The NHL mentality
The NHL mentality never ceases to amaze me ((NHL Kick-Starts Process To Implement Head Shot Rule – March 17). Alex Ovechkin pushes Brian Campbell hard into the boards from behind, breaking Mr. Campbell’s collarbone and fracturing a rib. Mr. Campbell is out for two months and Mr. Ovechkin gets a two-game suspension. Mr. Ovechkin then expresses disappointment in receiving a suspension, and his head coach, Bruce Boudreau, exhibits a remarkable display of intelligence by explaining: “He hit him, but the hit didn’t cause the damage. The boards caused the damage.”
That’s like a lawyer at a murder trial saying, “My client shot the victim, but he didn’t kill him. The bullet killed him.”
Ken Dixon, Toronto
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Re Ovechkin Suspension Underlines NHL Predicament (March 17): In the ’60s or ’70s, this “predicament” would never have arisen. Why? Because the players would have taken care of it. The “code” was still in place. Word got around instantly about any idiot who head-hit – or something similar – and he was dealt with immediately. The code was so strong, you barely sat on your own bench if you crossed it.
Unfortunately, the NHL expanded into markets where the “fans” don’t know a puck from a road apple. Fighting was never understood; soon, rules were passed that prevented the players from defending teammates. The code was destroyed and league brass promised to defend the players instead. They never have.
It’s open season and somebody is going to die.
Jeremy Clayton, Calgary
Aboriginal traditions
The proposal to fund the individual aboriginal student and thereby bypass the band council ultimately undermines aboriginal aspirations for self-government (For Students Both On And Off Reserves – editorial, March 17). While a “number” of first nations may misuse or misplace education funds, many more do not, as is evident by the increasing number of aboriginal students attending our academic institutions.
What indigenous students need is more support for their communities and their governance, more support in our academic institutions and less hype about misspending. The answer to a colonial problem is not more colonialism. Let’s leave the funding in the hands of first nations governments that are there to serve their people.
Gabrielle Slowey, professor, Canadian and aboriginal politics, York University
Maternal-health blinkers
The Conservatives’ maternal health initiative for poorer countries will not include access or advice about family planning, says Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon (Birth Control Won’t Be In G8 Plan To Protect Mothers, Tories Say – March 17).
Is this the blinkered vision of “maternal health” a majority Conservative government would impose on Canadian women?
Or do the Conservatives believe women in poorer countries deserve second-class health care?
Kate Lawson, Waterloo, Ont.
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Lawrence Cannon is deluding himself if he thinks maternal health care can be separated from family planning. Birth control as a concept has been tangled up with religion, politics and moral prescriptions for decades, but its impact on mothers and children is clear. Birth control means mothers can space children at healthy intervals, increasing the likelihood that all will survive. Birth control also means women who are too young, old, weak or ill to go through pregnancy and birth safely don’t need to live in fear of conception.
Perhaps of greatest interest to the Tories’ social-conservative backers, access to birth control can reduce the number of illegal, unsafe abortions that claim the lives of 65,000 women every year, and injure a further two to seven million (figures from the World Health Organization).
Amy Kaler, School of Public Health, University of Alberta
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I see Stephen Harper and the Conservatives want to talk about protecting mothers and children without mentioning the vital importance of birth control.
What’s next? Talking about the importance of the Arctic without a serious plan to address climate change?
John Crump, Ottawa
Hats off to a trailblazer
