Pierre Poilievre holds a press conference at Gardewine Transport in Winnipeg on Jan. 12, 2023.JOHN WOODS/The Canadian Press
Canada’s role
Re “Speak now?” (Letters, Jan. 16): Letter-writers opine that Justin Trudeau has no right criticizing South Africa’s recent actions vis-à-vis the Middle East, that doing so “runs contrary to everything Canada stands for.”
One of the many things for which Canada stands, I’m happy to say, is unmistakable opposition to designated terrorist groups. At last count, there was only one involved in the current conflagration. The South African petition downplays the horrors of Oct. 7, an unspeakable minimization.
It should matter not one bit that “South Africa did not ask for our support.” Conversely, our Prime Minister did not ask for, nor does he require, South Africa’s support.
He has every right to speak out, and I hope he continues to do so.
Alan Rosenberg Toronto
I think the Liberal government did well to consider the Israeli-Palestinian tragedy for a long time, ignoring the mobs eager to see if it’s thumbs up or thumbs down.
This is not gladiatorial combat at the Colosseum. It’s a tragedy of shattered lives, mutilated children, grieving parents and despair.
Canada is not a great power and cannot do much to resolve this crisis. But it can encourage peace and justice, and treat all its own citizens with respect.
Irene Tomaszewski Ottawa
Must go on?
Re “Vancouver’s PuSh Festival makes ‘difficult decision’ to cancel Israel-set play The Runner to keep Palestinian artist in line-up” (Jan. 13): Each reason the PuSh Festival gave for cancelling The Runner should be considered a disgrace.
One justification – “we knew protesters … had planned strategies of disruption” – seems an abject surrender to threats.
A second, that a Palestinian artist would withdraw his installation if The Runner was presented, feels perverse, allowing one artist to veto another. PuSh should have said, “We regret your ultimatum and withdrawal.”
A third excuse was that the playwright had no religious or cultural connection to Israel, while the Palestinian artist had grown up in a refugee camp in Damascus. Theatre lovers are fortunate that PuSh leaders were not around in the 1600s to dismiss Shakespeare’s association with Denmark or Venice.
A rationale that theatre’s power to illuminate won’t work during the current war has some traction, but then PuSh should have cancelled both presentations.
Richard Levy Montreal
Now that PuSh Festival directors have shown Canada’s arts communities what not to do in the face of criticism, perhaps they would resign their positions in favour of those not so effortlessly unsettled by different points of view.
The ease with which artistic freedom was undermined and abandoned reminds me that the darker forces of intimidation and silence are ever present, and prepared to push narrow and singular points of view.
Edward Carson Toronto
I decided to read the play in question myself.
My impression is that the playwright has written a powerful and thoughtful play that does not lend itself to simplified reductions to good and evil. As such, I find accusations of “dehumanizing narratives about Palestinians” without merit.
The play does, however, humanize a member of an Israeli ultra-Orthodox organization. And the unfortunate fact is that Israel is being accused of violating the Genocide Convention in Gaza.
I understand how some people might consider a work that depicts an Israeli war operator in a favourable light, at this moment, inconsiderate at best. It’s possible the playwright recognized this when he graciously bowed out to a Palestinian voice.
I remain hopeful that his play and its message will get a more favourable reception in the future.
Gabriel Lamo Toronto
NDP today
Re “Ed Broadbent fought for the little guy against the fat cats” (Jan. 12): Columnist John Ibbitson suggests that Pierre Poilievre is now best buddy to the “little guy,” implicitly blaming the NDP for shifting focus from the working class to “identity.”
This shift seems an understandable progressive response to societal change: Once, increased union wages provided decent working-class incomes. Now, wage growth often requires job mobility that sheds traditional working-class identity.
Today’s mobility barriers seem to stem less from class than from identity: race, gender and sexual orientation. And the NDP always considered the “little guy” more than an economic entity: My wife’s family, like many Japanese-Canadians, was loyal to the only party (then the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation) that opposed internment policies during the Second World War.
Ed Broadbent’s support for “ordinary Canadians” appealed to aspirational values, rather than what I see as a cynical, belittling image of the “little guy,” fuelled by the current Conservative Leader’s facile resentment and divisive scapegoating.
Chester Fedoruk Toronto
Columnist John Ibbitson portrays today’s NDP as largely devoted to pursuing woke identity politics, neglecting “the working stiff.”
I see the NDP’s traditional social-democratic priorities in its supply and confidence agreement with the Liberals, which includes dental care for the most vulnerable and universal pharmacare; expanded child care; 10 days of annual paid sick leave in federally regulated industries; a ban on replacement workers in case of lockouts.
“The working stiff” isn’t supposed to notice that the Conservatives seem to be pursuing a class war on behalf of business. Pierre Poilievre has advocated anti-union, U.S.-style “right to work” laws since 2012, a measure Barack Obama termed “the right to work for less.”
Rod Hill Saint John
Ed Broadbent was J.S. Woodsworth Chair in the Humanities at Simon Fraser University from 1997 to 1999.
He had been an academic in his early life and he took to the position with enthusiasm. He enjoyed talking to the students and engaging them on the history of social democracy and social justice more widely.
As a colleague, he was both genial and eager for conversation and debate, and he remained in touch after he left.
Mr. Broadbent was a real credit to the position.
Ian Angus Professor emeritus, humanities, Simon Fraser University Vancouver
Give me more
Re “Postsecondary problems” (Letters, Jan. 15): Lamenting that “Canada has the highest percentage of the work force with postsecondary education,” a letter-writer asks whether we need “so many” graduates in “women’s studies, Russian literature or humanities” while we lack skilled tradespeople.
I answer that the primary role of a university is not job training; that past efforts to encourage enrolment in trades education have been resisted by students and their parents; that a liberal-arts education and technical training are not two sides of a single coin; that this letter likely means we need more liberal-arts graduates – that is, graduates with an expansive worldview and the ability to think both creatively and critically.
Michael Arkin Toronto
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