Pick. Pay. Maybe
So the Conservatives pressured the CRTC to create a pick-and-pay product – except, it isn't (Consumers To Get More Choice As Pick-and-Pay TV Set For 2016 – March 20). You still have to pay for a basic package. I can get virtually all the channels on a basic package over the air. Why would I pay for it? If this is the Conservatives' idea of a vote-getting idea, it doesn't wash with me.
Jane McCall, Delta, B.C.
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Cable and satellite companies should only be the "pipelines" that deliver the product. They should not be allowed to own channels or programing. For example, Rogers, which owns a cable system, sports team and sports channel, tells me how much I should pay. Talk about control. Shaw owns Global.
Any channel that has commercials should be part of a "free package," as the public already partly pays for these ads through tax considerations. The other channels should be priced by the CRTC, not the "pipelines."
Hubert Allaire, North Vancouver
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Canada in Iraq
Foreign Minister Rob Nicholson's claim that extending Canada's Iraq military mission is a matter of "moral clarity" takes irony to its absurd conclusion (Tories Frame Extending Iraq Mission As Moral Issue – March 20).
The Conservatives' penchant for opaque pronouncements and steely jawed message control over meaningful dialogue is disturbing at the best of times. Tasking our underresourced military and its clapped out CF-18s to extended front-line service is irresponsible. Continued government failure to tell Canadians in unambiguous terms precisely what it seeks to achieve in Iraq or Syria is autocracy in action. Clarity, indeed.
Bryan Davies, Whitby, Ont.
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So, the PM wants to extend and expand Canada's role in the fight against Islamic State militants beyond the promised six months. Gee, I sure didn't see that coming.
Christine Flegal, Vancouver
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Rx for affordability
Konrad Yakabuski argues medication should be publicly provided, as it largely is in Britain, which seems reasonable (An Affordable Step Toward True Universality – March 19). But when he argues that permitting private health insurance and health care would relieve the strain on public health care, again pointing to Britain, I disagree with his assessment of what's happening here.
The private health sector in Britain consists primarily of 200 mini-hospitals, most with fewer than 50 beds, at which some surgeons and anesthetists in National Health Service hospitals earn extra money doing routine surgery on low-risk, fee-paying patients in their spare time.
Recent work by the Centre for Health and the Public Interest found these hospitals are less safe than full-service NHS hospitals; some 6,000 patients a year are transferred from private hospitals to NHS hospitals, half in emergencies. The private sector here does not "free up public monies," it is subsidized by public money.
Colin Leys, Centre for Health and the Public Interest, London
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Surveillance society
People who believe data transparency will build stronger societies misunderstand the impact "big data" is already having, and will continue to have without proper regulation (Not To Worry – letters, March 18). This is not an issue about cunning law enforcement tracking down evildoers. "Nothing to hide, nothing to fear" is an inadequate mantra.
In the digital world, we emit data like exhaust fumes and public and private agencies scoop it up. This is rarely done with our consent and the patterns of our lives are revealed by it – where we shop, what we buy, what we think, who we are sleeping with, where we were yesterday and where we will be tomorrow.
This is not Dystopian fiction: Our lives are visibly present in our social media profile, texts, e-mails, GPS, online searches, travel routines, credit card use etc., etc. This is the surveillance society. Bentham's Panopticon is being constructed and we will become its prisoners.
Leslie Forsyth, Ottawa
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Sex and the law
While numerous Canadian academics and feminists' groups support legalizing prostitution, just as many support implementing the Swedish model here (Sweden's Prostitution Solution – March 17). The Native Women's Association of Canada, Canadian Association of Elizabeth Fry Societies and Canadian Federation of University Women all support Canada's new law.
We also see prostitution as a broader women's equality issue. Physical, sexual, emotional and financial violence are ongoing realities for many prostituted women; poverty often drives and keeps them in prostitution.
While the new law is a good starting point, as a country we must work toward a more equal society that gives women real choices. National strategies to address women's poverty, housing insecurity and violence against women, along with adequate service provision to help them exit prostitution, are essential parts of a comprehensive response to this complex problem.
Doris Mae Oulton, president, Canadian Federation of University Women, Winnipeg
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Mr. Sorenson replies
The Globe and Mail's series Rethinking Retirement (editorials, March 5-13) on Canada's retirement income system highlights some of the myths, challenges and opportunities that we face.
Our government is proud of strengthening Canadians' ability to have a secure, dignified retirement. We have lowered taxes numerous times and introduced measures to help Canadians save.
According to a recent retirement study by McKinsey & Company, 83 per cent of Canadians are on track for a comfortable retirement. By keeping taxes low, hundreds of thousands of seniors have been removed from the tax rolls. We legislated pension income splitting, which benefits more than two million seniors.
The Globe contends that "though the [Tax Free Savings Account] was created with low-income Canadians in mind, the people most able to take advantage of it are upper-income." In fact, half of the 11 million TFSA holders earn less than $42,000 a year. Plus, we introduced Pooled Registered Pension Plans, a low-cost option, for Canadians who don't have a workplace pension.
Canada has one of the lowest poverty rates among seniors in the world: Higher taxes sought by the opposition would risk some of the progress that's been made.
Kevin Sorenson, minister of state for finance
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Victims of 'ism'
Re Monument On Suffering (Folio, March 19): Rather than a Monument to the Victims of Communism, why not have an avenue of Memorials to the Victims of fill-in-the-blank ism? Is there an "ism" that does not have its share of victims? For example, a Memorial to the Victims of Capitalism, Socialism, Narcissism?
Richard Heyman, Calgary