Retired nurse Donna Lessard takes part in the Medicago COVID-19 vaccine clinical trials with project co-ordinator Raphael Brochu on Jan. 29, 2021, in Mirabel, Que. The parent company of Medicago Inc. has announced it will shut down the Quebec-based biopharmaceutical company which had developed a vaccine against COVID-19.Ryan Remiorz/The Canadian Press
Gone so soon
Re Governments seek buyer as Quebec COVID-19 vaccine manufacturer Medicago set to close (Feb. 4): At the start of the pandemic, the outcry that Canada lacked a domestic producer of vaccines was palpable, particularly among those who remember the demise of Connaught Laboratories.
Three years later, Canada’s only manufacturer of COVID-19 vaccines is set to close. Is history repeating itself?
Joe Racanelli Toronto
Wait times
Re “The Liberals beat a hasty, but necessary, retreat on gun control” (Editorial, Feb. 7): I was once a rifle instructor. I still own a small arsenal of guns for which I am licensed.
But my licence expired in January. I sent in my renewal paperwork last October. I have been told most recently that my licence will be sent in four to six weeks. In the meantime, I cannot use or purchase firearms or ammunition.
What’s the point of playing by the rules if nobody else does? Is it that difficult to issue a licence to a 66-year-old who has been licensed since Day 1?
The next letter I’ll be writing is to say my family is starving because I am prohibited from hunting.
James Peckham Hamilton Township, Ont.
Invite list
Re “Opioids and the elephant in the room” (Opinion, Feb. 4): As an award-winning author and doctor specializing in addiction medicine, Vincent Lam has presented us with the most convincing and comprehensive public-health strategy to address addictions.
Twelve years ago, I invited Dr. Lam to speak to my public-health staff to enlighten and inspire us. He did not disappoint.
Our Prime Minister and premiers are meeting to determine health care strategy and funding. May I humbly suggest that Dr. Lam be invited to address our leaders?
The future of health care may depend on it.
Bob Nosal Hamilton
Pay up
Re “Soaring housing costs are turning cities into citadels for the rich” (Editorial, Feb. 8): I recall the late 1980s, when Toronto was first christened an “international city.”
The newfound status was widely trumpeted. Now, we endlessly complain about unaffordable housing.
Being an international city – like London, New York, Rome, Paris, etc. – has its perks and pitfalls. One of the most significant pitfalls is that housing is extremely expensive. Always has been and likely always will be.
I haven’t come across endless griping about how people should be entitled to affordable housing in those cities. Yet in Toronto, people often feel that a house is a God-given entitlement.
If people want to live in Toronto, they’ll have to pay dearly for it. There’s no example in public policy that I know of that has successfully reduced housing prices in great cities to enable much larger affordability.
If people don’t like it, there’s probably an affordable detached house with backyard beckoning in Saskatoon.
Gerald Vincent Toronto
New build
Re “Unless building codes catch up to extreme heat, Canada’s future summers will be even deadlier” and “Competing visions for a redevelopment of Vancouver’s waterfront” (Feb. 4): About four years ago, I was providing minor home repairs for seniors in a community support program in the Lower Mainland. One client had me install two portable air conditioners in a newer high-rise condo that was dangerously overheating.
I can only shake my head in disbelief upon reading of an international architectural firm proposing yet another “cluster of glassy towers” in Vancouver. As climate change brings more frequent and extreme heat events to British Columbia, our existing glassy towers may become vertical greenhouses.
With more frequent and intense windstorms, there will likely be more frequent and prolonged power outages that cut air conditioning, water supply and elevator services in affected towers, with potentially deadly consequences.
More federal and provincial programs to encourage building adaptation and updated building codes can make our communities livable in future climates – if we act quickly enough.
Derek Wilson Member, climate action committee, city of Port Moody, B.C.
In the bag
Re “On supply management” (Letters, Feb. 3): The supply management system was designed to protect both agricultural producers and consumers.
There is a three- or four-year lag in the life cycle between when a cow conceives her calf and when it matures to produce milk. This causes a cycle of surplus and shortage, resulting in a cycle of high and low prices for producers and consumers. Supply management gives everyone assured stable prices.
However, I find a flaw in the current system: A producer has a quota per cow which can be traded or sold to other producers. The value of the quota is included in the cost of production, and has risen to almost the value of the cow herself.
This causes an increase in costs transferred to consumers. They have a right to question the system.
Ross Gould Agrologist (retired), Calgary
Artistic response
Re “National Gallery of Canada’s show must go on – minus senior curators (for now)” (Feb. 4): Former National Gallery of Canada director Sacha Suda was a breath of fresh air. One of the many things she did, in addition to highlighting Indigenous art in new ways, was bring paintings by talented and neglected women out of the vaults.
After seeing the brilliant exhibition Uninvited at Ontario’s McMichael gallery, which contained the work of many of these ignored women, I wrote to Ms. Suda. I suggested that its Canadian tour end at the National Gallery. She wrote back a lovely note agreeing with me.
Later, I was overjoyed to learn that it was to be so. Canada has so long ignored the art of talented women, Indigenous, non-Indigenous and European. Exhibiting more women artists would draw new and younger crowds to galleries and museums.
I hope the National Gallery gets over its bureaucratic nonsense and gets on with its work. I bemoan the loss of Ms. Suda.
Patty Deline Ottawa
British health care
Re “My nightmare trip to the emergency room showed me that British health care is in a shambles” (Opinion, Jan. 28): Your contributor’s account of our accident-and-emergency department at Charing Cross Hospital is not one that we recognize.
We don’t disagree that the National Health Service is currently under huge pressure and this is affecting patients, especially in terms of waiting times and overall experience. But we find the article incorrectly describes our A&E as an unsafe department.
All patients are assessed as soon as they arrive at A&E and prioritized according to clinical need. Care details are recorded in real-time in our electronic patient record system. In the month in question, 57 per cent of patients were treated and discharged or admitted within four hours of arrival. Four per cent of people waited more than 12 hours to be either discharged or admitted, with most of these waits being for inpatient beds after assessment and initial treatment by an A&E doctor.
It would be extremely rare for even one patient to be lying on the floor anywhere in A&E. In the scenario that a patient waiting in a public area suffers cardiac arrest, the emergency-department team and members of the crash team would attend and, in line with the core clinical principles of basic life support, would start any necessary resuscitation immediately before moving them to a private area to provide ongoing care.
We’re really sorry that your contributor had a poor experience in one of our hospitals, and we are following up to clarify what happened and understand what we could do better.
Ali Sanders MBChB; clinical director, emergency medicine, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust; London
I see you
Re “Canadian Olympic Committee follows IOC lead on Russia, Belarus in 2024 Olympics” (Sports, Feb. 3): With its typical progressive ingenuity, the International Olympic Committee purports to hide Russian presence at the Olympics by allowing the team to participate under the guise of “neutrals.”
Why not also provide them with opera masks and periwigs? Forsooth, no one shall know who they are.
Joel May Mississauga
Live better
Re “Well lived” (Letters, Feb. 6): While no one would deny Winston Churchill’s remarkable life, was it a result of his drinking, smoking and overall terrible physical condition?
By this logic, my spouse – a triathlete yoga instructor who exercised regularly, ate well, did not abuse alcohol and never smoked – must have succumbed to lung cancer at an early age because of her lifestyle. Had she embraced Churchill’s lifestyle, would she have had a longer and more remarkable life?
This type of mentality – the denial of the adverse effects of unhealthy lifestyle choices – seems to perpetuate the problems we all bear as a society.
David Hughes Glass MD (retired); Saugeen Shores, Ont.
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