Former prime minister Jean Chrétien.Justin Tang/The Canadian Press
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Calling out Chrétien
The ideas promulgated by former prime minister Jean Chrétien and his former senior adviser Edward Goldberg are nothing short of inane (Chrétien Proposes Cancelling Huawei CFO’s Extradition, June 13). In private, my language would be a lot more forceful.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is still suffering from the fallout of the SNC Lavalin/Jody Wilson-Raybould debacle, and now Mr. Chrétien and company are suggesting that he lean on the Justice Minister to exercise his discretion in terminating the extradition of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou? You have to be kidding.
Furthermore, giving in to Chinese pressure would be nothing short of giving in to extortion by a bully holding two of our citizens for ransom. Doing so would only encourage further bullying.
Mr. Chrétien and Co. think there would be no repercussions by stopping the extradition? Just wait until U.S. President Donald Trump reacts to such action.
The best possible approach to the situation would be to expedite the extradition of Ms. Meng. She is a hot potato, and the sooner she is passed on to our southern neighbours the sooner things will cool down.
Ernest F. Gutstein, Toronto
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What a huge mistake it would be for Canada to cancel the extradition process for Ms. Meng, regardless of whether it is allowed under the Extradition Act.
Such a move would confirm that China can bully any and all into submission. This is the same China where human rights are non-existent and where the rule of law is whatever President Xi Jinping says it is. Any extradition cancellation would need to be initiated and carried out by the United States and only if the facts support cancellation.
Sharon Keenan, Toronto
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Mr. Trudeau must stay the course, but start by eliminating Huawei as a contender for Canada’s 5G network. That will send a message to China that, although a small customer, Canada is still a customer for Chinese goods, and it is easy to lose a customer.
Chris Wrigley, Oakville, Ont.
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The naiveté of our Prime Minister amazes me. Does he, or our equally naive Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland, believe that the Chinese will soften their position toward Canada if we use Mr. Chrétien to restate our commitment to the rule of law and reiterate our obligation to comply with our extradition agreement with the United States? The Chinese will bend only if we capitulate.
It would be much more straightforward, as Mr. Chrétien has suggested, to cancel Ms. Meng’s extradition hearing and let her return home. We accuse the Chinese of unlawful detention of our citizens. And ironically we see no injustice in holding, for months or years, a Chinese citizen? We have done little or nothing in the six months since Ms. Meng’s arrest to see that she gets a timely hearing.
Ashok Sajnani, Toronto
Unsporting lessons
As the parent of three young children getting involved in community, amateur sports, I can’t help but shake my head as Cathal Kelly reinforces the precise opposite of what I hope for my kids to get out of athletic competition (The Durant Drama Happened - And Canada Needs To Own It, June 13).
Sports are also the real world, not some alternate space where normally decent human beings are allowed to behave beyond a moral code. I, along with so many other parents, try to convey to children what sports can offer them: healthy and vibrant competition, a space where hard work pays off, comraderie with teammates, learning how to be a good loser, and learning how to be a good winner.
I actually don’t care whether in the heat of “battle” Raptors fans booed an injured opponent or whether it’s all overblown. I care that in the light of day, an analyst is applauding and embracing these base instincts, even holding them up as a source of pride. How we act in every situation contributes to defining who we are.
Adam Green, Ottawa
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As a sports fan I disagree strongly with Mr. Kelly’s column attempting to justify what I regard as some sports fans’ uncivilized and even vicious behaviour. I hope you get lots of civilized and polite e-mails disagreeing with him.
Jean Gowe, Kingston
Paying for pharmacare
Re Panel Calls For $15.3-Billion Pharmacare Plan (June 13):
In the coming debate over a national pharmacare program, we should not lose site of the fact that Canada’s per capita spending on drugs (at $1,043) is third highest in the world according to the 2018 Canadian Institute for Health Information report on prescribed drug spending. Britain, by comparison, spends $596 per capita. There needs to be a focus on effectiveness of drug utilization as well.
The plan, if fully implemented, will shift $333 per capita in private insurance spending and $354 per capita in individual spending to public expenditure. While there have been calls for action on this issue since the days of Tommy Douglas, there have been similar calls for increased investments in mental health and addiction care to improve access, and the per capita cost of $120 per Canadian is far less. Both these issues are worthy of debate in the coming election.
Steve Lurie, executive director, adjunct professor FISW, University of Toronto Canadian Mental Health Association Toronto Branch, Toronto
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Your report on pharmacare asserts that taxes will have to be raised to pay for it. This is not necessarily true if the use of the small co-payment proposed for pharmacare were to be extended to all encounters with the health-care system.
Surely, small co-payments for routine appointments and larger payments for emergency room visits would both help offset costs and reduce the frivolous use of health-care resources.
David Allen, Edmonton
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How did it come to be that a prescription drug plan is a top priority for this government and a national daycare program is not?
The evidence is in from the daycare program in Quebec. If the feds are worried about money, it turns out the province is making money through the taxes paid by women back in the work force.
We have taken care of our reproductive rights thanks to our Charter of Rights and Freedoms, Dr. Henry Morgentaler and all of us who worked over the years to rid our country of the Draconian law regulating women’s bodies and for the right of families to plan their size.
The next step for the continued liberation of women is the national childcare program that was prepared by previous Liberal governments and ready to pass when the NDP brought down the minority Martin government.
I have written the Prime Minister urging him to dust off that document and put it before the House of Commons.
All to no avail. This in spite of his declaration of being a feminist and having a critical mass of women in his cabinet.
Cady Williams, Toronto
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