Rebecca Gill, Director of Health Recruitment and Retention PEI talks to Olu Aoko, originally from Nigeria, a gastroenterologist who has worked in Ireland for the last 11 years.Lorraine O'Sullivan/The Globe and Mail
Letdown
Re Ng Broke Ethics Rules With Contracts To Friend, Watchdog Says (Dec. 14): My first thought was that Trade and Small Business Minister Mary Ng has to resign. Then I accepted that she won’t and nothing more will come of it.
How did we sink so low as to accept such errors in judgment from people we elect? They know the rules but seem to ignore them.
Ms. Ng should resign, otherwise it proves to me that the bar for proper conduct is set too low.
Sydnie Crockett Woodstock, Ont.
Take action
Re Arbour Urges Action, Not More Study, On Military Misconduct (Dec. 14): After decades of bureaucratic obfuscation and malaise surrounding sexual misconduct in the Canadian Armed Forces, the appointment of no-nonsense, retired Supreme Court justice Louise Arbour to write a report, supported by political superstar and Defence Minister Anita Anand, appeared to be a genuine breakthrough.
Sadly, with the ink on her report hardly dry, Ms. Arbour is already sounding the alarm at Ms. Anand’s response to divert many of her recommendations, from actions with deadlines to the airless realm of further study.
The CAF looks depleted, morale is scraping bottom and the hopes and aspirations of past and present victims of sexual assault are likely dashed. I say shame on Ms. Anand and Justin Trudeau.
Marty Cutler Toronto
Rule them all
Re Provincial Problems (Letters, Dec. 14): A letter-writer “would never describe myself as a ‘proud Ontarian.’ My identity is 100-per-cent Canadian.” This is exactly how I see myself. That, I believe, is the issue.
As citizens of the most populated province and centre of business and government, we Ontarians have been able to shape the nation to our liking. I believe that since Confederation, Upper Canadians – now Ontarians – have expected Canada to become one big Ontario with our values and to our benefit.
It should not surprise us that citizens in other provinces do not always agree.
John Rankin Burlington, Ont.
Re Don’t Write The Provinces A Blank Cheque (Editorial, Dec. 14): Canada is the only country I could find on our planet with 13 health ministers. Fourteen, if one counts the federal health minister.
I find this overstuffed system prohibitively expensive, costing billions of dollars that could be going to support our health system. Each of these ministers has their own department, in 14 different jurisdictions, to support their considerable and ever-growing staffs.
Why not one overall health ministry? Most other countries have gone this route: Britain, Germany, France, Australia and New Zealand, to name a few. They’re not perfect, but they have to be more efficient than our system that just keeps blundering along.
Blundering along, that is, until it collapses. Who needs this? Not Canadians who deserve something, anything, better.
Peter Christopher Gabriola, B.C.
Criteria critique
Re Canada’s New Permanent-Residency Pathways Are A Half-Measure (Dec. 12): Providing a pathway to permanent residency for temporary residents makes a lot of sense, in most cases.
The case for temporary foreign workers is clear to me, as these workers are usually doing work that many Canadians are not willing to pursue, such as farming.
The international student category is less clear, in my opinion, as many of these students are from countries where their skills and professions may be badly needed at home.
Kaz Shikaze Mississauga
Come from away
Re Too Many Bureaucratic Hurdles And Too Few Residency Spots: Why Canada Is Losing Foreign Physicians To Other Countries (Dec. 14): This report describes my son to a T: Born in Toronto, graduated McGill University, graduated University College Dublin in medicine – aimed for a U.S. residency because Canadian chances were depressing.
He’s now in second-year internal medicine at one of the University of Pennsylvania’s hospitals; a two-year oncology fellowship is next. He’ll be a good candidate for Canadian jobs once he’s done, but by then he’ll have lived elsewhere for a decade following a complicated and expensive career path.
Canadians can’t be surprised if grads like him don’t return home.
Marsha Copp Toronto
When I graduated from Grade 13 with a provincial scholarship in 1964, I could have been accepted in any faculty I wanted, including medical school.
My grandson, a university graduate with high marks in honours medical sciences, plus a year working in the neurology lab of a Toronto teaching hospital to polish his résumé, was not accepted in any Canadian medical school due to the scarcity of space. He is now thriving in third-year medicine in Dublin.
It is absolutely unthinkable to me that bureaucratic dealings among various medical bodies are preventing this country from rolling out the red carpet for high-achieving Canadian medical school graduates, who want to return home to practise medicine.
Lesley Barsky Toronto
Why must doctors wishing to practice family medicine do residencies in hospitals? Why can’t they obtain the training in, for instance, a family health unit?
Michael Baird Kingston
Inside view
Re A University of Toronto Report Reveals The Reality Of Antisemitism Today (Dec. 14): As a member in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto, I have for years closely watched the escalating scandal of antisemitism here. As bad as it is, even worse is the failure I have seen of the university to meaningfully act and protect Jewish learners and faculty.
Responsibility should lie with the president, who has been remarkably silent. As the aphorism goes, silence is complicity.
Philip Berger OC, MD Toronto
Must go on
Re The National Ballet’s Nutcracker Is An Enchanting Classic (Dec. 13): I was surprised to read that Ukraine’s Culture Minister would prefer The Nutcracker not be staged. While I naturally sympathize with the opposition to Russia’s invasion of his country, I find it impossible to justify banning Russian arts.
Tchaikovsky, after all, is not the one attacking Ukraine. Banning children – some of whom doubtless with Ukrainian heritage – from seeing this wonderful ballet would not further Vladimir Putin’s ambitions.
Geoff Rytell Toronto
Not like the other
Re Harry And Meghan’s Documentary Causes Media Frenzy In Britain (Dec. 9): I wonder whether Harry and Meghan would choose a paparazzi-free life of quiet anonymity or a US$100-million deal with Netflix, because the latter is surely incompatible with the former.
Adam Toth Mississauga
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