Prime Minister Justin Trudeau responds to a question during question period in House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on June 18.Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press
Letter of the law
Re “Unnamed traitors in Parliament, but thank goodness everyone’s reputation is intact” (June 19): In plain speak, traitors commit treason. The National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians concluded that no criminal charges would likely be laid against any parliamentarian, no doubt because treason is difficult to prove.
Under Section 46 of the Criminal Code, treason requires communication, “without lawful authority,” of military or scientific information to “an agent of a state other than Canada,” by a person who “knows or ought to know” the information may be used “for a purpose prejudicial to the safety or defence of Canada.” These elements set a high bar for the laying of charges, let alone conviction.
No doubt some parliamentarians acted against Canada’s interests in aiding foreign states to interfere in Canadian politics, as NSICOP reported. But are they traitors? Not likely.
Stephen Hazell LLB Ottawa
Big problems
Re “Canada has 99 problems but a high tax regime ain’t one” (Report on Business, June 10): Contributor Claude Lavoie says Canadians are wrong to worry about the “bigger government agenda.” But the bigger government agenda should be worrisome because it limits economic freedom, which is the ability to make our own economic choices free of constraints imposed by others.
Limits on economic freedom make it harder to buy and sell what we want, to use our own property, to start and run businesses. Economic freedom has been exhaustively studied, and the results overwhelmingly suggest that economically freer people are more prosperous than less-free people.
Those in the freest societies earn about 7.7 times as much as those in the least free. Their greater prosperity doesn’t just buy nicer stuff: It also buys longer lifespans, better literacy rates, higher levels of life satisfaction, cleaner environments, less poverty, lower infant mortality and less violence.
Canadians would be right to believe the bigger government agenda is holding them back.
Matthew Mitchell and Jake Fuss, Fraser Institute Calgary
Got milk
Re “As grocery prices soar, the dairy lobby’s supply management has got to go” (Report on Business, June 19): Supply management, while ensuring that Canadians have safe dairy and poultry products, also means that lower income households have an extra burden with a very expensive food source.
As pointed out, the number of producers have dramatically declined since supply management’s inception. No longer is the system supporting many small family farms, but rather protecting large corporate operations that are guaranteed prices increases, unlike in a more competitive marketplace.
With government assistance, the transition to a competitive market need not be disastrous for producers, and grocery prices would decrease.
David Enns Cornwall, Ont.
Ever since the government and the NDP began attacking Canadian grocery retailers about food inflation, I’ve wondered why no party has put the Canadian Dairy commission and supply management in its sights.
Some 40 million Canadians pay amongst the highest dairy prices in the world so that 9,000 dairy farmers can remain protected. The Liberal government, then, isn’t dealing with one part of inflation it can control.
Look in the mirror, not at grocery retailers.
Stephen Kouri Toronto
Last gasp
Re “McDavid puts on a clinic to lead Oilers back to Edmonton” (Sports, June 19): In comparing the Oiler’s situation to the Leaf’s 1942 Stanley Cup victory after being down 3-0, one difference is that the Leafs sat their stars, such as Gordie Drillon, and played the youngsters.
Craig Sims Kingston
Film Friday
Re “Globe film critic Jay Scott changed how Canadians consumed and talked about culture” (June 17): Jay Scott was much more than just a movie critic. He was a major cultural influencer for your long-time readers, enhancing the art of criticism and making it as essential as the art itself. Art alone doesn’t always reach the masses, but with insightful criticism its meaning is amplified.
He particularly focused reader attention on movies as an art form that does not just reflect life, but has the potential to transform it. Films of the 1970s and 1980s opened minds to overthrowing old attitudes of repressed sexuality, the glorification of greed and state-driven politics that inhibited individual well-being.
Nostalgia is a noble emotion because it transcends the arrow of time. This reader is reminded that through his critical guidance, we can rewind and relive transformative cinematic experiences.
Moreover, he was a stylist whose original copy reads as well today.
So thanks.
Tony D’Andrea Toronto
This brings back vivid memories of the Festival of Festivals, the film Diva (1981) at the Revue Cinema and multiple viewings of Apocalypse Now (1979) at the University Theatre.
Jay Scott’s film reviews were the reason I began subscribing to the Friday and Saturday editions of The Globe and Mail.
Maria Edelman St. Catharines, Ont.
I was at a film event at the invitation of my wife Jane Tattersall, a well-regarded sound designer. At the event, Don McKellar (who should need no introduction) told an amusing tale about being at a European film festival with the late Jay Scott. I laughed appreciatively.
But normally when I hear his name, I mourn the loss. What might have been if he had lived longer.
Mr. Scott, whom I never met, inspired me to see the movies of the new generation of German filmmakers, notably Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Werner Herzog and Wim Wenders. And in those halcyon days, the place to watch these extraordinary films in Toronto was at the Capitol Fine Arts Theatre.
One can never go back, but at least the memories are still fresh. Thanks to Mr. Scott.
Anthony Pepper Toronto
Growing up in suburban Toronto in the 1960s and 1970s, my parents subscribed to the Toronto Star. When I took up a Globe and Mail paper route for extra spending money as a teenager, and ended up with an extra copy of the paper one morning, a light went off as I began to read one of Jay Scott’s movie reviews.
Although my memory has dimmed with age – I can no longer recall the details of the review (or even what movie it was – the memory of the surprise and delight I felt reading his clever critique has not faded.
I became a fan, switched newspaper allegiances and continued to follow Mr. Scott’s writings until he sadly passed away. The Globe addiction, though, has continued.
Kaia Toop Toronto
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