Prime Minister Justin Trudeau arrives to a cabinet meeting on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, on Nov. 29.Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press
Constitutional distinction
Re Smith Under Pressure To Withdraw Bill (Dec. 1): Alberta’s sovereignty act is a troubling attempt to Americanize a fundamental underpinning of the Canadian Constitution.
In 1867, the Fathers of Confederation eschewed the U.S. Constitution’s bias toward states’ rights, under which any power not specifically given to Washington belongs to the states. In Canada, Ottawa holds any undeclared power.
As the late senator Eugene Forsey wrote: “The Fathers of Confederation, gazing with horror at the American Civil War, decided that ‘states’ rights’ were precisely what had caused it, and acted accordingly.” Now Danielle Smith wants to toss away this significant constitutional difference.
We only have to view the political crises engulfing America to understand the risks of following this unwise path.
Mario Possamai Toronto
Home and away
Re Country To Country (Letters, Nov. 30): A letter-writer justifies peaceful advocacy for the independence of geographical locations in other sovereign countries as a constitutionally protected right. Yet the Emergencies Act was used to suppress the voices of Canadians who wished to be heard.
Such doublespeak would diminish Canada on the world stage and hurt bilateral relations. In the context of India, such a mindset would jeopardize the Canadian Indo-Pacific strategy.
We should have a rethink and reset in global affairs.
Azad Kaushik Puslinch, Ont.
Immigration frustration
Re Immigration Is Changing Canada For The Better. But The Conversation Can’t End There (Nov. 28): Contributor Ken Coates points out that policy-makers often relegate consideration of services for new Canadians to an afterthought.
I spent my teaching career in a government-funded program that provides language training and settlement services for new Canadians. Over 20 years, our annual funding was uncertain, and my colleagues and I saw our wages fall in real terms by more than 20 per cent. We often wondered if this indicated a lack of respect for the immigrants we served, our female-dominated profession – or both.
If government is sincere about giving newcomers a successful start, it should provide consistent and adequate funding so that the professionals who run newcomer programs receive stable and fair wages.
Jane Batterink Scugog, Ont.
Face time
Re Why Quebec’s Unhealthy Shortage Of Family Doctors Is The Worst In The Country (Nov. 30): Patients and doctors benefit when primary-care doctors work in hospitals.
Doctors are often isolated in their offices and rarely get feedback about their work. Hospital work, including in emergency departments, hospital wards and obstetrical units, makes the work more interesting, and the feedback from collaborators represents a form of continuing education.
A lot of physician time is wasted on nonclinical work: communicating with poorly designed health systems and complying with regulatory requirements that don’t add clinical value. It’s time that could be used to care for more people.
Ask doctors what they think, and most will answer with a list of time-wasters.
David Zitner MD, FCFP (retired); founding director, medical informatics, faculty of medicine, Dalhousie University Halifax
Downhill?
Re Will We Ever Be Ready For MAID? Not Likely (Nov. 29): Columnist André Picard is an advocate for medical assistance in dying, which I respect. As one of the people he describes as “hand-wringers,” I would make two points.
First, he dismisses “slippery slope” counter-arguments, yet I have seen every available slope to slip in MAID policy and practice. Whether this is a good or bad thing depends on one’s position
Second, “grievous and irremediable” cannot be well defined for mental disorders, as highlighted by the failure of consensus to emerge as to how this requirement will be interpreted. It will likely come down to individual clinical judgment, which is hard to consistently apply and risks arbitrary decision-making.
Canada now has the highest rate of MAID in the world, and it will only rise further come March 23. Should this not be a point to pause and reflect?
Sandy Simpson MD Toronto
I wish we could dispense with the notion of “dying with dignity.” I find nothing dignified – or undignified – about death.
It’s a biological fact we will all experience, just as we experience the fact of birth. We don’t talk about being born with dignity, though one wishes we could talk more about, and act on, the need to live with dignity.
The slippery slope argument makes little sense to me, given where we already are. Canada sees more medical assistance in death than any other country where it’s allowed. In a nation with a rapidly aging population and a health care system stretched beyond its limits, it would be naive to think that MAID safeguards will never change – they already have.
Steve Soloman Toronto
Re Psychiatrists Call On Ottawa To Delay Expansion Of MAID (Dec. 1): Stigma against psychiatric patients appears to be alive and well.
Canadians have a right to medical assistance in dying, provided they meet certain criteria. Some of my colleagues want to deny this right to persons with mental illness. I wonder if this would include those suffering with dementia, which is a psychiatric diagnosis.
Of course there need to be safeguards, but Parliament has been studying these for the last year. The number of psychiatric patients who qualify is likely to be small.
Of note is a recent Canadian Psychiatric Association survey that shows only 9 per cent of members are opposed to MAID for any reason.
Derryck Smith clinical professor emeritus, department of psychiatry, University of British Columbia Vancouver
Far and wide
Re Our Passenger Rail Service Is Running Out Of Time (Opinion, Nov. 26): In October, I was part of a train tour group from Toronto to Prince Rupert, B.C., and back again. Loved it!
There were things to grumble about, such as being shunted to sidetracks fairly often to make room for freight trains. And the jostling gait one needs to negotiate from one car to another. But what a way to see a good chunk of Canada without driving.
The Canadian Shield was Group of Seven-esque, with outcroppings of rock, jack pines, pristine lakes. The Prairies were sheets of gold, endless horizon, big sky. I had a wonderful sense of the vastness that is Canada. Then, the Rocky Mountains.
Is our love affair with car and air transportation masking the great experience of train travel? Governments should definitely consider upgrading and paying attention to increased train travel, instead of eating up valuable land for more highways.
Nancy Sorensen Burlington, Ont.
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