Today, readers are discussing Eric Reguly’s feature about Domenico Lucano, the mayor of a small Italian town, and his experiment in migrant integration and tolerance. Lucano gave shelter to refugees in the hopes of promoting tolerance and warding off economic decline in his town. Italy’s new government brought the experiment to an end, charged the mayor with aiding illegal migration and banned him from his hometown. Readers are also discussing The last harvest: My stepfather and the demise of the family farm, from Saturday’s paper.
A view of Riace at sunsetAlessio Mamo/The Globe and Mail
Thanks to Eric Reguly for an absolutely fascinating story. Ideology - and fear - conquers all. - Rich Mole
This is such a good story. Sad the way it turned out. The mayor really did good, he made a difference and he will be remembered for it. I am sad though, it seems vindictive and harsh that he is banned from his home and that of his father. If the new government stops with the financial aid to immigrants, that is one thing, his (and their) plans would be thwarted. Even If he did something illegal, this does not seem a sensible punishment. I hope it gets resolved in a better way. - JT1216
Migration must be limited. What happened in Italy is extreme. Once you tip over a basic modest amount of immigration in a given time resistance naturally will build. Especially in a country like Italy with 30 per cent of youth unemployment. - Fool Finder
Italy and many other countries in Europe have shown us that if a government forces mass migration down the throats of its citizens, there will be an inevitable reaction. I would hope Trudeau and Gerald Butts are paying attention, but I doubt they are. People who think that this kind of reaction can’t happen in Canada live in some sort of protected bubble. Talk to regular Canadians, outside the ivory towers, outside the downtown cafes, outside the political corridors, and you know that Canadians are not happy with being invaded across an essentially nonexistent border. Canada’s historic support for immigration and some refugee intake will collapse if Trudeau keeps going the way he has so far. And the Global Compact on Migration is part of the story. - MG59
Applauding Riace and mayor Lucano is like applauding Gerald Butts, Dalton McGuinty and Kathleen Wynne for Ontario's Green Energy Act. Incredibly noble and virtuous until the bills come due and you run out of other people's money. Then you find out that it was a house of cards built upon a fantasy that would never work. - Double Blue
What else readers are discussing:
The last harvest: My stepfather and the demise of the family farm, by Joanne Will
Gord Will harvests wheat on his land in the gently undulating Coteau Hills of Saskatchewan.
It's a shame to lose another romantic well loved profession. All the would be farmers and fishermen now have to work in oil fields or computer programming etc. I was the heir to a nice 150 acre farm, but decided to become a lawyer instead. Now, my parents’ land is leased to a farmer operating over 5,000 acres (typically the amount needed to stay profitable today). Law pays the bills better than farming, but farming would have been more satisfying. - Fool Finder
What has been described here is happening all across Canada, not just in the Prairies. Visiting my family's farm in Prince Edward Island 30 years ago, most of the 100 acre farms were either abandoned or not worked. - bateman99
There is a lack of imagination in some of these comments. A farmer is not the same as a ski lift operator. The latter was always an hourly worker. The family farmer is, and always has been, an independent worker. The shift from this kind of independence to hourly employee turns the worker into a slave, dependent on the corporation for his daily bread. To those who would say good riddance, would you say the same to the small business owner who is forced to close, not because of poor business management, but because the game is rigged when a company like Walmart puts him out of business, often with tax support (aka Amazon is getting billions to set up in New York City)? And what do you say when the profits from that Walmart go to HQ in Arkansas, rather to local suppliers, local taxes or the local bank? “Progress” as defined by this thinking is about concentrating more power and money into fewer hands, and makes slaves of us all. Some today cannot even comprehend the idea of being independently employed; they have already adopted the mindset of a corporate slave and they seem to resent those who wish another way. And that is the tragedy depicted in this story. - ajhoff1018
Very nicely crafted article, however, there is a “but” for me: but what about all those unromantic jobs in society? Who sheds a tear for the plaster tradesman who lost his job to drywall, the garbage collector who got laid off when his truck went to one operator because of automated pickup. I come from a farm family background, and heard all the stories. I no longer buy into the romance. I buy that farming is hard work, and a lifestyle, but so is being a liftee at a ski resort. Automation is relentless. Farmers and fisherman aren’t that special. - Pause Button
I do not understand this irrational attachment to the idea of the ‘family farm.’ 150 years ago 85% worked and lived on farms, now perhaps 5% do. That is no tragedy, it is a triumph. My farming uncle just passed away and that ends my extended family’s long connection to farming. And really it is good riddance. Society is better served by the low labour cost inputs to farming, just as we are with factories producing most goods instead of blacksmiths and coopers. It’s a triumph of humanity that we can automate farming and enlarge the operations to make it efficient enough for us to put our resources into vastly better lifestyles, so we can afford social programs and health care and so much more. The family farm, especially those protected by irrational quotas and supply management, stand as an minor remaining impediment to the greatness of human achievement. I will not miss them at all. - Angus S Miskers
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