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Deal-killing trade tactics
Re Trudeau Presses China On Human Rights (Dec. 6): As someone who who has negotiated thousands of deals worth collectively tens of billions of dollars over the past 35 years, I consider Canada's efforts to include climate change, gender issues and foreign labour standards in free-trade agreements (FTAs) to be the most naive, misdirected and deal-killing negotiating strategies ever.
While there is a place for these initiatives in agreements such as the Paris accord, there is no place for them in nation-to-nation economic agreements.
When was the last time someone bought a home only to have the former owner dictate who should live there and how? Imagine the outrage from Canadians if the United States were to dictate that we must treat our Indigenous peoples differently or if France were to impose carbon caps on Canada as part of an FTA.
It is a ruse for our government to project to Canadians that Canada is a leader in these issues because we are trying to include them in FTAs.
When trying to do this, the only area where Canada leads is in convincing other nations that we are hapless deal-makers and world-class failures in negotiating or renegotiating FTAs.
John P.A. Budreski, Vancouver
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To be seen as impartial
Re Canada Could Be An Honest Broker In Yemen (Dec. 6): Perhaps Canada should quit selling armoured vehicles to Saudi Arabia if it wants to mediate the crisis in Yemen and gain a seat on the UN Security Council.
Jim Stuart, Windsor, Ont.
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Little sympathy
Re Appropriate Response? (letters, Dec. 6): In Wednesday's editions, you published three letters to the editor taking to task MP Sherry Romanado for calling out MP James Bezan for his sexual remark toward her.
Letter writers saw Ms. Romanado as too "fragile," that she should have stood up to Mr. Bezan at the time, that she can't possibly be feeling the hurt she claims. And, worst of all, that she is diverting attention from "legitimate" sexual-harassment complaints, and also that it might even be a political ploy.
On what was Canada's National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women, blaming the victim was still easier than facing ugly truths.
It was a sad reminder of how far we have yet to go in recognizing and taking seriously gender-based aggression and violence.
Donald Hall, Ottawa
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Trust a politician to trivialize the very real problems of victims of serious sexual harassment. An innocuous, flippant remark about a threesome at an Ottawa City Hall photo shoot caused her months of "stress." Really?
Perhaps backbenchers really do need to get a life in the real world. Or maybe they just want more publicity.
Marie Clark, Mississauga
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MP James Bezan's repeated attempts at an apology were an appropriate response to his inappropriate joke. MP Sherry Romanado's grandstanding is not.
I'm embarrassed that she is publicly representing the real issue of workplace harassment so inappropriately. Her comments and actions have caused real stress to many woman who have real complaints, and who are afraid of coming forward and of not being taken seriously.
Ms. Romanado's behaviour exploits those women and their real and difficult experiences; her response is an insult to our intelligence and demeaning to all women. What she has done is far worse than Mr. Bezan's lame and inappropriate joke.
Mary-Lynne Snedden, Goderich, Ont.
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Trouble with rudeness
Re The Madness Of King Donald Drowns Out Everything Else (Dec. 4): Being subjected to the never-ending avalanche of one-sided anti-Trump bashing by the liberal media, it was refreshing to read respected Harvard historian Niall Ferguson's balanced criticism of the Trump presidency. An absolute rarity for us readers.
Donald Trump is neither mad, nor nuts, nor is he failing, the author states, he is just crass, and "in his incorrigible crassness, the President consistently drowns out the signal of meaningful policy achievement with deafening yet inconsequential noise."
How true.
Prof. Ferguson is not, however, afraid to talk about the U.S. economy, now growing at around a healthy 3.5 per cent, about the stock market being at record highs since Donald Trump's election, about the benefits of the Republican tax bill. And yet, the author is so right again when he states that with the general decline of civility, which includes the President's crude tweets, the "uncivil discourse is so hard for the remaining civil people to take seriously. As a result, serious issues – such as Islamist extremism or the North Korean threat – become trivialized and civil people assume, wrongly, that it is Donald Trump we should really worry about."
Incidentally, a better title for this article would have been: There Is Trouble With The Rudeness Of King Donald.
Maximilian Hoyos, Montreal
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One of Donald Trump's lawyers claims to have written (at least) one of Mr. Trump's tweets. That makes me wonder how many of his other innumerable tweets were written by lawyers, and which ones were written by a kindergarten class.
Jerry Steinberg, Surrey, B.C.
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Bad idea in 1876, and in 2017
Re Eliminating Sexism From Indian Act Will Cost $407-Million A Year, PBO Says (Dec. 6): Never mind eliminating sexism – the Indian Act needs to be done away with entirely. There is no logical reason why in Canada, in 2017, someone should be treated differently, regardless of gender, sexual orientation and/or race.
The Indian Act was a bad idea in 1876. It's still a bad idea today.
Michel Trahan, Maria, Que.
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Same-old new new-music
Re The Abstract Staying Power Of 'New Music' (Dec. 5): The problem with "new music" is that it's hardly new or radical any more. The name will stick only until something really new comes along. Unfortunately, that doesn't seem to be forthcoming, as today's new music sounds remarkably similar to the new music of a generation ago.
Concert music seems unable to move beyond late 20th-century aesthetics. When I hear today's "new music," I get nostalgic for the 1970s and 1980s, a time when there was a lot of truly new (and bold) music.
Sure, there are still talented people composing interesting and personal pieces, but they invariably sound like music we have heard before. It will take a profound renewal to get younger people excited again.
To be fair, the problem is not limited to Western "art music." Other genres suffer as well, whether jazz, rock, pop, hip-hop, world music, techno, or ambient.
We simply are not living in an innovative era when it comes to music.
Denis Schingh, Toronto