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Best, brightest
Re Ottawa Prepares To Ease Rules On Temporary Foreign Workers (Aug. 11): What a relief that Immigration Minister John McCallum will give companies the freedom to "bring in the best and the brightest." Fully 75 per cent of temp foreign workers admitted in 2015 worked either in low wage jobs or "primary agriculture," which is a euphemism for even lower wage jobs.
So coffee shops across the land will once again be able to import the best and the brightest servers, the East Coast fishery will be able to import the best and the brightest fish-plant workers, and Ontario orchards will have unfettered access to the best and brightest fruit pickers. Why bother paying a living wage when companies are allowed to import unskilled labour that works for less?
Dieter Neumann, Kemble, Ont.
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Do not deploy
Re Sajjan Puts A New Face On Peacekeeping (Aug. 11): If the question – where to deploy the Canadian Forces? – has to be asked, the query answers itself: Don't do it. If it isn't obvious where our military is needed, that is a strong indication that we should not deploy it. The benefits of a discretionary deployment are dubious, the harm and death to Canadians is not.
Hank Ford, Gatineau, Que.
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Words to fear
The first half of what Donald Trump said about the Second Amendment (the right to bear arms) and Hillary Clinton is open to interpretation (Trump's Assassination Hint A New Low – Aug. 11). The fuller text shows the lie in his claim that he was only calling on the Second Amendment people's electoral power.
He said: "If she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks. Although the Second Amendment people, maybe there is, I don't know. But I'll tell you what, that will be a horrible day."
If we accept he was only talking about voting, perhaps he and his apologists should explain why citizens voting is a horrible thing.
Jon P. McGoey, London, Ont.
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The following opinion seems curiously apropos when considering the presidential contest in the United States.
"Since the masses have only a poor acquaintance with abstract ideas, their reaction lies more in the domain of feelings, where the roots of their positive as well as their negative attitudes are implanted … The emotional grounds of their attitude furnish the reason for their extraordinary stability.
"It is always more difficult to fight successfully against faith than against knowledge… And the driving force which has brought about the most tremendous revolutions on this earth, has never been a body of scientific teaching which has gained power over the masses, but always a devotion which has inspired them and often a kind of hysteria which has urged them into action. Whoever wishes to win over the masses must know the key that will open the door to their hearts.
"It is not objectivity, which is a feckless attitude, but a determined will, backed up by force where necessary."
Thus wrote Adolf Hitler in Mein Kampf, quoted in Alan Bullock's book Hitler: A Study in Tyranny.
Boudewyn van Oort, Victoria
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Mirror, mirror
Body perception and judgment prevailed in Thursday's Globe, from Russell Smith 's observations about beautiful women with abundant hair to Jennifer Liebrum's poignant reflections on weight loss born from worry, to yet another study bemoaning teens' unhealthy efforts to achieve socially lauded unattainable body types (The Lion, The Pool Bar And The Upside To The Age Of Excess; An Unwelcome Loss Of Weight; Note To Teen-agers: Nobody Looks Like That). Cathal Kelly's witty and sensitive comments ring oh so true in light of these perspectives: "No body can be wrong if it does something well" (The Body Politics).
Trish Crowe, Kingston
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Signs of the times
Various letter writers have commented on David Parkins's cartoon on Monday depicting a grinning Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne next to a skunk enveloped in cash-for-access fumes. My cartoon suggestion: Depict Ms. Wynne and B.C. Premier Christy Clark sharing a bust of Harry Truman on their desks, captioned "The buck stops here."
Jim Stuart, Windsor, Ont.
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A right to housing
Re Tents Folding (editorial, Aug. 9): For eight months in Victoria, people who were homeless created a community replete with communal spaces and tiny gardens. It wasn't pretty. But for many it was a place to call home that was safer than overcrowded shelters or the streets. It was called Super InTent City.
When the province moved to evict the tent city residents, B.C. Chief Justice Christopher Hinkson could not countenance putting them back on the street. He wanted assurance they had access to safe, secure, affordable homes.
Once the province made good on this promise, he allowed tent city to be taken down. If that is naiveté, bring it on. More judges should exhibit this moral fortitude in the face of deepening poverty and homelessness in Canada. Let's celebrate a decision that recognizes everyone's right to adequate housing. Even in Canada.
Tracy Heffernan, lawyer/provincial director, Tenant Duty Counsel Program, Toronto
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Thank you, Gord
Re Fireworks: A Rock 'N' Roll Celebration As The Hip Hits Toronto (online, Aug. 11): This has been an incredible year. Amid all the fear, anger and pain, there is Gord Downie and The Tragically Hip.
Many of us, many many of us, those born after 1960 and before 1990, have Hip stories. We lived in a simple time before Snapchat and Vine, when going to a Hip concert was a highlight and an underrated, simple task all at once. No selfies, no self-consumed grand illusion of who we were, even though we were more authentically aware of who we were – and are – than most generations. Gord Downie has a lot to do with this.
As simple as it is to say one is proud to be Canadian, we know what being a Canadian is because of the music and lyrics from a lyricist and poet next to only, at best, Leonard Cohen. As much fun as a Hip show was, what kept us going back is the collectiveness of a quintessential Canadian identity – kind, sexy, a little drunk, a little high, grateful, endearing. Road Apples, Another Roadside Attraction, Phantom Power: Whatever tour, in whichever Canadian arena or auditorium you saw The Hip, it didn't matter.
This week and next, as long as we want, The Tragically Hip will mean more than a bunch of cool kids from Kingston playing rock and roll at the cusp of new wave, but rather what it means to be a Canadian, forever grateful simply because that's who we are.
"Love is a curse." Thanks, Gord.
Kelly Patrick, Toronto