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Working. Hypotheses
Re Decline In Full-Time, Core-Aged Workers (Folio, Nov. 30): On the one hand, we are seeing more part-time and contract work without pensions and few, if any, benefits as globalization and technology bring unprecedented change to the labour market. On the other hand, we have groups calling for substantial increases in immigration.
There seems to be a major disconnect here, unless by "immigrants" they really mean robots.
David Enns, Cornwall, Ont.
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It's suggested that the decline in the proportion of prime-age people with full-time jobs reflects an increase in the insecurity of work. A closer look suggests an alternative explanation. In the labour force survey, the percentage of workers 30 to 60 working full time actually increased between 1997 and 2016. For 20- to 30-year-olds, the percentage working full time has fallen substantially – from 88 per cent in 1997 to 79 per cent in 2016. But this can be accounted for by an increase in those going to school (the proportion who say they are part time because they can't find full-time work has declined).
What the census numbers may really reflect is a declining proportion of less-educated males in the labour market. The participation rate (the percentage either working or looking for work) for male high-school graduates ages 25 to 54 was 95 per cent in 1990, but 88 per cent in 2016. The decline for male high-school dropouts is even larger.
The problem we face is not an increase in unstable work among those who work – but the substantial increase in the proportion of less-educated males who are not even looking for work.
David Green, professor, Vancouver School of Economics
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A White House CV
Re The President Shows His True Colours (Nov. 30): Editorialists should stop asking Donald Trump to apologize for his tweets and inflammatory rhetoric. This will never happen. He's nothing more than a thug with limited intellect and even more limited conscience. The sole positive of his presidency is that it proves the adage that anyone can grow up to be president.
Brahm Rosen, Thornhill, Ont.
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Donald Trump has moved on from being what The Globe and Mail once called the "protector-in-chief of right-wing racists" to become their enabler-in-chief.
Quite simply, there is no precedent for this President.
Howard Greenfield, Montreal
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Privacy, on the rails
Re Cameras In Trains Can Help Avoid Tragedy (Nov. 27): Canada's unions are among the strongest advocates for rail safety because it's workers who operate the trains who are most often injured or killed in accidents. For those workers and their unions, the safety of all Canadians is paramount. That's why we fully support the installation and use of voice recorders on trains.
What we are opposing are two ways the proposed legislation – Bill C-49 – would needlessly violate workers' privacy without improving rail safety.
First, the legislation proposes installing both voice and video recorders in locomotives. Trains are already equipped with data recorders that capture everything a locomotive engineer does. They are also equipped with forward-facing cameras that capture everything in front of the train, including switch positioning and signal indications. Voice recorders make sense, but video recorders can't provide information that isn't already available through less intrusive means.
Second, the legislation is silent on who can access and use on-board recordings. We've simply asked that the legislation specify that these recordings, like the aviation industry's "black box" recordings, can only be accessed and used by the Transportation Safety Board.
Canada's unions will never stand in the way of rail safety. But it does not have to come at the cost of workers' privacy.
Hassan Yussuff, president, Canadian Labour Congress
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I echo Campbell Clark's conclusion that the next time there is a rail crash, senators don't want it to be just another mystery waiting to be repeated.
In the aftermath of a rail accident, we expect answers. Families want to know why loved ones died, and Canadians want to know what will be done to ensure it does not happen again. Many times, investigators cannot provide all the answers because they do not have all the recorded information needed to understand exactly what happened.
This means they face challenges when building strong, credible arguments for what needs to be done to improve rail safety in Canada. There is no doubt that video and voice recordings can fill in many of these gaps in understanding and, in turn, help prevent future accidents.
In reviewing this legislation, it is a given that Canada's Senate must satisfy itself that video and voice recordings will be used for safety purposes and that railway crews will be protected from unwarranted discipline. But once assured, I urge senators to leave all the timorous voices behind.
By moving forward with video and voice recorders in Canadian locomotive cabs, parliamentarians have an opportunity to serve the Canadian public interest and to lead the world.
They should take it.
Wendy Tadros, former chair, Transportation Safety Board of Canada
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When blood meant fear
Re Vigilance And Vigour Prevent Tragedies (Nov. 28): In 1987, I was hospitalized and the doctors determined I required a blood transfusion. At 5:45 p.m, the IV was started. At 6 p.m., the CBC Radio News started.
The first story – the public announcement that the Canadian Red Cross did not screen blood products for the AIDS virus, resulting in the spread of the disease. I listened to the story, looked at the blood dripping into my body and realized it could be too late, I might have been infected with HIV-AIDS.
The most terrifying moment of my life.
I was extremely lucky. I was not infected.
My thanks to André Picard for refreshing our memories about the consequences of the then poorly managed blood system that allowed for the spread of HIV-AIDS; for advising us of the possible threats to our current blood system; for giving us all the opportunity to lobby our government to prevent the loosening of controls on the blood system.
No one should ever again be as afraid as I was in 1987.
Enna Pearlston, Toronto
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Hmm …
Re Author Was Subject Of MI5 Probe (Nov. 28): So Britain's MI5 suspected the late Sir Kingsley Amis of treachery, partly because in 1944 he read The Daily Worker newspaper?
My English mother (98, and still around), was a Wren officer during the Second World War. She's often told me that, once the Soviets joined the Allies against Hitler, The Daily Worker was routinely included among the newspapers laid out in the officers' mess.
I wonder if there's a file on mum down in the basement of M15?
Anne Thackray, Toronto