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What the PM said
Re Trudeau Blasted Over Remarks On Brazeau (Aug. 1): "I wanted someone who would be a good foil, and we stumbled upon the scrappy tough-guy senator from an Indigenous community."
I am asking myself why the Prime Minister included the words "from an Indigenous community" in the Rolling Stone interview. The answer is not taking me to a comfortable place.
Tracy McCarthy, Edmonton
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Regarding the outrage of Indigenous advocates at the PM's explanation of how Patrick Brazeau was chosen as a boxing opponent, I wonder if there would have been similar outrage from a certain Quebec town if Justin Trudeau had said the choice was "a scrappy, tough guy" from Shawinigan.
Mark DeWolf, Halifax
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Betrayals. Plural
Re OxyContin Deal Is A Betrayal Of Canadians (editorial, Aug. 1): The first betrayal of Canadians was the fact that physicians received monetary benefit from "pushing" a drug that would lead to a major public-health crisis.
The second betrayal was the lack of leadership and good judgment by government regulators and individual physicians who overprescribed opioid medications.
Ill health and the suffering of individuals and families continues as government pays lip service to addressing the issue, but fails to provide the necessary care and treatment. Perhaps the general public is still not aware that the original "drug dealers" who created the current climate of opioid dependence/addiction held medical degrees?
Margaret Shaw, Toronto
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Nuclear options
Re Why Canada Should Sign The Treaty Banning Nuclear Arms (July 29): The current momentum as regards both nuclear-weapons proliferation and nuclear-weapons modernization needs to be stopped in its tracks.
By far the best way to do so is by way of international pressure on nuclear-weapons states to agree to a no-first-use policy for their nuclear arsenals, and to reduce and reconfigure their nuclear weapons forces accordingly.
Such efforts would be far more productive than the rather inconsequential recent UN conference on nuclear-weapons abolition.
Simon Rosenblum, Toronto
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Living wage, by right
Re Minimum Wages: The Small-Town View (Aug. 1): A living wage needs to be a right.
A fair-wage playing field is necessary to foment real change; this change now begins from the bottom up. If a student or retired colleague receives the minimum wage to finance their education or modest lifestyle, why is that so bad? Is that not fair?
These are tough economic times, but really, we have to admit that it is good here in Canada. Surely our bottom lines must allow us to adapt, or else why are we in business in the first place?
Are we not in business to change our world, to make it a better, liveable place for all? Let us not lose sight of that goal.
As small business owners, we have learned much in 30-plus years, most importantly: Respect your employees, and your fair profits will come.
Marian Kingsmill, Dundas, Ont.
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Some context, in my view: The Atlantic Institute for Market Studies, whose research Margaret Wente leans on in her assault on a $15 minimum wage, is chaired by John Risley, whose net worth of $1.43-billion ranks him this year as the 70th-richest person in Canada, according to Canadian Business.
Richard Bingham, Toronto
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Our national interest
Re After Saudi Video, Canada Has A Choice To Make On Rights (Aug. 1): Attacking the government for the export of military vehicles to Saudi Arabia is ill-advised. The contract provides thousands of Canadian jobs for 15 years, plus substantial profit, which is a tax gain for Canadians.
If we were to cancel the contract, Saudi Arabia would get equivalent vehicles from our allies. We would become the loser. An ally would become the winner at our financial expense. And Saudi Arabia could retaliate by cancelling purchases of all exports from Canada, an added loss.
Cancelling the deal would be Boy Scout naiveté at best, and against our national interest in reality.
Sam Elaraby, Kirkland, Que.
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The Saudi government says its military purchases are intended as a "goodwill gesture" to "cement its friendship with Canada," but it is the possibility of ill-will gestures against its own citizens that is the problem.
Friendship cannot come at a cost like that.
Debbie Grisdale, Ottawa
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Aptly called Superior
Re Thunder Bay Is In Trouble – But There Is Hope, Too (July 31): Sean Speer's article about his hometown makes several good counterpoints to the admittedly dismal news of recent weeks, and indeed months.
Omitted, however, was the city's greatest asset, namely its unmatched harbour on the shores of the world's greatest lake, aptly named Superior. I took 25 high school students from my school to the city in June, and they were properly impressed "with the lake they call Gitchee Gumee" (Gordon Lightfoot).
Adam de Pencier, principal, Blyth Academy Yorkville, Toronto
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Made in Bangladesh
Re Four Years Later, Are Bangladeshi Workers Any Safer? (July 28): Following the tragic 2013 collapse of Rana Plaza, our members formed a legally binding, five-year commitment to improve safety in all factories with which they do business. Since then, the Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety has remediated hundreds of factories, trained millions of workers in fire safety, and empowered workers to voice concerns without fear of retribution.
Most importantly, our efforts have resulted in lives saved. No garment worker has lost their life in an Alliance-affiliated factory since our remediation work began.
Our goal has always been to leave behind a culture of safety that is sustained locally beyond our departure, and that commitment has not changed. We will sunset in 2018, and hand operations over precisely because we are on track to have made our factories safe, and fulfill our commitment to workers, on time.
James F. Moriarty, country director, Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety
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Hmm …
Re Trump's New Chief Of Staff Gets Down To Business (Aug. 1): With all this talk of the Republicans and the White House going down the rabbit hole, perhaps we need a warren commission to explain things.
Eric Mendelsohn, Toronto