Sweet on change
Re Ottawa Set To Take Action On Sugar (July 15): Federal Health Minister Rona Ambrose should be applauded for proposing improved food labelling and recommended daily limits for sugar intake. However, setting that limit at 20 per cent of daily calories is a disservice to Canadians when the World Health Organization has urged a 5-per-cent limit.
Ms. Ambrose should propose policies that optimize our health, not a compromise with the processed food industry. Any product with a single serving exceeding the 5-per-cent daily limit should be labelled as we do cigarettes: indicating you do yourself harm by consuming it.
For example, a single serving of pop has about 44 grams of sugar. That's 11 teaspoons or almost four tablespoons in a single can, whereas two tablespoons is the preferred maximum healthy daily limit. An image portraying that information on the product would help to inform consumers.
David G. Harper, Abbotsford, B.C.
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Pass the water
Re How Do We Avert A Thirsty Future? (July 15): Twenty years ago, my American relatives and I used to joke about the possibility of the United States invading Canada to get our water. Given the growing water resources crisis in the U.S., I'm not sure that I, or my cousins in drought-striken California and Texas, would find that hypothetical scenario as laughably improbable as we once did.
As Brahma Chellaney pointed out, Canada is the Saudi Arabia of the freshwater world and we need to be extremely careful in how we not only protect our own water resources but deal with what will undoubtedly be growing demand to share with others.
While our squabbles with the U.S. over management of shared water resources are relatively low key at this point, we should remember the adage that when the water in the pond starts to go down, the animals that drink from it will start behaving differently toward each other.
Ray Arnold, Richmond, B.C.
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Who will we be?
Re Public's Right To Portage At Heart Of Crown Land Case (July 15): This country was opened by fur traders, explorers and pioneers. They learned from the First Nations how to bridge the watersheds and find their way.
As a youth in Northern Ontario, my friends and I followed fur-trade pathways around dangerous waters, portages cut a long time ago. We took these trails for granted. They were part of the Gift of Canada. Who will we be if we forget our past?
Kudos to Harold Elston and the Township of Muskoka Lakes for taking a stand on the enshrined right of Canadians to use these ancient trails. It is preposterous that these hallowed highways might be closed to the public.
Hugh McKechnie, Newmarket, Ont.
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1984 tax-speak
After listening to Ontario Finance Minister Charles Sousa, it is clear that the year is not 2014 but 1984 and George Orwell is alive and working at Queen's Park (On Second Thought, This Might Hurt – editorial, July 15).
Taxes have become "revenue tools" and privatization has become "extract more value." Budgets will be balanced, but apparently taxpayers are not mature enough to be told how it will happen. They just will. Trust us.
Both taxpayers and bond holders should be on high alert. Call them what you want, taxes are going up for everyone, not just the top 2 per cent, as Premier Kathleen Wynne claims.
As for Ontario bonds, Mr. Sousa can talk gobbledygook all he wants, Ontario bonds are going to be downgraded – most likely multiple times – and the cost of borrowing is going up. And everyone in Ontario will pay for that.
Norman Levine, Toronto
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We're No. … 110
While more kids "play organized soccer than any other sport in Canada," the Canadian men's team has a FIFA ranking of 110th in the world – tied with Bahrain and slightly behind those football powerhouses of Latvia and Kenya.
Kara Lang's solution is to improve infrastructure, including coaching and facilities. True, but more is needed (The Time Is Now To Shift From Participation To Performance – Sports, July 15).
What is missing in Canada is for kids to demonstrate a love for the game such that they are willing to play by themselves when no adult is around, like street hockey.
As children growing up in Glasgow, we'd play for hours with nothing more than an old tennis ball and jackets put down for goalposts. As an adult, I watched kids in Dubai playing on wasteland in 40 C heat and, more recently, watched them play endlessly on Copacabana Beach.
The recently deceased Alfredo di Stefano, one of the greatest footballers of all time, said that his skills were developed in "the Academy of the Streets." Until our kids are willing to play "unorganized" football, I'm afraid that we will continue to languish in the world rankings and to forgo a place in the World Cup.
John MacMillan, Burlington, Ont.
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Bombs and martyrs
Re Hamas PR: Human Shields (July 15): Both sides in this conflict show themselves to be cynical and brutal, and more than ready to play to their strengths – for the Israelis, dropping bombs; for the Palestinians, displaying martyrs. Ultimately, they will have to learn to live together. The land they inhabit is too small for anything else. For that to happen, fundamental equality and the mutual respect that can be based on it will have to appear between the two sides. A good start would be a fair sharing of the land and its resources.
Colin Beattie, Ottawa
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Passion and joy
Re Watching Men Watching Sports (July 12): My 13-year-old daughter plays defence on an all-girl minor hockey team. While not usually a goal scorer (she's too busy protecting her goalie), she did score this past season. After the puck went in the net, it was not the goal itself that had my sports-loving heart fill with pride, but rather the sight of my daughter lying on the ice, pumping her fist in the air with pure passion and joy. Playing like a girl: priceless.
Julia Wells, Kamloops, B.C.
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R.I.P., Archie
Re Archie Andrews To Die Saving His Gay Friend (July 15): Although it has been a number of decades since I last followed the many ups and the occasional pratfall downs of Archie Andrews, or even felt the urge to visit Riverdale, I am oddly unprepared for his final act of sacrifice. It is no small thing to lay down your comic life for a comic friend, gay or otherwise.
If anything makes me feel as old as Moose Methuselah, it is this death by assassination of a cartoon teenager who never really had the opportunity to grow old gracefully. Clearly he will be missed by many. We may never see the likes of him again.
Bill Engleson, Denman Island, B.C.