News

No nukes is good nukes

As someone who has spent a lifetime studying crisis and war, I feel compelled to correct Jay Nathwani (Nukes Are Our Friends – letters, Sept. 26). There is precious little evidence that nuclear weapons have ever deterred anything. There is ample evidence that the Soviets never had any intention of “pressing their conventional advantage” in Europe during the Cold War. The closest the world has come to a Third World War – the Cuban missile crisis of 1962 – was caused, not resolved, by nuclear weapons.

Nevertheless, Mr. Nathwani is correct to suspect that visions of complete nuclear disarmament are delusional. This is because so many people are under the delusion that nuclear weapons are useful.

David Welch, CIGI chair of global security, Balsillie School of International Affairs, University of Waterloo

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If G20 leaders are really serious about stopping nuclear proliferation and ending the nuclear arms race (Nuclear Ambitions Unite Leaders Against Iran – Sept. 26), they must deal with those nuclear powers outside the nuclear non-proliferation treaty.

Israel’s nuclear arsenal, for instance, is a hugely destabilizing factor in the Middle East. It is hardly surprising that other regional states, including Iran, would want to acquire weapons to counter them. And have world leaders learned nothing from the recent nuclear arms race between India and Pakistan?

So long as the G20 powers focus only on the nuclear programs of the so-called rogue states, international efforts to stop nuclear proliferation will only increase the regional tensions that fuel these contests.

Scott Burbidge, Port Williams, N.S.

The frustration’s all ours

It is galling not that suspected terrorists are “free to roam” in Canada, as you state in Saturday’s editorial (Frustrating Standoff – Sept. 26), but that it is possible to jail people indefinitely on the basis of secret evidence.

While I do understand the rationale behind the Canadian Security Intelligence Service wanting to protect its sources, the security certificate cases are falling apart because what has been revealed so far about their sources is frankly embarrassing. Arresting people without access to due process is unacceptable. If one person’s rights are violated, none of us is secure.

Bessa Whitmore, Ottawa

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The real winners in the Adil Charkoui case are Canadians who value their freedoms. None are safe when CSIS – proven time and again to have lied to the courts, misrepresented and hidden evidence – is allowed free rein to harass suspects without proper legal oversight – or, as it turns out, without even a solid case.

Does Canada need to shed light on allegations of terrorism? Absolutely: through open and transparent legal proceedings and a uniform justice system that applies equally to all. When evidence is examined fully and those accused can either be found guilty or declared innocent based on real proof rather than shadowy unsubstantiated suspicions, we all win. Secret trials serve only to further endanger our common security.

David Heap, London, Ont.

Untold truths, continued

Margaret Wente’s column The Untold Truth About Women And Work (Sept. 26) missed an important fact that influences the choices that women and men make about childrearing: Generally, we still do not have accessible, reasonably priced, high-quality child care in Canadian work settings. Parents can more readily concentrate on their work when they know that they can visit their children during the day and be readily available to go to them if required.

In the absence of flexible and reliable arrangements, many two-career couples fall back into traditional patterns where the woman’s career is secondary to her partner’s and she cannot fully invest in pursuing her career goals.

Mary Valentich, Calgary

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Yes, some women “choose” to stay at home instead of working, even if they are on a successful career path, even if they don’t technically have to. But men still generally make more money than women, and a crucial part of the decision-making process when deciding which parent is to stay home is about money. Only when the average husband and wife start making the same earnings, and women are still choosing to stay home, will I be convinced mothers are freely and equally making such decisions.

Sara Krynitzki, Ottawa

About that economy

Grant Robertson wrote an excellent article on the effects of the global recession on the Canadian economy by replacing statistics with faces (The Perils Of A Jobless Recovery – Business, Sept. 26).

The bigger question is whether Canada’s economic engine has been permanently eroded, which will have broader implications. There appears to be signs this may indeed be the case, with the number of underemployed increasing at the cost of full-time positions. The broader implications are the ability of Canadians to invest in their future along with the erosion of the Canadian tax base, which will affect the ability of the government to effectively deal with future recessions.

Maybe we need our politicians to put aside their partisan politics and get down to the business of developing and implementing effective policies based on sound economic principles, rather than along party lines.

David Watt, Winnipeg

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So an emergency program costing $125-billion is promised to keep the economy “on track” and to keep the market from becoming “sluggish” again (Flaherty Set To Extend Mortgage Backstop – Business, Sept. 24). Those who adhere to the concept that the economy needs to have continual growth are in denial.

Environmentalists have been warning the markets and the economists since the 1970s that growth had its limits. Indefinite economic growth depends upon the ability to have indefinite growth. But in a finite world, there are limits.

Dale Dewar, Wynyard, Sask.

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Brian Lee Crowley, in attributing Quebec’s loss of national political influence to its pursuit of a “big state strategy” (Rep Follows Pop – And What It Means For Quebec – Sept. 26), overlooks a province that does not support his thesis.

Saskatchewan, with its family of Crown corporations and large public sector, is currently a national leader in economic growth, investment and in-migration. The conservative provincial government has chosen not to interfere with this arrangement since taking office, recognizing that its low-cost infrastructure and public services provides the province with an economic advantage.

Dan Cameron, Regina

Gender boxes

Margaret Wente’s column about South African runner Caster Semenya (Semenya, The Poster Victim – Sept. 24) only clouds the core issue of this story.

The differences between men and women in media-friendly sports are fundamentally irrelevant to the millions of intersexed people around the world. The vast majority of intersexed people will not end up running a sub-10-second 100 metres, swimming in the Olympics or even competing in a local marathon. Rather, they will continue to struggle every day to conform to the binary social norms that prescribe how “men” and “women” should look and conduct themselves in society – in other words, how they should “be.”

Cleaving to a binary understanding of gender and human sexuality is grasping for a fiction. To be sure, it’s a fiction that has maintained social cohesion and justified a society’s power relations. The reality, though, is that many intersexed people and many others simply do not exist as either “men” or “women.” As a result, their mere existence poses a threat to deeply held beliefs about the structure of our society, including the way we think about the family, religious authority and politics. But as difficult and threatening as this might be, it’s time that we abandon our check-box, Adam-and-Eve approach to human sexuality and deal with the reality of human existence.

Scott Kline, associate professor of religious studies, St. Jerome’s University, Waterloo, Ont.

Both ends of the vortex …

Bruce Dowbiggin describes how Wayne Gretzky was “sucked into the vortex of the Coyotes’ bankruptcy” (NHL Bungles Its Handling Of Gretzky Affair – Sports, Sept. 26). Sucking and blowing in that vortex, I would say, and of Mr. Gretzky’s own volition.

As an owner of the Coyotes, the question for Wayne Gretzky was, “Would you approve of the proposed terms of the Gretzky coaching contract?” If the answer was “No,” then he shouldn’t have been proposing them. If his answer was “yes,” the mess the Coyotes are in becomes understandable, and the responsibility a little clearer.

Greg Schmidt, Calgary

... and of the rope

“How can you vote for people when you wouldn’t even throw them a rope?”, Rick Mercer asks of our federal political party leaders (Focus, Sept. 26).

The obvious response: Throw them both ends of the rope.

Alistair Thomson, Oshawa, Ont.