Lilly Meister of the Indiana Hoosiers competes for the ball against Chloe Kitts and Bree Hall of the South Carolina Gamecocks during the first half in the Sweet 16 round of the NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament at MVP Arena on March 29 in Albany, New York.Andy Lyons/Getty Images
Go in peace
Re “After Rwanda, I found a path to personal peace. Can the world do that?” (Opinion, March 23): Thanks to Roméo Dallaire for writing about what he faced in Rwanda in 1994.
He was there. He witnessed the horrors of genocide and had the courage to tell us how it affected him.
He never did walk away from it. I felt his sadness. I thank him for sharing it.
It shows everyone what a decent man he is. I wish him well.
G. Brian Black Winnipeg
Renewed defence
Re “Denial and delay is not a defence policy” (Editorial, March 16) and “Defence down” (Letters, March 23): At 99 years old and as a wartime naval veteran, my first ship even in 1944 was, almost unbelievably, a 130-foot U.S. motor yacht purchased in 1940. A few months before, I also served briefly on an unstable U.S. destroyer from the First World War (in a February gale off Halifax!), kindly loaned to tide us over until we could build those sturdy small corvettes.
This was all because of unpreparedness in the late 1930s and an inability to start acquiring even marginally suitable warships for an obvious, to most, war. Today’s all-out war in Ukraine gives us similar advance warning.
Our present fleet is aged almost beyond belief again and we haven’t even begun replacing them, which can take five to 15 years. I won’t be serving in any future war or even peacekeeping, but my grandchildren, even great-grandchildren may, if we are not at least partly prepared.
Fraser McKee Toronto
A letter-writer quotes Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly as saying that Canada “is not a military power. We’re a middle-sized power and what we’re good at is convening and making sure diplomacy is happening, and meanwhile convincing other countries to do more.” Good for her.
Canada should work as a negotiator for peace, not as a military force. There is enough militarism and paranoia in the world today as it is.
Iain McInnes Ottawa
I was in the Royal Canadian Navy from 1951 to 1956, when I took an honourable discharge. There were several reasons which led myself to take leave of the forces.
The most serious concern was income. It was sufficient while I was a single man, but not near enough for a married man living paycheque to paycheque. Speaking as a naval serviceman, one lives in most cases on the East or West coasts where the cost of living is high and groceries and rents are hard to cope with.
The government should seriously consider the treatment of service people and, most importantly, their incomes. I know that most of the people who take discharges leave for better opportunities as civilians.
Donald Oleniuk Sarnia, Ont.
Re “The Liberals’ dithering on defence is indefensible” (Editorial, March 27): The Roman author Flavius Vegetius Renatus once wrote: “Si vis pacem, para bellum.”
If you want peace, prepare for war.
David Roberts West Vancouver
On paper
Re “What is productivity and why is it so low in Canada?” (Online, March 28): Apparently Canadian businesses have a productivity problem. I think the only business that the federal government supports is the bureaucracy.
By my calculations, its productivity equals zero.
James Rogers Regina
Forget about it
Re “Bare trusts exempt from new reporting rules for 2023, CRA says” (Report on Business, March 29): I cannot believe that the government would wait until the final hour to tell people they do not have to report bare trusts on their taxes.
Thousands of man hours wasted by clients and accountants in Canada.
Sandy Vanier, CPA, Ottawa
For the past two weeks, I have been diligent in dealing with accounting professionals, at a cost of $1,600, to comply with the Canada Revenue Agency’s new rules for bare trusts. Can someone inform me how to invoice the CRA for these unnecessary expenses?
The CRA initiated these requirements with minimal notice. Many of us, who help family members with mortgages and other property management support, have scrambled to satisfy the terms. Suddenly the CRA changes its mind.
Some recompense for the financial and personal demands of these decisions should be considered. A reassessment of CRA decision-making? Perhaps a tax credit for costs?
Bruce Goldsmid Whistler, B.C.
Family matters
Re “Manitoba reviewing contract with staffing firm that has not hired any doctors in first eight months” (March 26): This article identifies how vulnerable we are to unscrupulous practices during this time of health care crises, a significant component being the lack of family physicians.
Ontario, having just received $3.1-billion from Ottawa, is promising to spend it on primary care teams. But we need a quicker fix.
Trainees considering family medicine know that basic fees are ridiculous and won’t fully support them in establishing their practices, paying back loans and carrying substantial overhead costs. These core fees are about 60 per cent of what they should be, thanks to decades of steady inflation and neglect by professional associations and successive governments.
Until primary care teams can fully evolve, the Ontario government and the Ontario Medical Association could jointly adjust these substandard fees by applying some of the new funding. Rhetoric should be replaced with action to support family medicine in Ontario.
Tom Bell MD, FCFP (retired); Peterborough, Ont.
Value added
Re “Off the top” (Letters, March 24): A letter-writer ignores the services and value that real estate agents can bring to the table for their clients, presuming that we only set prices and grab 5 or 6 per cent off the top.
We are highly regulated service providers who ensure and assure our client bases of their optimal solutions, be they buyers or sellers. We are independent business people setting fees for services provided. We are not required to charge set fees.
The millions of happy consumers relying and depending on professional real estate agents for advice and expertise far outnumber the few, who have perhaps made poor decisions.
Larry Cunliffe Mississippi Mills, Ont.
Leak out
Re “Want to boost NHL audiences? Be more like women’s college basketball” (Sports, March 26): “I don’t give a tinker’s damn about college basketball.” That’s not fair to the honourable, bygone profession of tinkers, who repaired holes in metal pots.
They did not curse. They used a temporary plug of putty, a tinker’s dam, to fill a pothole and then applied molten metal to make the repair. The tinker’s dam was then worthless and thrown away.
However, I sense that no one else gives a tinker’s dam about my concern.
Henry Van Drunen Stratford, Ont.
Letters to the Editor should be exclusive to The Globe and Mail. Include your name, address and daytime phone number. Keep letters to 150 words or fewer. Letters may be edited for length and clarity. To submit a letter by e-mail, click here: letters@globeandmail.com