Drug injection supplies inside the Fraser Health supervised consumption site in Surrey, B.C., June 6, 2017.JONATHAN HAYWARD/The Canadian Press
Party invite
Re “Trudeau holds meeting with Mark Carney to join government, sources say” (July 18): The muttering from inside the Liberal Party is not helping build confidence in the Canadian electorate. With summer holidays here, the government can step away and look at the big picture.
Popularity of the leader has always ebbed and flowed in this country. This is not the time to be tone-deaf. The status quo feels toxic.
I do not question Justin Trudeau’s sincerity, but that is irrelevant. The clamouring is loud.
Before installing a new leader, let’s take a look at what is happening in the Western world. The rabble love the style of Pierre Poilievre. It’s a Donald Trump thing.
This would be the wrong time for Mark Carney. He, like Michael Ignatieff, has the wisdom and the clarity of vision, but that wouldn’t matter.
There is a piling-on in the front bench. If the Liberals hope to remain in power, they should find a rock star with brains.
Hugh McKechnie Sudbury
Re “Chrystia Freeland mum on her future as Finance Minister after series of meetings with Trudeau” (July 17): Our Prime Minister’s recently reported concerns about the effectiveness of Chrystia Freeland’s economic messaging should not distract Canadians from the myriad challenges facing the Liberal government. The problem I see is not with messaging, it is with policy itself.
The Prime Minister’s Office is ultimately responsible for widespread dissatisfaction with respect to economics, NATO, defence funding and more. The Liberals lost a key Toronto riding in the recent by-election.
Unfortunately, shuffling this particular messenger would not solve this government’s many problems.
Kathleen Donohue Toronto
Re “Searching for someone to whisper in a leader’s ear” (July 17): In copying the British political system, Canadian politicians have omitted the British custom of political resignation when things go wrong. Helped by a ruthless media and backbench MPs who see a leader threatening their future prospects, a British politician resigns just to save what remains of their tattered reputation.
Contrast that with the Canadian political custom of hanging on until dragged from office with fingernails scratching the desk, leaving their ruined party in the political wilderness, sometimes for decades.
Paul Cary Cambridge, Ont.
Back to the well
Re “Is the oil industry fighting for the right to greenwash?” (Report on Business, July 16): As another 30-plus-year industry veteran also employed by a company where I was to “choose the course of ‘highest integrity,’ ” I reached a different conclusion than contributor Hugh Helferty, where his was for the industry to stop whining and start complying.
Because Bill C-59 does not specify what is an internationally recognized reporting methodology, and rather indicates that “the proof of which lies on the person making the representation,” individuals and companies choosing the highest course should suspend reporting until such methodologies are specified or risk severe penalties, because the government may not accept the submitted proof of “adequate and proper substantiation.” There are examples, but none of these have been shown to be compliant with the regulation.
My conclusion is that industry is not whining, but rather acting with integrity in removing their reporting, because there is currently no indication as to what is an acceptable standard.
Peter Noble Sarnia, Ont.
Re “Well spent?” (Letters, July 17): The federal and Alberta governments are supplying yet another public subsidy to the fossil-fuel industry, this time for carbon capture and storage. Meanwhile the industry reports record profit and returns ever higher dividends to shareholders and executives.
Elsewhere, the amount of solar energy installed worldwide doubles every three years as its price plummets – without subsidies. At night, California gets a sizable amount of solar-powered electricity from its battery facilities.
The world is moving on to cheap, clean power while Canada may be stuck with yet more stranded assets and public debt. CCS should be reserved for industries that have few other options such as cement production, not for energy production.
David Ross Edmonton
Path to recovery
Re “B.C.’s former chief coroner Larry Campbell fought for drug decriminalization. Now he backs its reversal” (July 17): It was with pleasure that I read about Larry Campbell’s U-turn in the war against drugs. Many of us physicians experienced in the field screamed loud when he was pushing to legalize drugs, but our voices were drowned out by prevailing political force.
I hope very much the outcry of parents who have lost their children to drugs will be heard. I believe safe supply creates legalized drug dens.
Toghra GhaemMaghami Toronto
Re “Pierre Poilievre revives the war on drugs” (Editorial, July 17): We are extremely concerned about Pierre Poilievre’s mischaracterization of essential supervised consumption services and threats to reduce access.
Our local SCS are essential partners in providing care, even beyond overdose response, including mental-health support, wound care and connection to other services. In some cases, they are the only place people receive care.
Earlier this year, a study in The Lancet demonstrated that the time period of SCS implementation in Toronto was associated with reduced overdose deaths in surrounding neighbourhoods. Closings of SCS would be felt in our strained clinics and emergency rooms, and would lead to more deaths within our communities, which are already overwhelmed by grief.
We reject the use of inflammatory rhetoric about SCS for political gain and appeal to every level of government to put people’s lives and our health care system first, by continuing to fund and expand access to SCS.
Katie Dorman, family physician University of Toronto
Sahil Gupta, emergency medicine physician University of Toronto
The numbers are telling: a total of 4.6 million visits to supervised drug consumption sites, zero deaths. Zilch. This remarkable outcome has occurred while, elsewhere, more than 44,000 Canadians died from opioid-related overdoses.
The matter of supervised drug consumption versus treatment, then, is a false choice. We can do both.
James Schaefer Peterborough, Ont.
Pierre Poilievre says he will close supervised drug sites. It doesn’t appear to have occurred to him that less supervised drug use means more unsupervised use, and thus more deaths by overdose.
Steve Soloman Toronto
Shades of Reefer Madness. Pierre Poilievre even warns of government-sponsored “drug dens.”
Unfortunately, I’m old enough to remember the original war on drugs in the United States, and even the timeless anti-drug film that’s become a perpetual joke.
Different drugs now, but the same attitude espoused by Mr. Poilievre. So, after all these decades, how did the war on drugs work out? I think even he knows the answer.
Jim Hickman Bracebridge, 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