The House of Commons voted unanimously on Thursday to strip Aung San Suu Kyi of her honorary Canadian citizenship.KHAM/AFP/Getty Images
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Oil, (perhaps) on the move
Re Ottawa Needs To Change Its Pipeline Act (editorial, Sept. 27): While there are many concerns about Bill C-69, and not just those identified by The Globe and Mail, the bill in fact presents a new and needed approach to assessing all resource infrastructure projects in Canada.
One issue you raise is the time required for consultation. The bill actually imposes shorter timelines for public consultation than the current Canadian Environmental Assessment Act. The time limits are not “vague”; they include 300 days to complete agency-led assessments and 600 for review by a panel. Like the current act, the bill also calls for (while not defining) “meaningful public participation.”
The quality of participation is key, not just the timing. The independent expert panel that consulted across Canada on what a new law should look like heard loud and clear, including in Alberta, that to build public trust decision processes had to include more meaningful participation.
Otherwise, the courts will be busy for good reason and protests will abound.
A. John Sinclair, acting director, Natural Resources Institute, University of Manitoba
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It should come as no surprise that as oil pipeline projects get delayed or cancelled, more and more oil will be shipped by rail.
What might come as a surprise is that some of this oil will continue to be shipped in Canada using railway cars banned by BNSF, the largest U.S. railroad. One of the reasons BNSF banned the cars is that in June of this year, 14 of 32 of these cars which derailed in Iowa punctured, spilling 230,000 gallons of oil into an Iowa waterway.
As reported by The Globe and Mail last month, BNSF’s move “has sent some of the banned cars to Alberta, where they are being leased at a discount” (CN Crude Volumes Surge Amid Pipeline Bottleneck – Sept. 13). Have we so quickly forgotten the lessons of the Lac-Mégantic disaster?
David Siminovitch, Lethbridge, Alta.
Suu Kyi’s citizenship
Re PM Opens Door To Revoking Suu Kyi’s Citizenship (Sept. 27): Here’s hoping Aung San Suu Kyi loses her honorary citizenship as she is undeserving of it.
If she wants to live in Canada, she’ll have to fly to the United States and walk across the border like everybody else.
Tom Martin, Tottenham, Ont.
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Aung San Suu Kyi is just a figurehead. The real power is vested in the generals. If she tries to do what the West wants her to do, what little moderating influence she has on the generals will be gone. Likely, so will she, as in the kind of gone there is no coming back from – an “unfortunate” fall? A car “accident”?
Disgracing her on the world stage even more by pulling her honorary citizenship just plays into the generals’ hands and benefits neither the Rohingya nor Canada.
Emma Nguyen, Vancouver
Courage to testify
As I watch Christine Blasey Ford’s testimony live before the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, I am reliving, like thousands of other women, sexual attacks that I, too, have suffered and the pain is still there and it is palpable (Kavanaugh Accuser Details Alleged Sexual Assault To U.S. Senate Committee – Sept. 27). The assaults happened to me more than 40 years ago. I have never told anyone except my husband. I therefore applaud her bravery.
Annette Snowdon, Collingwood, Ont.
Judged. And judging
Re Trump Could Withdraw Support For Kavanaugh Depending on Testimony (Sept. 27): It’s amazing to see Republicans complaining about a political response to Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. When presidential candidates say they will stack the Supreme Court, when lists are generated by the Federalist Society, is it any wonder it becomes political?
When a nominee worked in a Republican administration, is it any wonder? I’m loving our “less democratic” appointed judges here in Canada. The whole point of a judge is to be impartial in the first place.
Richard Vanderlubbe, Waterdown, Ont.
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President Donald Trump scored another first after his gig as a stand-up comic at the UN General Assembly.
His own words during a subsequent news conference where he addressed the accusations of sexual misconduct against his Supreme Court nominee ironically described his UN performance perfectly: “big, fat con job.”
James R. McCarney, Oakville, Ont.
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After reading the text of Donald Trump’s speech at the United Nations, it is apparent that those who laughed, heard, but did not listen.
It also appears that many of us need to renew our acquaintance with Edmund Burke and Adam Smith.
Ken Johnson, Lindsay, Ont.
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Sometimes we only see pivotal moments in hindsight. This week, we got a seat in real time. We saw the actual moment when Donald Trump officially became a joke in – quite literally – the eyes of the world at the UN with his absurd claim that his administration has “accomplished more than almost any administration in the history of our country.”
Sarah Anderson, Edmonton
Pot in public
Re Ontario Announces Bill To Loosen Restrictions On Smoking Cannabis In Public (Sept. 27 ): This development will no doubt throw the “we know what’s best for you” crowd into fits, and we will hear dire predictions that the social order will collapse.
Of course this new situation must be monitored, but it seems a refreshing change of direction. Perhaps one day we will enjoy a quiet glass of wine at a family picnic in a park, or a cold beer at the beach – as they’ve done in Europe and other jurisdictions for years.
Robert Cairns, Cobourg, Ont.
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The provincial government wants to place the regulations on the smoking of marijuana in the Smoke Free Ontario Act, an act regulating where a person can smoke tobacco.
Conflating tobacco and cannabis ignores their dramatically different effects on human behaviour and physiology. Applying that same logic would suggest that alcohol be treated as just another food since it is made from fruits and grains, a notion our society has long rejected.
Simply put, one does not get high from smoking tobacco. One can get high from smoking cannabis. As an ex-smoker, I avoid secondhand smoke whenever I can, which is not always. As one who has avoided recreational drugs my entire life, I don’t want to be anywhere near cannabis when it’s being consumed.
Treating marijuana smoking as no different from tobacco takes that choice out of my hands. There is no good reason for that. Let recreational drug users consume their drugs of choice in private or in licenced premises, just like alcohol.
David Kister, Toronto