Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau testifies at the Public Order Emergency Commission on Nov. 25.Spencer Colby/The Globe and Mail
In limbo
Re Afghans Stuck In Pakistan Fear Canada Has Abandoned Them (Nov. 25): Personally I am most concerned with the fate of a former employee of the Canadian embassy in Kabul. He was the first local staff member we hired. He met the criterion of being directly engaged and paid by the government of Canada. As our political analyst, he provided sensitive and confidential information to the ambassador, our defence attaches, visiting MPs and senators.
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada views his requests for asylum over the past 1.5 years only as an “expression of interest.” Its website says he must wait to receive an “invitation to apply.” Only then may his case be considered and he be given a positive or negative reply.
He and his family remain trapped and certainly abandoned by Canada in Kabul. He has been threatened several times by the Taliban.
He is one of many whose requests for asylum remain in limbo.
Eileen Olexiuk Former deputy head of mission, Canadian embassy, Kabul Ottawa
A solution?
Re Pierre Poilievre Couldn’t Be More Wrong On Drug Policy (Nov. 23): If safe injection sites are working, why are there still so many deaths from illicit and toxic drugs in general? How do they work in other countries?
Switzerland has safe injection sites and also provides drugs cheaper than those on the street. But in addition, the country requires that patients go to rehab. Swiss authorities also pursue drug dealers and their importation vigorously. These are the reasons why Switzerland has its drug problem largely under control. This, I believe, is what Pierre Poilievre is saying he would do.
Generally I agree with him: Most everything in Canada is broken and Justin Trudeau carries a good deal of the blame.
Roger Emsley Delta, B.C.
Political leadership
Re Fixing What’s Really Broken In Canada (Editorial, Nov. 24): I agree that there is a lack of wise leadership in Canada, but am amazed there is no mention of Justin Trudeau.
He has been Prime Minister for seven years. Surely he should bear primary responsibility for the state of the nation, and not the new Leader of the Opposition nor the premiers of Alberta and Ontario.
There is a growing disconnect among Canadians and I recommend Canadians look for the real reasons.
Tom Ham Ottawa
Re Thank You, Doug Ford, For Exposing The Lie At The Heart Of Canada’s Modern Democracy (Opinion, Nov. 25): Columnist Andrew Coyne’s lament at what he calls “institutionalized minority rule” seems to paint an overly pessimistic image.
Despite low election turnouts, we manage to change governments peacefully from time to time, and those new governments sometimes reverse measures introduced by their predecessors. So perhaps we should not think of democracy as a perfectly level and straight road, but rather as a bumpy journey with many hills, valleys and turns.
Just like life.
Tony Manera Ottawa
Another cause
Re Cause And Effect (Letters, Nov. 24): A letter-writer and many other commentators keep repeating what should be considered a basic economic misunderstanding. They state that the plan of Alberta (and other provincial governments) to lower some taxes and send money to citizens struggling with rising prices will fuel inflation and end up being counterproductive.
The overall price level rises when the money supply increases faster than the quantity of goods and services. However, the Bank of Canada is not buying Alberta’s bonds and monetizing Alberta’s debt, and therefore not creating money to help the province fund these measures, as it did with Ottawa’s massive deficits during the pandemic. It’s more a question of money taken from some pockets and redistributed to others.
There may be other reasons to criticize Danielle Smith’s measures from the point of view of economic efficiency, but fuelling inflation should not be one of them.
Michel Kelly-Gagnon President and CEO, Montreal Economic Institute
Pension protection
Re MPs Advance Bill To Prioritize Pensions In Corporate Defaults (Report on Business, Nov. 24): It took three backbench MPs – Marilyn Gladu, Marilene Gill and Daniel Blaikie – from three opposition parties in a minority government to do what governments and the pension industry have long failed to do: Compromise on a good, but not perfect, solution to the issue of protecting unpaid deferred wages.
Cliff Jenkins Stouffville, Ont.
Tales from crypto
Re There’s A Lot To Learn From FTX’s Crypto Crisis (Report on Business, Nov. 24): The Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan seems to have fluffed off the $95-million it decided to invest in FTX, saying the amount only represented 0.05 per cent of total assets. This looks like a clear case of gambling with someone else’s money – retired teachers’ money – and certainly not careful investing.
What does it take to get fired?
Mark Slotwinski Sarnia, Ont.
I have observed the ultimate upending of so many spectacular, and less so, con jobs over the years.
Enron, Bre-X, Bernie Madoff, Quadriga and Theranos are just a few that easily come to mind. Add FTX to the list.
Upon their collapse, there is a frantic search for what went wrong. In most cases, there are “shiny objects” such as too-good-to-be-true investment returns, a “disruptive business idea” or high-profile board members that attract the gullible and those with fear of missing out.
So-called seasoned investors, analysts, prominent corporations and celebrities not only sign on, but promote the scam. Only after the fraud revelation does the ever-present evidence come as a “shock.”
There are no rules, laws or regulation that can prevent the human stupidity and greed at the root of these schemes.
David Gelder Mississauga
Wow, am I ever glad that I didn’t listen to Pierre Poilievre.
Jim Hickman Bracebridge, Ont.
Before and after
Re Banff Hot Springs Park Is Established (Moment in Time, Nov. 25): Perhaps a better title would be: “Europeans unjustly claim ownership of Banff hot springs.”
Archaeological records and oral histories provide evidence that Indigenous people have been in the Bow Valley for some 13,000 years. The Stoney Nakoda people used the hot springs as a sacred ceremonial site long before the springs were “established” by the Canadian government.
How much better would the world be if we treated such sites as sacred, rather than as competition for tourist profit?
Katherine Binhammer Canmore, Alta.
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