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Off-stage culture: harassment and bullying
I was a stage manager for 30 years, and worked in many theatres across Canada. I have seen instances of harassment and bullying. Just a few examples:
A director calling an actress the c-word. Another actor overheard, and spoke to management on her behalf. He thought because he was a senior, respected person in the company, his complaint would carry more sway. He was told the director would be spoken to; when he found out this hadn't happened, he contacted Equity. Equity spoke to management, and they said they would talk to the director. They never did.
A director verbally abusing an actress during rehearsals for her size, telling us she had promised to lose 20 pounds before rehearsals started. She was very talented, but had always had a problem with her weight and was very sensitive about it.
A director insisting a young actress wear a dress in rehearsals, with no underwear. She was the only member of the cast who had to do this.
A director trying to coerce a young actress into having a relationship with him: She didn't want to, so she would hide out in the stage management office during lunch breaks to avoid him. Once the play was in previews, and he would want to take her for a drink after giving notes, I would offer her a lift home.
She would always accept, because, she told him, I drove right by her door. I didn't, it was out of my way. He moved on to someone else, but never offered her another job.
Any time the management of a theatre says they weren't aware of a problem, I am skeptical. Theatres leak this kind of thing all the time, so if "everyone knew," that likely includes management.
H.W.A. Graham, Wolfville, N.S.
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Nuclear words of war
Re Why Twitter Should Ban The President (Jan. 4): Someone once compared the nuclear-armed world to children in a pool of gasoline playing with matches.
This seems particularly apt today, with two apparently irrational leaders, Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un, trading insults. One of Donald Trump's favourite matches is Twitter, on which he makes incendiary remarks. Twitter could close his account, but does not do so because he is good for its bottom line.
What kind of lunacy is this? Why is it even remotely acceptable that a corporation's profits should trump global security?
What world do the Twitter executives live in anyway? Surely even corporate executives can see that some profits are not worth the risk they entail.
James A. Duthie, Nanaimo, B.C.
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Donald Trump is the democratically elected president of the free world, Kim Jong-un is a deranged madman. It is Mr. Kim who is putting the world on the brink of nuclear disaster.
Leaders like Barack Obama did not take the necessary steps to prevent the current situation from arising. Mr. Trump is left to clean up the mess. Guys like Mr. Kim should be mocked and belittled. Mr. Trump is doing what he thinks should be done, and there is every indication that once again, he's doing the right thing.
Jamie Black, Waterloo, Ont.
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Nice that Donald Trump is so proud of his big button. Now if he only had one big enough to button his lip.
Tom MacDonald, Ottawa
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It's the model, stupid
Canada's top CEOs made more money by noon on Jan. 3, the second working day of the year, than the average Canadian will earn in all of 2018. Also on Jan. 3, we saw this headline: Bank Of Canada Estimates 60,000 Fewer Jobs Due To Minimum Wage Increases. Does anyone else see the irony in this? Some years ago, there was a popular expression: It's the economy, stupid. If the success of a business is predicated on the staff not earning a living wage, the minimum-wage increase is not the problem. It's the business model, stupid.
Greg Neiman, Red Deer, Alta.
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Choosing death
Re Assisted Death Should Be The Final Option (Jan. 4): When I was a medical student, I was warned about "furor therapeuticus" – that is, the need to futilely keep trying one treatment after another when the current one seems ineffective. Many physicians find it difficult to accept that there is little constructive that can be done further, and therefore need to try just one more thing.
The tenor of Tom Koch's article seems to suggest this: He writes that PAT (physician-assisted termination) "only becomes appropriate when we have done everything possible to assure the fullest possible life for the fragile person." It would be wonderful if all the treatments and supports he describes were effective and available, let alone merely possible. But they are not.
An accurate and dispassionate explanation of the options available and the likely outcomes is certainly called for. But then it should be the decision of the patient whose life it is – regardless of the ethics/beliefs or feelings of the physician.
Archibald Wilkie Kushner, Ottawa
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Ethicist and gerontologist Tom Koch clearly expresses his concerns, but appears to give no real weight to the wishes of the person who wants to die, only to that of the physician. That seems rather authoritarian to me.
If, after discussion, a person wishes to die, is it up to someone else to decide that the circumstances are not such as would cause that person to want to die and so refuse to assist? Shades of the old therapeutic abortion requirement for the signature of two physicians.
Some people, particularly the old, are tired of living. For them, living is an endless repetition of actions that brings no pleasure and without the prospect of improvement.
This can be a matter of attitude and outlook, rather than caused by objectively verifiable pain, suffering and disability, but surely it is the individual's opinion that matters here? Yes, the views of the family need to be taken into account, but in the absence of strong objections, it is the person whose life is at stake who should have the major say, not the physician/gatekeeper.
Alan Thomson (retired physician), Victoria
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Chapter. And verse. Cool
Re Top Parenting? Try This (letters, Jan. 4): Some readers may think that letter writer Gillian O'Reilly is overly optimistic that a 10- or 11-year-old would agree to being read to before bed.
Back in the day as a teacher of this age group, I would regularly start the afternoon session by reading a chapter or two of a good junior novel. This served to settle them after lunch-time activities, as well as introducing them to something they might not chose to read themselves.
They never complained, even when I read narrative poetry! (Try David by Earle Birney.) In this setting, or at home in bed, worrying about looking uncool in front of peers is not an issue – which is sometimes the issue.
Ann Sullivan, Peterborough, Ont.