherwise there are many acceptable definitions. I prefer this one: A Canadian is anyone born in or a naturalized citizen of Canada.

Shane Andre, Nanaimo, B.C.

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If you must refer to Robert Charlebois (Arts And Letters - Review, July 1) as a French Canadian, shouldn’t Stompin’ Tom Connors and Bryan Adams be labelled English Canadians?

Perhaps you assume everybody knows that Mr. Connors and Mr. Adams, with names like theirs, are fully Canadian, and want to make clear that although Mr. Charlebois has a funny French name, he is, at least, partly Canadian. Ah, the two solitudes!

Bill Boyd, Lakefield, Ont.

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Re Tims Makes Move Back To Canada (Business, June 30):

I wonder ... is Tim Hortons a little less Canadian now that we find it’s “returning to its Canadian roots to take advantage of falling corporate tax rates”?

John McClement, Regina

Rights run amok

A Supreme Court decision to grant a 15-year old the right to refuse life-saving treatment is indeed, as your editorial asserts, “rights run amok.” (Immaturity Is No Mere Stereotype - July 1.) But it is also religious tolerance run amok.

In this case, the court was asked to assess competence by appeal to the youth’s “intellectual capacity and degree of sophistication to understand the information relevant to making the decision,” among other factors. How to test this? Well, the source of the prohibition on blood transfusions is the belief, held by a majority of Jehovah’s Witnesses, that God has commanded Christians to refrain from “ingesting” blood, on pain of forfeiting eternal life.

This belief is untenable on so many levels - logically, empirically, by appeal to scripture or Christian tradition, etc. - that to hold it sincerely is by that fact to have one’s intellectual competence placed seriously in doubt. It is only our knee-jerk “respect” for religious beliefs that prevents us from seeing this clearly.

Byron Williston, Waterloo, Ont.

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It is no more a contradiction to have a separate justice system for adolescents than it is to have medical specialties in pediatrics and adult care.

By separate justice system, the court would have a specialized and idiosyncratic screening for adolescent maturity and individual differences to establish psychosocial and emotional maturity, regarding his or her ability to decide on serious health issues. In fact, it maybe seen as an extensive effort to assure justice in such involved cases.

Lela Gary, Toronto

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Who’s the lucky trapper?

Letter-writer Sarah Holmes takes umbrage at describing the amount of gold missing from Canada’s mint in terms of baby African elephants, and instead offers the equivalent currency by weight variously in the form of our indigenous beavers, moose or even buffalo (Mint Condition, So To Speak - letters, July 1).

I am a bit concerned that our preoccupation with the financial crisis has us forming the imaginary gold into false idols, metaphorically speaking. Still, I can only wonder just who might be enjoying the 18 shiny new golden beaver ornaments at taxpayers’ expense?

Robert Sciuk, Oshawa, Ont.

Border exceptions

Re Passportless Parents Can’t Follow Sick Baby To U.S. (June 27):

The Canadian Press article you published states that Natalie Paquette and Richard Stinson, parents of a premature baby who was transferred to Buffalo for treatment, could not accompany their child because of the passport requirement for Canadians and Americans entering the United States.

This assertion may leave your readers with a serious misunderstanding about how U.S. officials manage their side of the border. Although everyone entering the United States has been required to present a passport or other secure documents since June 1, exceptions exist for humanitarian situations like the one described.

After seeing the article, U.S. Customs and Border Protection checked their records and determined that these parents had not actually attempted to enter the United States with their baby.

Had they done so, CBP would have made every effort to admit them quickly to allow them to stay with their infant. Indeed, after learning of the case, CBP representatives contacted the parents and facilitated their entry.

John R. Nay, U.S. Consul-General, Toronto

Complete this sentence

The sentence given to Bernard Madoff represents American sensationalism at its worst (150 Years, No Excuses - front page, June 30). I am a man who usually falls on the side of hard-line accountability, but this decision is senseless, a message lost on those who may be foolish enough to consider following Mr. Madoff’s obviously ignorant and greedy path. Indeed, the sentence is actually harmful.

It would have been wiser to choose a sentence falling on the side of reality. If he serves it to the full letter of the law, then reincarnation in the Now actually takes place in our world today.

Hart Peikoff, Winnipeg

Scammed by her man

Reports that South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford spent five days in Argentina must have been the final straw for his wife Jenny (Stand By Your Man? Thankfully, Not For South Carolina’s First Lady - June 30).

Her husband is obviously in love with another woman. Sensing that this was no casual fling and that her marriage is probably dead, Ms. Sanford kicked him out.

Other political wives can bleat all they like about loyalty and forgiveness, but they hold on for the perks, especially financial security and social prestige, that come with attachment to prominent men. They may wait out the affair and eventually get their man back, but at what cost? Their self-worth shattered, they’ll always wonder if it could happen again.

It seems to me that standing by your man is less about rekindling love and more about maintaining status. Hats off to Ms. Sanford for making the difficult but wise choice.

Eloise Crabtree Carmichael, Toronto

French toast

A hearty congratulations to Le Select Bistro owner Frederic Geisweiller (Web Posting Lands Restaurateur In Hot Water - Toronto edition and online, July 1). His position on Israeli possession of the Dead Sea Scrolls is single-handedly driving patrons to other restaurants that need the business, while raising the profile of Royal Ontario Museum’s exhibit. The controversy will no doubt increase attendance.

Marty Cutler, Toronto

Quid pro rodeo

Re Vancouver Humane Society Sets Sights On Stampede For Calf-Roping Protest (June 29):

As a former competitor, I always held the nagging belief that those of us who roped the calves should also be required to ride the bulls.

Mark Rash, Winnipeg