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................................................................................................................................................................................................Appropriate response?
Zosia Bielski's excellent article, A New Dynamic In The Workplace (Dec. 5), notes that the idea that women can't distinguish between light fare and coercive sexual harassment is patronizing. Yet, in the same edition of The Globe and Mail, we read that MP Sherry Romanado was caused great stress for months by the comment "This isn't my idea of a threesome" (Tory MP Accused Of Making Sexual Comments).
Really? Is she that fragile?
It was a crass, adolescent remark, deserving of a sharp slap-down at the time it happened – and loudly, so everyone heard. It was not sexual harassment, nor did it merit a half page of coverage. This is a perfect example of what leads men to say they no longer know how to behave, and it is insulting to those women who have endured real harassment.
If Ms. Romanado wants constituents to see her as pro-active on this issue, there are far more effective ways available to her.
Kathy Viner, Toronto
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For many years, as a lawyer, my practice focused on harassment in the workplace. I acted as an inquirer into hundreds of cases, in all forms of workplaces, including government, hospitals, universities, the military and corporations.
It is positive that the targets of harassment past and present are coming forward and having their concerns addressed. The negatives include the apparent ineptitude of the leaders of some workplaces to respond appropriately. For example, when the harasser's behaviour has been known for years, and the workplace has done nothing, the responsibility and subsequent ramifications should also apply to management, not only to the harasser. Appropriate policies – such as mandatory workplace training and quick responses – must be implemented.
You have reported that MP James Bezan apologized repeatedly and has taken sensitivity training. That is an appropriate response to his comment. One wonders what else MP Sherry Romanado expects. In these matters, it is imperative that the workplace respond quickly and correctly, but the complainant ought not to be the one who dictates the appropriate response.
The "punishment" should fit the crime.
Naomi Z. Levine, Winnipeg
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Yes, the joke made by Conservative MP James Bezan was bad. It was inappropriate and ought never to have been uttered.
But really, would not the more appropriate response for Liberal MP Sherry Romanado have been to look the hapless Mr. Bezan in the eye and tell him that he's not funny, that his joke was offensive, that she is entitled to far greater respect than he accorded her, and that she expects a personal apology?
In the current environment, I think Ms. Romanado's case attracts unwarranted attention and press coverage and distracts from the legitimate sexual harassment complaints of woman in the Canadian workplace.
Of course, if it is really a ploy to conveniently divert focus from the relentless Tory attacks on Finance Minister Bill Morneau …
Mark Greenberg, Montreal
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Social justice ABC's
Re The New Curriculum: Social Justice For All (Dec. 2): According to Margaret Wente, "The folks at OISE believe that differences in academic achievement are caused by social inequities, not differences in ability".
Actually, those academics and teacher educators like myself across the country understand and have evidence that differences in ability are related to socio-economic differences. However, you don't need to be an academic to understand that not having enough to eat will affect one's ability to learn. You don't need to be an academic to understand that which children get enough to eat is affected by "entrenched systems of power and privilege."
Lee Anne Block, associate professor, Faculty of Education, University of Winnipeg
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Enbridge's dividend story
Re The Cracks In The Enbridge Dividend Story (Report on Business, Dec. 4): Pipeline and utility companies have a long history of paying dividends based on on-going cash from operations, as calculated before capital expenditures required for new growth projects.
Given the large amounts of capital required to fund pipeline projects, it is common to use new debt and new equity, in addition to ongoing cash from operations to fund growth capital. In turn, these new projects generate cash to fund continuing dividend growth.
Enbridge's dividend policy is one of the most conservative in the energy infrastructure sector. Our value proposition is to grow our dividend by investing in low-risk, accretive projects.
These projects generate ongoing cash to pay our dividend for decades to come. Over the past 20 years, Enbridge has generated total annual shareholder returns of roughly 13 per cent, compared to 7 per cent for the S&P/TSX Composite Index, and delivered 12 per cent dividend per share compound annual growth, while building North America's largest energy infrastructure company.
John Whelen, chief financial officer, Enbridge Inc.
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Democracy's territory
Re The Dictatorship Of Geography (Dec. 2): Doug Saunders suggests that geographic interests should be subordinated to population numbers. Surely not.
As long as people live, they need to live somewhere. And where people live plays a real role in defining their interests. The same factor plays into city-dwellers' interests. Suburbanites often outnumber core city-dwellers. By Mr. Saunders's logic, democracy must place the interest of mass commuters over local residents (Spadina Expressway?)
The urban/rural divide is to be expected in any country, and in one of our size, it becomes a pronounced problem. But that problem can't be solved by writing off the reality of localized interests any more than the tyranny of the majority should be implemented as a democratic principle.
Jonathan Weisman, Vancouver
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A Rude epiphany
Re The Madness Of King Donald Drowns Out Everything Else (Dec. 4): The President of the United States spouts lie after lie, gropes women, encourages white supremacists, takes from the poor to give to the rich, undermines the pillars of American democracy and jeopardizes key relationships around the globe … and the problem that Niall Ferguson sees is Donald Trump's "infernal rudeness?"
Give me a break.
John McLeod, Toronto
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Niall Ferguson's column was an epiphany. He argues that Donald Trump is not mentally unstable, or cunning, or a failure, he is just a "crass" President who drowns out his own meaningful policy achievements. "Crass" is defined by Oxford as "showing no intelligence or sensitivity", with these synonyms: "stupid, insensitive, blundering, dense, thick, vacuous, mindless, witless, doltish, oafish, boorish, asinine, bovine, coarse, gross."
Feeling better?
Harry Sutherland, North Vancouver