Letters to the Editor should be exclusive to The Globe and Mail. Include your name, address and daytime phone number. Try to keep letters to fewer than 150 words. Letters may be edited for length and clarity. To submit a letter by e-mail, click here: letters@globeandmail.com
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Marked 'unfounded'
The unsettling information disclosed in The Globe and Mail's Unfounded series was only unearthed by diligent work.
If the police statistics nationwide had been readily available to the public, would more police departments have acted, either from decency or shame?
What other human tragedies lurk within the non-published statistics of our institutions? How many more humans suffer simply because the facts are known, but not publicly shared and examined? They are our institutions, our responsibility and ultimately our shame.
M.A. Leslie, Vancouver
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I was attacked and sexually assaulted behind my apartment building by a man who worked there. This happened while taking out trash in the middle of the day. When I reported it to police, I was lucky to be interviewed by a female detective who reassured me that a gap in my memory was normal.
Unfortunately, she was about to be transferred to another district. I had to chase down the new detective and practically beg him to pursue the case. Meanwhile, my landlord didn't believe that her long-time employee would do such a thing (or, perhaps she was afraid of liability) and I was stuck finding a new place to live while the police took months just to interview the man who assaulted me. The detective's treatment of the case got even worse and the whole experience deterred me from dealing with police again.
Thanks to your report, I'm motivated to request my file and find out if the case was marked "unfounded." I hope this series will push our police forces to use "more science, less gut" as your investigation illuminated.
S.C. Carson, Toronto
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Absolutely, sexual assault is wrong. No means no means no. And clearly, the police reliance on dumping cases into the "unfounded" bin is wrong, wrong, wrong. But we also have an obligation – even if only to ourselves and our families – to take precautions for our own safety. Where does that exist in going out with 10 shots of vodka that you clearly intend to drink?
Marilyn Simpson, Winnipeg
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It is well known that charges are seldom filed; what these articles display in stark terms is that the process for victims is flawed right back to the beginning.
Susan Murphy, Nanaimo, B.C.
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Newspaper readers probably too often forget how time-consuming and intellectually challenging such major investigations can be.
Count this reader as being profoundly impressed by Robyn Doolittle's energy and doggedness.
Larry Hannant, Victoria
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Trump Trump?
What a strangely contradictory message in your editorial, How To Trump Trump (Feb. 4).
You advise us to recognize Donald Trump's game and not respond, except with a sigh and a smile, as a parent might when a child caught in a lie throws a tantrum. You suggest that Mr. Trump's lies, cartoonish denigration of his opponents and flooding of the media will lose its effectiveness in due course, presumably because we aren't paying attention. On the other hand, you advocate that "he must be challenged in the courts, in public and in legislatures everywhere."
Not being a lawyer or a politician, but a citizen in the public domain, what are my options?
I think it is important to visibly reject his inane ideas and discriminatory measures, that is, write letters and speak out in private and public. At least, other Canadians, including our legislators, will know that not everyone is on board with his messages.
Mary Valentich, Calgary
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It is not just Donald Trump; it is the puppet master Steve Bannon, a craven Republican Party, and millions of American voters who appear to be happy with a white supremacist government led by hypocrites. Yes, the world needs a new strategy. Not sure that "let's play nice" will be enough.
Irene Tomaszewski, Ottawa
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No one, including Donald Trump, seems to have any idea where he is going.
This may work when you are building another Trump Tower. Not so much when you are supposed to be providing direction to the entire free world and setting an example for those countries that don't yet qualify.
Mike Bennett, Chilliwack, B.C.
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Guns. Control
Re Yet Again, More Cause For Serious Gun Control (Feb. 4): André Picard has written another thoughtful and provocative article in raising the need for gun control in response to the shooting at the Quebec City mosque.
How do people like this get guns? How are their "rights" to own weapons, with few security checks and few responsibilities, trumping the rights of the majority of Canadians to live in safety?
Mr. Picard outlined a number of questions that politicians of all stripes should have raised and addressed. It was almost if they agreed en masse to leave the issue alone.
There are many factors involved in violent attacks like this, but the easy availability of weapons that fire successive shots is a major one. Automatic weapons do not allow those being fired upon a chance to stop the havoc, another reason why this shooting was cowardly.
Don McRae, Ottawa
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To take away the rights of legal firearms owners in Canada because of the actions of a few young, male mass shooters is a disproportionate reaction, not unlike tarring all Muslims with the "jihadist" brush because a handful are terrorists.
As to Stephen Harper "eroding the protections," he did little more than disband the costly, ineffective long-gun registry.
Prohibited weapons are already illegal. Will stricter laws make them somehow more illegal? And why shouldn't collectors and members of gun clubs be able to have unlimited legal weapons?
Canada already has some of the strictest gun laws in the world. If André Picard thinks it is easy to buy a gun in Canada, I suggest he try it and let us know how it goes.
Wendy Wishart, Sydney, N.S.
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Come back later
Re A Quest Like No Other (Feb. 4): Your story about the Yukon Quest and dog sledding brought to mind an amusing anecdote involving prime minister R.B. Bennett and Canada's greatest dog sledder, Emile St. Godard.
In 1931, the prime minister was to present the "monarch of mushers," as The Globe called St. Godard, with the Chateau Laurier trophy at 4 p.m. at the hotel. When Bennett arrived, St. Godard did not show up. Officials scrambled to his hotel room to tell him the PM was waiting. St. Godard, unmoved and tired, told them that the prime minister should come back in an hour because he needed to rest.
Bennett was not known for his patience in such matters, but in order to avoid making a scene he told the assembled reporters, "Well, I guess the affairs of state can wait. Go tell Mr. St. Godard I will come back here at five, as he has directed me."
St. Godard was inducted into the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame in 1956 and remains the only dog sledder to be so honoured.
J.D.M. Stewart, Toronto