Facebook followed through with its threat to end millions of Canadians’ ability to access and share news on its platform, as the federal government’s Online News Act gained royal assent.DADO RUVIC/Reuters
Feeding Facebook
Re “Facebook to pull news access in Canada as Bill C-18 becomes law” (June 23): Facebook is not the culprit here. It directs readers to news outlets, which earn millions from the redirected readers’ digital hits. The concern that publishers will lose millions says it all: Facebook was providing the publishers a free service. Bill C-18 was a shakedown on behalf of the same publishers. As Andrew Coyne wrote in his column “What a tangled Web the Trudeau government is weaving” (April 16, 2022): “So the notion that FaceGoogle should be made to pay us for the valuable service they provide us for free has things exactly backward: If anything, we should be paying them.”
I’m with Facebook.
Ian Newbould Toronto
If Facebook is going to pull access to Canadian news sources from all its platforms, I’ll just go to those news sources directly on their own apps and websites, like The Globe and Mail, the CBC and my local Times Colonist and CHEK TV. That way, I’ll get all my information directly and unfiltered by Facebook’s algorithms. Bye-bye, Facebook. No extra revenue from me.
Jamie Alley Saanich, B.C.
I am sick of all the unwanted news stories cluttering up my Facebook pages. Meta is acting like a sulking child about this. I think news sources need to be paid fairly for their journalism so I support C-18. When I want to read The Globe and Mail or another publication, I am happy to pay the subscription fee as it will help enable better reporting.
Alan Cooke Vancouver
Sir John A’s legacy
Re “NCC approves renaming of Sir John A. Macdonald Parkway to Kichi Zībī Mīkan” (June 22): I realize that these days people are working to be sensitive to past wrongs done to Indigenous peoples, but the residential schools were established around 1831, when Macdonald was about 16 years old. They were not his creation.
As a trained historian, I strongly believe that the past has to be understood in terms of the realities of the times. The American Indian Wars were designed to “remove” Indigenous peoples so U.S. whites could settle on their land. Modern historians view it as a form of genocide. That horror was a key factor behind Macdonald’s drive to create a land from sea to sea, by building a national railway, and creating a border between the two countries. He did not want that misery spreading north.
Given Macdonald’s support for various Indigenous communities in his private work as well, I am saddened by the sloppy historical work that is behind the destruction of his name. If lies continue to replace legitimate history, then his legacy is at serious risk.
Mary Lazier Corbett Picton, Ont.
Swing nation
Re “Biden, Modi announce trade, military deals in bid to contain China’s power” (June 23): India, the world’s most populous country and the most important swing nation in global politics, is helping to finance Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine by buying Russian oil. At one time, India’s High Commissioner to Canada Nirmal Verma offered to invest in an oil pipeline to Canada’s East Coast. Canadian heavy crude would have been exported to the Jamnagar refinery, the largest heavy oil refining complex on Earth, on India’s west coast. An oil terminal at Canso, N.S., would have been significantly closer to western India than an oil terminal at either Vancouver or Prince Rupert, B.C. But as we all know, the Energy East pipeline was cancelled in 2017.
Mike Priaro Calgary
Grocery money
Re “Sobeys parent Empire hikes dividend 10.6% as six-year turnaround plan wraps up” (Report on Business, June 23) and “Metro grocery workers enter bargaining armed with a 100 per cent strike mandate” (Report on Business, June 23): Whoa! Two stories on one page: Sobey’s parent company, Empire Co. Ltd., is boosting dividends while Metro grocery workers are set to bargain for living wages. We have a conundrum here. In today’s economy it’s the underpaid worker versus the well-heeled shareholder who can afford to invest. Which group is going to come out on top? And, who pays? Inflation anyone?
Bill Bousada Carleton Place, Ont.
Simmering debate
Re “Climate fight enters kitchens as restaurants ponder switch from gas stoves to induction cooktops” (June 22): We owned a gas stove for 20 years and while it worked well I would never own another. It created indoor air pollution, was dangerous and took forever to boil a pot of water. To combat climate change we have to go electric, using power from low greenhouse-gas-generation sources. A more important question might be: What are you cooking on your stove? A plant-based diet substantially reduces GHGs, is healthier, better for animals, reduces land area required for agriculture and will be required as the global population rises.
Geoff Daw Selwyn, Ont.
Travelling in Toronto
Re “Without government funding and a reliance on fare revenue, TTC faces potential ‘transit death spiral’” (June 21): Whenever I’m on the TTC, I watch as hordes of people stream through the turnstiles or get into long streetcars where the conductor is behind glass two cars forward, and do not pay.
On the streetcars I’ve used, the machines where one is supposed to tap a Presto card or insert coins usually don’t work, even if one is trying to be honest.
Perhaps an investment in personnel to supervise entry would ensure that fares are being paid by everyone who uses the system. This would be a start. Or is the idea of employing humans, who require salaries and benefits, a relic of the past in these days of automation?
Honey Thomas Mississauga, Ont.
Favourite things
Re “Without kids of my own, who inherits my stuff?” (June 16): I want to tell Mark Farmer, the author of this First Person essay, to stop stressing about this stuff. Just gift the items to your nieces and nephews, but more importantly, give them the stories and the memories that they invoke in you. Tell them why these things mattered enough for you to keep them, tell them about the people who owned them, and tell them that the stories you are sharing are the real treasure.
Joanne Peters Winnipeg
Cricket migration
Re “Minor League Cricket announces plans for Canadian expansion” (Sports, June 23): The article on Minor League Cricket reminds me of the following observation made by travel writer and humorist Bill Bryson in his book In a Sunburned Country: “It is not true that the English invented cricket as a way of making all other human endeavours look interesting and lively; that was merely an unintended side effect.”
Michael Young Thornbury, Ont.
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