Prime Minister Justin Trudeau rises during Question Period in the House of Commons in Ottawa on Tuesday, Feb.19, 2019.Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press
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
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Support for the PM?
Re Butts Resigns As Trudeau’s Top Aide (Feb. 19): Gerald Butts’s resignation as the Prime Minister’s principal secretary does not change my message to Justin Trudeau.
As a Canadian citizen who expects accountability and transparency from government, I have three words for the Prime Minister: Let her speak.
Julie Fleming, Toronto
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Now that Geppetto is gone, who will run the country?
Simon Farrow, Kelowna, B.C.
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Why refer to the SNC-Lavalin controversy as a “scandal” (Instead Of Protecting Trudeau, Butts Put Him In Grave Danger – Feb. 19)?
Jody Wilson-Raybould, the cabinet minister who was allegedly put under pressure to offer a remediation agreement to SNC, has resigned. It’s unfortunate, but hardly a sign of corruption.
Politicians are often subject to pressure by those within their party and by others to do something they don’t want to do. A scandal happens when they are forced into doing it.
Having just returned from the United States, where scandal is daily media fare, it strikes me that our national newspaper seems to have a bad case of envyitis.
Susan Swan, Toronto
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It’s not as if Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made a secret late-night phone call to a Supreme Court jurist. Mr. Trudeau talked to the justice minister who sat at his cabinet table. It was a complex issue. Jody Wilson-Raybould got to make the call on SNC-Lavalin. The PM got to make the call on who sits at his cabinet table.
“Can it be doubted that being subjected to vigorous interventions by people who can control your career inappropriately challenges the A-G’s independence?” asks a letter writer (Scandal Vs. Tragedy? – Feb. 16).
Boo hoo: Every day, many Canadians disagree openly with their boss. Poor Ms. Wilson-Raybould. Would that she had resigned at the time instead of heading up Veterans Affairs and then insulting Canadian vets by quitting a few days later. One wonders how she made that decision.
And poor Mr. Trudeau, who now has to endure the disdain of the politically correct. Apparently, many members of our thinking class have been grievously wounded. The PM may survive this a wiser man. Meanwhile, his predicament reminds me of that old adage: Be careful who you hang with.
Tom Colton, Sudbury, Ont.
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Your editorial, The Perils Of An Imperial Prime Minister (Feb. 16), suggested that both prime ministers Stephen Harper and Justin Trudeau have experienced (and continue to experience) the perils of the “imperial” manner in which they approach the position. Fair enough.
But your argument that Canadians need to look further than the PM’s “haberdashery” and “dimples” undermines your position and is itself shallow, inappropriate and sexist. The crack is reminiscent of the Conservative attack ads during the last election that finished with the quip “nice hair though.” Would you refer to a female cabinet minister’s clothing and dimples in your editorial?
Alan Wright, Welland, Ont.
Mental health on campus
Re ‘It’s Not Slowing Down’: Students And Schools Wrestle With A Mental-Health Crisis (Feb. 15): I can’t help thinking that amid all the wonderful work they’re doing, universities dealing with mental health are ignoring a rather big elephant in the room: Previous generations used to be able to pay for a year’s tuition with a summer job. Some of my students are working two or three jobs, as well as attending university full time. They panic at the thought of lower grades because they literally cannot afford to fail.
And they will still graduate with years’ worth of debt, in a workforce increasingly built on precarious employment.
Yet society wonders why they have anxiety disorders, stress, panic attacks, and depression.
Kathy Cawsey, associate professor, Dalhousie University
Reality check
Re Afghanistan’s Women Will Not Be Victims Of Peace (Opinion, Feb. 16): Thank you for inviting Sally Armstrong to review the current situation in Afghanistan and provide her insights on the future for this beleaguered country, including the role of women. I have been frustrated at the lack of in-depth and knowledgeable coverage. Positive gains – better life expectancy, drop in maternal mortality, more girls in school – are forgotten (or never known), and most countries have short attention spans or staying power when it comes to Afghanistan.
I have been appalled by the Trump administration’s shallow, callous plans of engagement with the Taliban, with no real thought of involvement of the elected government of Ashraf Ghani. Donald Trump wishes only to play to his base and get his troops out – throwing the women under the bus. Ms. Armstrong has been involved for decades and knows Afghanistan’s players: Her prognosis is distressing. Canada, once a champion for Afghanistan, needs the reality check and reminder.
Ellen Wright, Ottawa
Choosing to be vegan
Re Because Of Vegans, My Vegetarianism Has Become A Source Of Shame (Opinion, Feb. 16): It is hard to argue with Carly Lewis’s well-written piece on the annoying behaviour of at least some vegan proselytizers. As a relatively new vegan, I share many of her concerns: You won’t get reasonable adults to reconsider the choices they make in feeding and clothing themselves by screaming in their faces and/or disparaging their morals.
I take the position of Gary Francione, in my opinion the leading light of the vegan movement. To treat other sentient animals as disposable assets to meet our material needs – when viable alternatives exist – is immoral.
Who today would question the moral necessity to ban human slavery in all its forms? What we now need to do is to understand that to take the life of a sentient animal – in a non-necessary, i.e. non-survival situation – is also fundamentally immoral. I believe that humans will get to this understanding eventually through education and discussion, not by being publicly shamed.
Victor Godden, Toronto
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It is ludicrous for a fish-eating person to consider themself to be a vegetarian. I have a more than 20-year-old giant gourami fish who possesses a full slate of emotions from rage to contentment to fear, who enjoys watching television in the evenings, and who is most certainly not a plant.
Alison Baxter, Toronto
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Re Vegan Food Producer Ordered To Drop The Word ‘Cheese’ From Its Marketing (Feb. 18): Blue Heron founder Karen McAthy asks, “If vegan cheese-alternative companies cannot use cheese proper, and by the CFIA’s own regulations on phonetic pronunciation, the word cheeze, what can we use?”
The appropriate response to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency’s ruling is clear. Vegan producers should call their products: Jeez. As in, Jeez whiz, CFIA.
Colin Macleod, Victoria