Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland speaks during a news conference in Ottawa, on June 18.Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press
Message received
Re “Tension rises between Freeland, PMO over economic messaging, low approval ratings” (July 11): I don’t know why the Prime Minister’s Office is worried. I find the Finance Minister’s messaging to be hugely effective.
She said my corporate tax rate is not high enough. So when I sell my company, the government wants more of the proceeds, and it may come after the equity on my home next.
All these messages had the effect of making me vote Conservative for the first time in the Toronto-St. Paul’s by-election.
See, very effective.
Graham Farrell Toronto
Testing, testing
Re “Concern about Biden’s age is now out of his campaign’s control. Can Democrats recover in time for the election?” (July 8): With age comes wisdom and experience. It is not Mr. Biden’s age, then, that is the problem but speculation, assumptions and the appearance of cognitive decline and ineptness.
To put an end to this, all he needs is to see a neurologist for cognitive testing. Why won’t he?
Many people his age are in excellent cognitive condition and even take up new activities. To go on without a neurological assessment to assuage or confirm his cognitive condition is problematic.
Shelby Shepherd Toronto
Hate is hate
Re “The Jewish community’s concerns are often met with disbelief” (July 8): I am 87, and I recall growing up Jewish in Hungary.
I was seven, and I remember my teacher telling the class that Jews wash only the outside of dishes. I remember the young men who wanted to throw me off a streetcar.
I remember, as a grown-up professor of engineering, when my colleague began, “My hatred of the Jews is –” I walked away. I remember when I joined my colleagues at lunchtime, the same person said, “Here comes Lenard in his fancy Jew suit.”
There are nearly 16 million of us in the world. It is time to accept us.
Of course, I am aware of the war in Israel. Of course, I hate all wars.
But let us live without hatred. Accept all as equals without regard to religion, origin or background.
John Lenard Toronto
Literary pull
Re “Authors pull books from Giller Prize consideration over sponsors’ ties to Israeli interests” (July 11): Do these authors honestly believe anything will change if Scotiabank divests its holdings from weapons manufacturers such as Elbit Systems?
Are these authors aware that many major countries promote wars in smaller countries so that their weapons manufacturing companies can have larger markets for their products? Is all this fuss necessary for a 2.5-per-cent investment in a minor weapons manufacturer?
We should support and promote good literature in Canada, and the Scotiabank-sponsored Giller Prize should continue to award deserving authors.
Charles Campisi Oakville, Ont.
The moralizing attitude adopted by some artists over Giller Prize sponsorship ties – which I find sudden, selective and self-indulgent – strikes me as historically odd.
Writing in the 1930s, Walter Benjamin presciently warned, “There is no document of civilization which is not at the same time a document of barbarism.” Hasn’t that, to one degree or another, always been the Faustian bargain between the corporate patron, the artist and the Leviathan state?
What has changed? What realistically is going to change?
Toby Zanin Toronto
Perspective and a sense of proportion often are useful collaborators when it comes to the consequences of making both investment and funding decisions.
The present value of Scotiabank’s holding in Elbit Systems represents barely 0.01 per cent of its yearly revenue. The question for the Giller Prize board of directors should be: Where in the sand do they wish to draw their line?
If a 0.01-per-cent rate (or less) is to be the measure by which future prize-funding decisions are to be made, I’d hazard a guess there is no individual or organization whose substantial investments or sources of wealth are free from such ethical or moral entanglements and don’t also cross that line.
Edward Carson, author and former publishing executive Toronto
Story arc
Re “Alice Munro betrayed us, and her legacy” (July 9): Typical of the mainstream reaction to Andrea Robin Skinner’s recent disclosures: “I loved Alice Munro’s short stories until I learned she was a bad person. Now, I can’t even keep them on the shelf. Also, I have been betrayed.”
This response is at the heart of the faddish belief that the project of Canadian literature is, in toto, a “dumpster fire” because of the moral and political transgressions of its authors and editors, living and dead. No doubt Ms. Munro’s books will go straight from many shelves into that dumpster, where they will burn just as hotly as the rest.
To hold works of art ransom until artists have paid for their sins would be puritanical. To feel betrayed when artists turn out to be heels would be narcissistic.
We don’t have to want a mature literary culture in Canada. But if we decide that we do, we should have something less self-serving and more nuanced from cultural commentators.
Robert Stacey Ottawa
Surely, the issue that underpins responses to Andrea Robin Skinner’s revelations is hero worship.
To avoid becoming a “casualty” to such betrayal, follow a few rules: 1) Everyone – famous, anonymous, silent or notorious – is human. 2) Humans make mistakes. 3) Fame is not reserved for the faultless amongst us, if any such person exists. These rules should be uniformly applicable across time, talent and culture.
Worship of anyone is tantamount to an inwardly directed conspiracy with self that expunges character flaws or wrongs while ignoring errors in judgement and action. Perfect eloquence by a writer notwithstanding, even a Nobel Prize should not be the basis for thinking they are flawless.
Yes, enjoy a good read and be skeptical enough to learn about one’s self as it sparks imagination and intrigue. But don’t drown in the fantasy of hero worship.
Judy Anderson Winnipeg
Surely, the question of how to teach Alice Munro’s work should also include some introspection.
How could so many distinguished people in Canadian literature have known about it and stayed silent? They are now coming out of the closet only because the issue has become public.
Quoting Ms. Munro – “We say of some things that they can’t be forgiven, or that we will never forgive ourselves. But we do – we do it all the time” – does not do justice to her daughter.
Baily Seshagiri Ottawa
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