Barbara Violo, pharmacist and owner of The Junction Chemist Pharmacy, draws up a dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, in Toronto.Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press
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Almost there
Re Adding A Stick To The Vaccine Carrot (Editorial, June 18): Our governments should show some real courage and determination. Canadians, to a large standard, have embraced vaccinations. But we are only partway home.
Provinces are opening up – great – but we should keep our eye on the ball and get to 90 per cent of Canadians being fully vaccinated. We shouldn’t have lotteries, we should have hard-and-fast rules along with the carrots. Make vaccinations mandatory to go to bars, restaurants, sporting venues, retail outlets and schools, for air travel and public transit and more.
We have had 16 months of lockdowns. Let’s finish the job before we read about a resurgence because of variants. We can’t simply hope that everyone will do their part.
Peter Belliveau Moncton
Thank you, a must-read for every politician in Canada.
My wife and I are over 80. Recently at our dentist, we learned (only by asking before our checkups and teeth cleanings) that three of four hygienists were vaccine-hesitant! Vaccination should be a job requirement.
W.G. Duncan Pickering, Ont.
Re Health Care Workers Counter Vaccine Rumours As Some Patients Hesitate To Get Shots From Certain Brands (June 18): It is disheartening that some people are refusing to get the Moderna vaccine. Moderna was co-founded by Derrick Rossi, a Canadian biologist. Maybe the Canadian connection will help its trustworthiness. Although ironically, as advised, Mr. Rossi took the first vaccine offered to him: Pfizer.
Cindy Beatty Mississauga
Due process
Re Forces Need Independent Oversight: Report (June 18): So far, many generals have been suspended or retired following allegations of sexual misconduct. Appearances suggest these actions were taken under the direction of the Defence Minister, not the Chief of the Defence Staff.
I find that some of these actions arose without procedural fairness, an essential tenet of the rule of law. This was revealed in a court application filed by Major-General Dany Fortin against the Prime Minister, Defence Minister and Health Minister. Yet to be tested in court, it challenges the credibility of the political and military leadership.
Everyone is entitled to the presumption of innocence and due process. To deny these cornerstones of our justice system has an impact that extends to the integrity of the system itself, upon which all Canadians rely.
Members of our military, whether higher-ups or rank and file, can, with good reason, question whether they can expect fair treatment from their civilian masters.
Michel Drapeau Colonel (retired), Ottawa
Lose-lose?
Re A Green MP’s Exit Could Be A Blessing In Disguise For Annamie Paul (Opinion, June 19): When examining the defection of MP Jenica Atwin from the Green Party to the Liberals, it is painfully clear to me that both parties have ethics of convenience, not of conscience.
Colin Lockhart Florenceville-Bristol, N.B.
Developing industry
Re Without More R&D, Canada Is Missing Out On A Pharma Boom (June 16): I have absolutely no interest in subsidizing multinational pharmaceutical companies by means of high drug prices or tax breaks, in what amounts to bribing them into conducting R&D in Canada. That approach has historically been a failure. It also leaves us completely beholden to these companies for access to needed medications.
What we should do is build a Canadian pharmaceutical industry. Only then would there be a real chance of significant R&D in this country, and of having at least some control over our own drug supply.
Jim Paulin Ottawa
Of course commercial interests will go for whatever improves the bottom line. But as an inquisitive citizen, I wonder: Which non-monied interests are working to promote the other side of this debate – the side that agrees with the notion of a ceiling on drug prices? How much money and paid expertise do they have available for the fight?
I also wonder which countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development are already doing this.
Brian Tansey Ottawa
Basic outcomes
Re Basic-Income Bill Might Not Survive, But It’s The Right Step (Report on Business, June 17): If there’s one thing the pandemic should have taught us, it’s the need for a basic income to avoid the chaos of repeated crises, which should be expected as climate change worsens. And if there’s one thing the Dauphin, Man., pilot program taught us in the 1970s, it was that a basic income does not discourage people from paid work.
The experiment enabled parents to afford child care so they could enter or re-enter the work force. They could go back to school to prepare for different work, or for better-paying or more satisfying work.
We are probably in for dramatic work-force changes as a result of the pandemic and decreasing employment in the fossil fuel industry. A basic income would help smooth out inevitable disruptions.
If we need more “trial runs,” sooner is better than later. Now should certainly be the time.
D.J. Stewart North Vancouver
Spirit and practice
Re What Doug Ford Did To Democracy (June 18): Contributor Allan Hutchinson’s cogent breakdown of Doug Ford’s misuse of the notwithstanding clause is a perfect lesson in parsing the laws of democracy and their legislative uses, of democracy’s meaning in a free society and its actual implementation.
However, as we’ve seen south of the border, the distance between the law’s intent and its partisan colouring, between an inflexible ideology and a more inclusive common sense, is all too often dependent on the person wielding power.
Expecting Mr. Ford to “act in a balanced and principled manner,” or be “more reflective and high-minded,” is not the kind of wisdom I’ve grown to expect from him or, it seems, his fellow Conservative legislators supporting him in this endeavour.
Edward Carson Toronto
Work-life balance
Re Nadal’s Time Off Reflects A Broader Issue Of A Waning Work Ethic In Sports (Sports, June 18): Doesn’t everyone want to make a living without sacrificing their health, and hope to be in a decent state of bodily function at retirement? I imagine many pro athletes suffer chronic injuries that affect their quality of life following their professional careers.
To change the expectations of the masses should be considered a step forward in respecting athletes’ long-term physical and mental well-being.
Sue Gal Richmond Hill, Ont.
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