Please read this
Sometimes a letter to the editor is just not necessary. The response to an article is already there in black and white. The only trick is to get the person in the first article to read the second one. Public Safety Minister Vic Toews (Ottawa Tells Spies to Use Possible Torture Info In 'Exceptional' Cases – Feb. 7) should read Marina Nemat's 'I Live To Testify' (Arts, Feb. 9).
RIM co-founder Mike Lazaridis (Lazaridis Donating $21-Million To School – Feb. 9) should read First Nations Schools Found In Desperate Need of Funding (Feb. 9).
Joanne Mackay-Bennett, Toronto
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Why underfund?
I am a parent of two children attending the Waweyekisik Education Centre located on the Waterhen Lake First Nation in northern Saskatchewan (Reserve School Can't Pay Teachers – Feb. 4) and a proud member of this Cree Nation. I am actively involved in my children's education and have been in this school on numerous occasions, meeting many of these teachers. I am concerned about the funding dilemma facing the school's principal.
I can attest to the fact that the quality and dedication of the teachers at this school have made a difference in the success of the students and their attitude toward education. Unless Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada increases funding to match the wage increases of provincial teachers, First Nation schools will not be able to afford or retain quality teachers.
If education is a means to alleviate dependency, poverty and social issues, then why does the government continue to underfund education on reserves such as Waterhen Lake? I urge the Prime Minister to make the financial resources available so Waweyekisik can continue its success with students.
Dwayne Lasas, vice-chief, Meadow Lake Tribal Council, Meadow Lake, Sask.
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Bear witness
Marina Nemat ('I Live To Testify' – Feb. 9) attended the Creative Writing Program at the School of Continuing Studies at the University of Toronto about the same time I did. She arrived in the program, I recall her saying, because she had a story to tell, a story that she finally was ready to tell. To enable others to know that story, she mastered one of the most complex languages. Some of us, in our mother tongue, write amusing vignettes. Ms. Nemat writes books that bear witness. We should honour such courage, not doubt it.
Gail E. Taylor, Toronto
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Truce will out
I am certain most Canadians are relieved that the recent end to the brief battle waged by Canada's major banks for mortgage customers was called a truce (Banks Call Truce In Easy-Money Mortgage Battle – Report on Business, Feb. 9). In any other business sector (except that governed with such impunity by the highwaymen who masquerade as gasoline retailers), such a truce might be known as collusion. Not so elegant or well-mannered a word, is it?
Bryan Davies, Whitby, Ont.
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All due respect …
In his discussion of marginal tax rates for top income earners, Neil Reynolds (A Taxing Dilemma: What's The Optimal Rate For The Rich? – Report on Business, Feb. 8) reports the debate between Peter Diamond and Arthur Laffer, identified as two "noted economists." With all due respect, most economists would take strong exception to that statement, which is both factually correct and highly misleading.
Peter Diamond should not be referred to as "a prominent Democratic economist" but as the 2010 Nobel Prize laureate in economics (together with Dale Mortensen and Chris Pissarides). By contrast, Mr. Laffer's career as an economics researcher ended more than 30 years ago. He is now known through the mass media for his advocacy for tax cuts without offering any serious arguments. I leave it to your readers to decide whose opinions should carry more weight.
Stylianos Perrakis, RBC Distinguished Professor of Financial Derivatives, Concordia University
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Neil Reynolds asserts that the halving of the U.S. tax rate on the top 1 per cent of income earners is the reason for the doubling in tax revenue from this source. As a result of the reduction, he writes, the bottom 5 per cent of earners have received a windfall tax cut because their portion of total taxes has declined since 1980.
That the top 1 per cent of U.S. earners now pays double the total taxes, while their rate has been halved, only serves to emphasize how much their incomes have increased, measured against the 99 per cent. If lower taxes incentivized economic activity, all income groups would have experienced similar income increases.
Bill Anderson, Fredericton
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Safer on the road
Dangerous county road intersections could be made far less dangerous with solar technology (In Far-Off Lima, A Neighbourhood Mourns – Feb. 9). Standalone solar-powered flashing red lights added to enlarged stop signs would save lives. It could be accomplished economically through progressive summer works programs over just a few years.
Phillip S. Utting, Uxbridge, Ont.
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North America pays a human price for its refusal to adopt the widespread use of roundabouts. Roundabouts save lives. They force all drivers to slow down. You cannot speed through a roundabout. How many more lives will be lost before we change our roads?
Alanna Matthew, Penticton, B.C.
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Streepomania
Surely Oscars should be based totally on merit in the face of whatever other talent is nominated (Iron Lady Vs. Little Gold Man: Isn't It Time Meryl Got Her Due? – Arts, Feb. 9). The use of "due" seems to suggest that it's Meryl Streep's "turn" because it's been 29 years since her last Oscar.
Excellent though she always is, there are others in the lineup who are as good as, indeed better – though my hopes of the luminescent Michelle Williams ( My Week With Marilyn) receiving the nod are fading because of Streepomania.
Christopher Kelk, Toronto
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Just wondering
I remember that day 60 years ago this week when Elizabeth became Queen. It led to an event that puzzles me still. As a junior officer in the RCAF, I'd just returned to my station at St-Hubert near Montreal. Near midnight, a friend told me of the king's death. At 3 a.m., the duty officer shook me and the other officers awake. We were ordered to wake up all the airmen on the station and assemble in the drill hall. "Are we at war?" we asked. No one knew.
In the drill hall were several desks, each with an officer and a bible. A few at a time, we went up and swore allegiance to the new Queen, just as we had done to her father on enlistment. We wondered why this had to be done in the middle of a cold winter night. Maybe, someone suggested, we were entitled to simply pack up and go home, and they got us out of bed half asleep before the word could get out.
I asked around later. It never happened at any other station.
Peter Cranston, Victoria