Letters to the Editor should be exclusive to The Globe and Mail. Include your name, address and daytime phone number. Try to keep letters to fewer than 150 words. Letters may be edited for length and clarity. To submit a letter by e-mail, click here: letters@globeandmail.com
.......................................................................................................
The trust factor
I am a female Canadian. I am not a Mountie or an ex-Mountie, but the RCMP's discrimination and harassment of women officers matters to me ('To All The Women Who Have Been Impacted … Our Sincere Apology' – Folio, Oct. 7). The impact of this behaviour is not limited to officers; female members of the public have also been affected. Attitudes influence interactions with women, and investigations into missing and murdered women, domestic abuse, etc.
To restore trust in the RCMP, information and figures need to be made public on the specific actions taken to eliminate the "bad apples," such as how many officers – the actual numbers and percentage of the personnel involved – who have been fired, disciplined and/or retrained due to their conduct.
Taking action behind closed doors does nothing to restore my confidence in the RCMP or its officers. For now, I am skeptical of the claims of change within the force.
A.M. McDowall, Surrey, B.C.
............................................
The RCMP is a great national institution which has served this country well, and it is one of which all Canadians can and should be proud. It is to be hoped that the public apology issued by Commissioner Bob Paulson will represent the first step toward seeking closure in one of the most difficult and painful chapters of the force's history. Much remains to be done to change the culture of the organization, but at the very least, Canadians can rest assured the RCMP recognizes that it has a problem, and is serious about taking steps to resolve it.
It takes a real leader to do what Mr. Paulson did. Let's hope that Canadians will stand behind him and his colleagues as they strive to regain the confidence of the citizens they serve, and restore the RCMP to its former glory.
Mike Kennedy, Toronto
............................................
What has to come next after the promise to change the culture of harassment? The most effective way to spread the message would be to post that promise in every detachment, right by the en-trance, in large letters that can be read without effort, with a warning not to remove them – ever.
Ursula Litzcke, Vancouver
............................................
Conflicts, screens
Re McCain Logs Meeting As Lobbyist, Adding To Concerns Over Brison Business Links (Oct. 7): You report that Dominic LeBlanc, Minister of Fisheries, has a "screen" that keeps him apart from any dealings with New Brunswick's Irving family.
Because of a huge loophole in the federal Conflict of Interest Act, such screens still allow him to take part in any discussions, decisions and votes that affect J.D. Irving and J.D. Irving Ltd. generally. Also, a "screen" doesn't cover any other Irving family members or companies, so he is allowed to take part in every decision that affects them.
In other words, such "screens" are actually little more than a smokescreen.
Even if Treasury Board President Scot Brison also set up a screen covering his ties to and investments with the McCain and Sobey families and businesses, he would still be allowed to take part in most decisions that affect them, even decisions that Mr. Brison would profit from personally (for example, a change in a regulation that made those companies money, thereby increasing their share price, thereby making Mr. Brison money by increasing the value of his investments in those companies).
And while Mr. Brison has set up a blind trust for his investments, such trusts are essentially a charade because the ministers know what they put in the trust (so it isn't "blind") and get to choose the trustee and give them general instructions.
Duff Conacher, co-founder, Democracy Watch
............................................
Excess punishment
Re Something Stupid (letters, Oct. 7): For argument's sake, let's say that 10,000 patrons at the baseball game last Tuesday at the 50,000-plus seat Rogers Centre were consuming alcoholic beverages. One idiot does something stupid and tosses a beer can in the direction of a player attempting to make a catch in the outfield.
Right away, some people want to ban alcohol from sport events and punish all the fans who behaved despite enjoying their alcoholic drinks. The law will deal with individuals like this one guy.
What's really disturbing about this phenomenon is that a lot of our fellow citizens seem to think that collective punishment is the answer to such incidents.
Caspar Pfenninger, Calgary
............................................
Wages, poverty line
It is unfortunate that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau rejects a federal minimum wage increase as part of a poverty reduction strategy (Trudeau Says Liberals Not Looking At Raising Federal Minimum Wage – Oct. 7).
He pits minimum wage increases against government expenditures on infrastructure and children's benefits, as if they cannot occur simultaneously. What does Mr. Trudeau have against employers paying their share? Should not a full-time worker be guaranteed an income above the poverty line from her or his salary?
Sid Frankel, associate professor, Faculty of Social Work, University of Manitoba
............................................
Payroll mess
Re Ottawa Says It Has 'No Reason To Sue' IBM Over Issues With Payroll System (Oct. 6): I guess this means that the government (civil service) has screwed it up, all by itself? Having been the project manager for the customization and implementation of several complex payroll systems to pay thousands of people, I can assure your readers that this is not rocket science, just a matter of competence (or incompetence).
Truly a head shaker.
Hal Finlayson, London, Ont.
............................................
By … anonymous
Re Unmasking Of Elena Ferrante Forces Us To Reconsider JT LeRoy Scandal (Arts & Life, Oct. 6): Thanks to Russell Smith for defending Anita Raja's right to anonymity and for his tart take-down of Claudio Gatti's misconceived truthiness. Concealing one's identity may soon be the only way to protect the truths of the creative imagination from mindless rationalism and global surveillance. That Elena Ferrante lives, if only in our imaginations, is a verifiable fact.
Austin Clarkson, Toronto
............................................
Hmm …
Re Blue Jays, Beer Cans And Bad Fans (Oct. 7): Does The Globe wish us to be teetotalling pot-head junkies on a low-sodium version of the Zone diet? That's the only conclusion that follows from your editorial supporting a ban on beer sales in baseball stadiums, combined with editorials since 2010 urging governments to ban transfats, crack down on salt, regulate natural health products and multivitamins, while at the same time legalizing marijuana and creating more safe-injection heroin-consumption sites.
Alykhan Velshi, Toronto