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Defence needs, 2016
Re Sajjan's Review To Give 'Better Picture' Of Defence Needs (April 7): What was sorely lacking in Canada's written objectives before selecting the F-35 was the strategic thinking taught to top brass at places like West Point.
A tight articulation of objectives, the first being Arctic and related sovereignty, would have shown the single-engine F-35 fighter jet to be off-strategy.
Likewise for battleships, tanks and other hardware now obsolete in the 21st century.
Canada needs basic, twin-engine jets, nuclear minisubs and ice-cutting military vessels, also capable of high speeds for the country's warmer waters. As well, Canada may need the odd unpersonned drone, because it is 2016.
Alan J. Cooper, Toronto
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Mental illness, too
Re Poll Finds Assisted-Dying Limits Wanted (April 7): The stigma against psychiatric illness is alive and well. What else can explain why people are opposed to assisted dying for those individuals who are suffering and have irremediable mental illness? Psychiatric illness is a brain disorder. The brain is part of the body. These are medical illnesses.
There are a very few patients who will be eligible for this help. Why deny them a painless, quiet death? No one I know wants to die a lingering death from dementia, being incontinent of urine and feces, not knowing who you are or who your family is.
We should not exclude psychiatric illness from physician-assisted dying.
Derryck Smith, psychiatrist, Vancouver
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Not just people
Re Closed Mine Leaves Toxic Footprint (April 7): Ivan Semeniuk's fascinating story on toxic levels of arsenic in many lakes near Yellowknife, the result of pollutants from the now-closed Giant Mine, quotes the chief public health officer for the territory as saying his concern for health risks is "low but not zero" because few people drink water from the lakes.
Reminds me of a time, 40 years ago, when I was in Fort Liard, NWT, listening to Chief Harry Deneron explaining to Judge Thomas Berger of the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline Inquiry that he came upon a sign in town warning people not to drink water from the river because it is polluted. "Well, it's okay for us," he told Mr. Berger, "but what we can't get at is, how can we get the message across to the animals that are depending on this water, the fish and that?"
Plus ça change. It is a question that confounds humans who like to put a priority on things, with us at the top and the rest, the beasts and fishes, much lower down.
"The whole of the Northwest Territories could fit easily into Toronto's CNE Stadium, and it's true if by 'whole' you mean only the humans," I wrote back in 1975. "For sure you won't get the land in, not the land that is one third of Canada. And you won't get all the trees in, or the animals, not the herds of caribou that thunder by in numbers exceeding 100,000. But just the people, yes. It is like measuring a Caesar salad by counting the croutons."
Martin O'Malley, Toronto
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Kids who walk
As the parent of a kindergartener, I object to your parent-blaming editorial on why kids don't walk to school (Why Don't Kids Walk To School Any More? – April 7).
In Calgary, many neighbourhoods don't have schools; kids must be driven or bused. Recent proposed cuts to busing would see elementary pupils walking up to 1.6 kilometers to their bus stop.
Also, parents are not calculating "irrationally" the risk posed by dangerous drivers. We've had several recent reports of children struck in crosswalks in my city.
Last year, my husband was struck in a crosswalk while walking our son home from school. The drivers I see in my neighbourhood speeding, talking/texting on phones, and disregarding crosswalks do indeed pose a risk to children walking to school.
Heather Ganshorn, Calgary
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A local environmental organization here has just launched its Car Free Wednesdays campaign, which encourages kids (and parents) to walk, ride or roll to schools. For those who need to drive, their Park n' Stride initiative suggests parents park a couple of blocks from school and walk the rest of the way.
The result? Safer, less congested school parking lots and a modest stroll to bookend the day. Here's to those small steps and their capacity to become giant leaps for our kids and our communities.
Cameron Taylor, Peterborough, Ont.
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Super-resented
Re It's No Wonder Resentment Of The Superrich Is On The Rise (April 7): As a young Canadian who's trying to become aware of the way the world works around me, I cannot help but see a bleak picture. Living near Toronto, where real estate prices are skyrocketing, it doesn't appear I'll ever be able to a buy a home. Add the debt I have to incur to get an undergraduate and postgraduate degree, and the financial outlook is stark. Then I learn about the unfolding Panama Papers scandal and the ways the superrich avoid paying taxes. The taxes that even a few of these individuals aren't paying would subsidize education costs to the point where I would not have to worry.
How can it be a mystery that I and millions of people worldwide harbour resentment toward them?
Khizar Abid, Ajax, Ont.
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Math miscalculations
I am a former elementary school teacher and have been tutoring Grades 1 to 7 math for the past 23 years. Many of my pupils come for preparatory work for the entrance exams for private schools. They are bright and motivated.
Increasingly, I have found that the first thing I have to do is teach most of the basic math concepts before we can tackle the SSAT math problems. Public school teachers are constrained by the curriculum they are forced to work with: The math curriculum as it now stands is complicated and inaccessible for teachers, parents and students alike.
I agree with Anna Stokke (Ontario Math Training Needs A Full Revamp – April 6) that discovery learning can only happen when children have a solid set of tools at their disposal to apply to the problems.
More hours of instruction with the current textbooks and curriculum will not lead to better results – only to more despair and frustration.
Change is needed now.
Barbara Loosemore, Toronto
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Keeping count
Re TransCanada Shuts Down Keystone Pipeline After Oil Spill In South Dakota (April 1): Spill-spotting stats: passerby: 1; advanced leak detection system: 0.
Aaron Hudson, Caledon, Ont.
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Re Nine Reasons A Trump Couldn't Happen In Canada (April 6): Two words prove it could. Rob Ford.
J.D. Humphreys, Toronto