Prime Minister Justin Trudeau meets with Alberta Premier Danielle Smith in Calgary on March 13.Todd Korol/The Canadian Press
Canadian position
Re “UN says ‘famine is imminent’ in northern Gaza as Israel launches another raid on main hospital” (March 19): I spoke to a mother who survived the 1932 artificial famine that took four million lives in Ukraine.
She had gotten a visa to escape with her two children to Paraguay. She was waiting for a train when another mother begged that she take her starving children, too. She could not.
She curled up on the platform with her kids for the night. She awoke to find the other woman had left her children there and disappeared. She was still haunted by the memory decades later.
In October, 2022, after Russia conquered Mariupol, a memorial to victims of the Soviet famine was quickly dismantled. Official statements included “getting rid of a symbol of the political disinformation.”
We can either save the lives of starving Gazans right now, or start rehearsing which hollow excuses and denials may damn our own souls.
Greg Michalenko Waterloo, Ont.
Re “House passes motion after NDP removes call for recognition of Palestinian state” (March 19): In 1803, U.S. president Thomas Jefferson wrote: “Experience having taught me the reasonableness of mutual sacrifices of opinion among those who are to act together, for any common object, and the expediency of doing what good we can, when we cannot do all we would wish.”
The issues in the Israel-Hamas war have polarized Canadians in the most toxic way. The compromise position reached by Mélanie Joly’s efforts falls squarely within the terms of Jefferson’s sage advice.
Suzette Blom Toronto
Judge of that
Re “Supreme Court ruling makes tribunal decisions subject to expanded judicial review” (March 16): So it seems the judiciary intends to expand its role in governing Canada by articulating a right to second-guess all facets of government.
This will be pleasing to lawyers – many more files to flog. But will it improve governance in Canada? I doubt it.
I believe most government decision makers have a much better grasp of their biome and its various subtleties than a scholarly judge could possibly bring to their notion of what is reasonable. Why does Canada harbour a strong determination to emulate the worst aspects of the American way?
Richard Patterson Collingwood, Ont.
Hot stuff
Re “Political hot air has scorched the carbon tax” (Editorial, March 19): People do not like taxes, and the carbon tax is an easy target. This is indeed “short-sighted politics.”
Climate change is real and more dangerous than many realize. Justin Trudeau, then, is on the right side of history with this policy. Brian Mulroney had a somewhat mixed record, but he was good on climate and fighting acid rain.
People remember.
Heather Lewis Ottawa
“Pricing pollution is an intelligent policy,” as you suggest. But why not call out by name the person I believe is most responsible for spreading misinformation about carbon pricing and stoking public anger against it: Pierre Poilievre.
Joe Racanelli Toronto
The essential problem I find with the carbon tax is accountability.
No one can say how much our emissions have been reduced as a direct result of the tax, what recipients of the carbon rebate do with their funds or what happens to the huge amount of GST collected on the tax.
While the economic theory behind the tax may be credible, Canada’s application and the lack of accountability make it feel like empty virtue.
Chris Tworek Calgary
Re “Lasting legacy” (Letters, March 18): A letter-writer suggests that the carbon tax is currently too low to have any effect as a deterrent. Good thing it’s due for an increase on April 1.
Decades of Canadians before now turned a blind eye to the dire warnings about climate change, not willing to pay any costs or adjust their consumption habits. Are we, too, going to pass the buck down the road? Or are we going to be responsible and accept some costs now, recognizing that this is a crisis and things must change?
I sincerely hope the latter. Bring on the carbon tax increase.
Tuula Talvila Ottawa
Trades value
Re “Letting 16-year-olds quit school to go into skilled trades? What can go wrong?” (Report on Business, March 14): I am a teacher with 38 years (and counting) experience. There was a time when encouraging students to enter the trades was an honourable option.
These students would leave school as early as Grade 9 and start as roofers or general labourers, then move up as they gained skills. They may not have been book-smart but, make no mistake, they were smart.
The trades are currently a closed door for students who leave school early, because all require specialized training and certificates. The way I see it, the Ontario Youth Apprenticeship Program will give them a leg up, and in doing so instill worth and confidence.
The trades give these students focus and hope, while school was a dead end to be endured. Should they change their minds, the door to continued education was, and is, always open.
I was one such student. Most would agree I turned out okay.
Michael Bennett Winnipeg
Journey here
Re “Canada’s immigration system isn’t living up to its potential. Here’s how to fix it” (Report on Business, March 18): Something of importance has been omitted from consideration: the character of potential immigrants.
My parents Saul and Gitel Shuldiner immigrated to Canada in 1948. As Holocaust refugees, they spent most of the war in a Soviet labour camp, then in a displaced persons camp in Germany.
My mother had no education and my father a few years of religious school. He got work in the garment industry. She got a sewing machine and did piecework in her spare moments.
They scraped together enough for a down payment on a triplex. They read newspapers, listened to broadcast news, discussed politics and voted in every election. Canada Savings Bonds made up their investment portfolio.
Most of their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren have postgraduate degrees or are in university. In every way, they contributed to the “brighter, more prosperous future” of Canada. Yet they would have been summarily rejected by this proposed system.
Moses Shuldiner Toronto
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