Commuters pass by a map of VIA Rail’s transit lines at Union Station in Toronto on May 5.Sammy Kogan/The Globe and Mail
Final decision
Re “Trudeau cabinet withholding documents on foreign interference from inquiry” (May 23): How will Justice Marie-Josée Hogue interpret this posture from the federal government, should these unredacted documents never be produced to the commission?
Reflecting back on how the Liberal government cited solicitor-client privilege as a shield against the release of the much sought-after legal opinion referenced throughout the Public Order Emergency Commission, Justice Paul Rouleau took this in good faith. He was satisfied in the absence of this information to vindicate the federal government, on balance, with its invocation of the Emergencies Act.
Similarly any attempts by Justice Hogue to draw conclusions – without explicitly opining on the Liberal government’s act of withholding necessary documentation – would be just as damaging to our democracy as the very foreign interference allegations being scrutinized within this commission itself.
Angelo Mele Newmarket, Ont.
Would it work?
Re “Calls to ‘divest’ from Israel are ridiculous and impossible” (Report on Business, May 22): Our universities should be encouraging discussion, not saying a “flat-out no” to protesters.
Divestment demands would accomplish a great deal. For starters, there are just a few companies that make weapons, such as Lockheed Martin, Boeing, RTX (formerly Raytheon Technologies), Northrop Grumman and General Dynamics. These could be easily eliminated from pension and university endowment funds.
As pointed out, half a million dollars of Lockheed stock is small. So why not eliminate it from portfolios?
Elsewhere, fossil fuel industries are finding it more difficult to get investments as people turn away from them financially. So, yes, university divestment from military companies would set a precedent.
We should support our students.
Richard Denton Past co-chair, North America, International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War Sudbury
Think a ban on buying clementines from Israel isn’t practical or won’t have any effect? Read up on the Florida orange juice boycott that resulted in the firing of Anita Bryant as brand ambassador for the Florida Citrus Commission in 1980.
Money talks.
Ian Kamm Toronto
Full speed ahead
Re “Canada charts path for high-speed trains, but obstacles loom” (Report on Business, May 18): The government ought to follow the lead of France and ban domestic flights that can be completed by rail within 2.5 hours, in order to remove the obstacles for high-speed, dedicated, electrified rail service.
Stephen Halman Toronto
Is high-frequency rail really the best we can do to serve the people and economies of Ontario and Quebec?
Surely not, for an elevated railway could run over or alongside the 401 highway corridor from Windsor to Quebec City and carry high-speed trains.
Translating times taken on Japan’s Shinkansen (the world’s first high-speed rail service was inaugurated between Tokyo and Osaka 60 years ago), I estimate that the fastest train would travel from Windsor to Montreal in three hours, 43 minutes. The slowest train, stopping at all intermediate stations, would take six hours, 25 minutes.
As in Japan, air travel between these cities could be eliminated, saving costs and the environment. Two additional tracks could also connect Ottawa to Montreal, and Ottawa to the corridor through Smiths Falls.
Roger Fielding Kingston
The estimate of $18-billion sounds like a sweet deal but completely unrealistic, like almost any plans related to passenger rail in Canada.
The current estimate for Toronto’s Eglinton light-rail line is $12.8-billion, for a measly few kilometres of commuter railway. It is years late and the people bankrolling this fiasco (the commuting taxpayer) are provided few details as to why, after all this time and money, it’s still not in service.
It seems no one in Canada has ever taken high-frequency or high-capacity trains seriously. We have been talking about them since the mid-1970s (remember the TurboTrain, or Canadian National’s Rapido service?) and we are nowhere nearer to getting them than we were then.
The current plans seem like an absolute joke. From what I see, the terms of the debate (and the excuses) have not moved since the 1970s – a pathetic state of affairs.
Peter Hutcheon Toronto
Yet another initiative for high-speed rail service that looks poised for failure.
Barely under way and the outcome is being described as not enough passengers, fare prices too high and a poor business case. The path to abandonment seems set. It shouldn’t be.
No mention is made of climate change. Every day, thousands of passengers fly between Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa and Quebec City. Jet planes, especially those servicing short-haul flights, are major sources of greenhouse gases.
Add to that thousands more passenger vehicles on highways linking these cities. Climate change is not a business case. It is a case of Canada’s survival as we know it.
Electrified high-speed rail service has been needed for years without success. I believe now it has become mandatory.
The establishment of Canada as a nation from sea to sea was dependent on rail. We should be dependent on rail again for our future.
David Kister Kingston
Price of admission
Re “A $42,000 gym membership? In this economy?” (Report on Business, May 18): A stark reflection of our materialistic society.
In a time of economic disparity, such extravagant spending highlights a troubling shift away from common sense and community values. This membership symbolizes a broader trend where status trumps practicality and social responsibility.
As we face economic challenges, it’s crucial to reconsider our priorities and foster more meaningful, inclusive values.
Catherine Daugherty Guelph, Ont.
Being there
Re “Alice Munro showed us glimpses of ourselves on the page” (Opinion, May 18): “It was a thrill, wasn’t it: To read Ms. Munro’s stories and recognize the places in them?”
As a teenage boy in the 1950s, I delivered meat to Dr. Wallace Wilson, the husband of Ethel Wilson, who lived in the Kensington Place Apartments on Nicola Street in Vancouver’s West End. I did not know it at the time, but it was the Ethel Wilson who wrote Swamp Angel (1954).
After reading Alan Twigg’s Vancouver and its Writers: A Guide to Vancouver’s Literary Landmarks (1986), I discovered that Ms. Wilson met regularly with Alice Munro and Margaret Laurence where I often delivered meat. What a thrill to discover I had been in the meeting place of these three wise women of Canadian literature.
I did not experience this thrill again until decades later, when I became an English teacher and read Lives of Girls and Women (1971) with my Grade 12 students.
Heinz Senger Surrey, B.C.
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