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The school of how-not
Re Ontario To Buy Hydroelectricity From Quebec (Oct. 21): How not to run a utility: a) blow a fortune cancelling natural gas generating plants; b) build them somewhere else; c) blow another fortune paying for "renewable power" at rates that are multiples of what it can be sold for; d) pay Americans to take our excess power; e) build a transmission line to nowhere because you forgot to get permission from aboriginal land owners; f) suddenly "discover" that cheap power is available next door so you can replace power generated by the natural gas generating plants that were just built.
Something stinks, and it is not natural gas. Maybe it is the mountain of debt that the Liberals have made for us all? A pile of something else perhaps?
Richard E. Austin, Toronto
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Canadian tragedy
Re Lost & Found: The Story Of Chanie Wenjack (Life & Arts, Oct. 20): While I appreciate author Joseph Boyden's engagement with this difficult subject matter, as the son, grandson and great-grandson of residential school survivors one fears the artistic landscape is becoming crowded with so many using Chanie's story and the entire residential schools experience as inspiration for their own projects.
Beyond mediated representations and third-party creative expressions, one hopes Canadians concerned with reconciliation are not dissuaded from delving into the direct, unfiltered testimonies of survivors and their families as provided, for example, in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's final report, and available online via the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation at the University of Manitoba. The texts make for difficult reading but these narrators remain the most reliable witnesses concerning the residential schools experience.
John Moses, Upper Mohawk and Delaware bands, Six Nations of the Grand River Territory
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Re The Night Colten Boushie Died (Folio, Oct. 21): The water's shut off and there's a "field of raw sewage beneath the trailer" because the sewer's not connected.
In winter "they all sleep in the living room with the oven door open and blankets stuffed in the broken windows to block the wind." This is Canada in 2016?
Tuula Talvila, Ottawa
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November football
Re Argos Reduce Ticket Prices For November's Grey Cup Game At BMO Field (Oct. 19): Argos president Michael Copeland, describing the Grey Cup, suggests "there's a certain dynamic and excitement that's added by being outside." Hmm.
In 1982, the Toronto Argonauts played for the Grey Cup in the old CNE Stadium, also known as "the Mistake by the Lake." The day was rainy, cold and windy. Players slid and slipped all over the field, prompting then-metro chair Paul Godfrey to mutter, "Never again," and then-premier Bill Davis to endorse a covered stadium.
Maybe some find it exciting to sit by the lake in the evening at the end of November. Others, though, might prefer the indoor comforts of the Rogers Centre. I certainly did in 2012 when I went to the 100th Grey Cup game there.
If Toronto is going to host the Grey Cup Classic, couldn't the Argos have rented the Rogers Centre for the occasion?
Ben Labovitch, Toronto
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News that Sidney Crosby recently removed himself from the ice because of concussion concerns is another reminder of how paying attention to injury and taking active steps to rehabilitate an injury are changing pro sports for the better (Sid's Courage – editorial, Oct. 19). The good news for NHL players is that the costs of compensation and support for rehabilitation, short and long term, are the responsibility of the team. The same is true for pro players in the National Football League.
It cannot be said of the Canadian Football League, where teams have not supported the call from players for similar insurance provisions. As a result, many injured CFL players are left to fend for themselves. Taxpayers end up covering player injury costs when players turn to the public health-care system for support. It's time for the CFL to take responsibility for player injuries and rehabilitation.
Brian Ramsay, executive director, CFL Players' Association
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Big big-projects
If the Advisory Council on Economic Growth really wants a big project, how about building a national highway system in Canada ($40-Billion In Infrastructure Funding Urged – Oct. 21)?
What other nation in the Western world doesn't have a national highway system, defined as a divided highway with limited access?
Much of that "tiny" section of road from Ottawa to the Manitoba border is served by a two-lane trail, and needs to be brought up to international standards.
By the way, that "tiny" section runs across about one-third of Canada, give or take. Big enough?
Geoff Lee, Thunder Bay, Ont.
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America, the great?
The Americans regularly declare themselves to have the greatest country in the world. Is this an annual contest? Is there a trophy?
How do you enter? Who are the judges? Can they be bribed? Is it rigged? What are the criteria? Are they published somewhere?
Canada should enter. It would partly make up for the World Series failure.
David Chalmers, Toronto
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When Donald Trump loses (which I have no doubt that he will) what happens to the hopes all of those people who support him? Because among that group are thousands of ordinary men and women who have legitimate concerns about their future and their children's.
If we had seen Hillary Clinton and other Democrats address their fears and anguish directly, if we had sensed that politicians truly understood the depth of their despair, if we had heard them commit to making their first job that of putting this dreadful situation right, we would not now be afraid that the forgotten will be forgotten again.
Annette Snowdon, Collingwood, Ont.
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Just wondering
Re Why It's Worth Talking To The Russian Bear (Oct. 19): I enjoyed both the column and analogy. As a naturalist, I've spent more than a little time speaking to all three of the bear species indigenous to Canada, but here's where the analogy breaks down: It depends on the bear.
Black bears can be frightened away with a loud clap of the hands, or a shout. Grizzlies are a little trickier but still generally want nothing to do with us, and polar bears look at just about everything as lunch. The one thing they all have in common, is that they don't stand up to intimidate, they stand up to better observe the situation at hand.
As an aside, necropsies of grizzly bears reveal that most of the scarring on large males is around the genitals and caused by fighting over potential mates. How does that fit into the article?
Alex Preston, Toronto