Ryan Remiorz/The Canadian Press
Letters to the Editor should be exclusive to The Globe and Mail. Include your name, address and daytime phone number. Try to keep letters to fewer than 150 words. Letters may be edited for length and clarity. To submit a letter by e-mail, click here: letters@globeandmail.com
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Prosecute the people, not the company
Re Canada Shatters Myths Of White-Collar Crime (July 30): David Montero’s “criminal activity that should be prosecuted” comments are well and good and consistent with our desire to be a democracy and ruled by law. However, in the SNC-Lavalin case, it is not the company that should be prosecuted.
Our systems handsomely reward the top brass for managing a company. Why not deal with them for presiding over an environment where corruption flourished? The lack of a deferred prosecution agreement (DPA) has helped reduce my RRSP significantly as the SNC-Lavalin affair continues to garner publicity.
“Regardless of the consequences …” is valiant commentary – until it affects you personally. Investing in what was once a world-class Canadian company has a price, a very real price.
Canada’s reputation regarding white-collar crime would be furthered if those truly responsible were the focus of all this media attention.
Walter F. Petryschuk, Sarnia, Ont.
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The reason Canada has a poor record on white-collar crime is that until 2018, we did not have a law for a DPA (deferred prosecution agreement). As a result, the guilty people ended up with few or no penalties.
The director of public prosecutions was wrong not to use this law, and as a result another Canadian champion is slowly being destroyed. It is a national shame that this is happening.
Vittorio DiCarlo, Whitby, Ont.
Heart attack on a plate
Re The Food Guide Debate Has A Historical Bite (July 29): John Ibbitson says Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer is right to point out that latest edition of the Canada Food Guide “takes reason to an unreasonable extreme.”
Both he and Mr. Scheer are out to lunch when it comes to the Food Guide. The recent revision to the guide, in recommending a more plant-based diet, simply recommends what has been known for many years to be the best way to eat.
It was discovered in the 1960s that in Crete, the heart-attack risk was 1/15th of what it was in Finland, where people ate like Canadians. The diet was described by Ancel Keys, the leader of the Seven Countries Study, as “a mainly vegetarian diet.”
The American Heart Association reported in 2015 that only 0.1 per cent of Americans consume a healthy diet; that’s why there is an epidemic of obesity and diabetes. What is extreme is the dangerous diet consumed by North Americans: a heart attack on a plate!
If more Canadians consumed what the Canada Food Guide recommends, I would have far fewer stroke patients to see.
David Spence, Professor of Neurology and Clinical Pharmacology; Director, Stroke Prevention and Atherosclerosis Research Centre, Robarts Research Institute, University of Western Ontario
Rules for airlines
Re In Legal Battle, Ottawa Says It Has Authority To Make Rules For Airlines (July 30): “How is the passenger better served if the airplane has to go back to the gate, unload everyone and get them back into the terminal to meet a strict 90-minute limit of tarmac delay …” asks the Transport Minister’s chief of staff, Marc Roy.
Well, for starters, returning to the terminal to allow the passengers to disembark will let them stand up, walk around, perhaps perform some personal care in a space that most people can actually fit into, perhaps receive some respectful communication from the service provider (the airline), and get a physical and mental break from the jail cell that airline passenger “holds” have become.
The disguised contempt that we are treated with by airlines today is difficult for even Mr. Roy to hide as he publicly argues against a few commonsense rules that might slow down the race to the bottom that the air-travel experience has become.
It’s time that the airlines that Mr. Roy defends stopped acting like the customers here and remembered that their passengers occupy that role.
Don Ferguson, Kamloops, B.C.
Insulin-supply pressure
Re Cheaper U.S. Drug Prices Shouldn’t Involve Raiding Our Supply (July 30): The phenomenon of U.S. citizens coming to Canada to buy insulin because it costs so much less here is a peculiar and disturbing situation. While I do not want to deny insulin to anyone who needs it, I am concerned that this influx of American shoppers could create a shortage of insulin in Canada.
Insulin is not an optional drug. Many Canadians live well with diabetes, raising families, holding profitable jobs, maintaining good health, contributing to our society in various positive ways because they have a ready supply of insulin. Otherwise, they would be dead, or at best, a much more costly drain on the health system.
Frederick Banting sold his share of the drug patent to the University of Toronto for $1 in the hope that all people who needed it would have insulin they could afford – something drug companies and governments in the United States seem to have forgotten. Clearly, we in Canada have not forgotten, which is why the price of insulin in Canada is still affordable for most who need it.
We must petition our governments to do whatever is necessary to assure the supply of insulin to Canadians who need it remains constant and accessible.
Joan Petch, Ottawa
Abortion-care access
Re Federal Health Minister Tells All Provinces To Fund Abortion Care (July 25): As a country that prides itself in upholding human rights, how has Canada ignored the right of women to control their own body?
Rape and sexual assault targets some of the most vulnerable women in Canadian society. Putting a fee on abortion services victimizes women who are already in socioeconomic distress.
Travelling hundreds of kilometres to visit a clinic for a prescription for the abortion pill? For women who don’t live major urban centres, these are impossibly high barriers to access reproductive health care.
Abortion has been legal in Canada for decades. But in 2019, it is still not universally accessible: Our government is guilty of failing to protect the access rights of all women in this country.
Wendy Qiu, Richmond, B.C.
An unfortunate slogan?
Re Millions Of Canadians Affected By Massive Capital One Data Breach (July 30): So 100 million Americans and six million Canadians had their basic personal identification and/or financial information compromised when Capital One was hacked.
This will prove costly, not only in settling customer claims, but also in reputation. In view of what’s happened, perhaps Capital One might want to consider changing its marketing slogan: “What’s in your wallet?”
Ken DeLuca, Arnprior, Ont.
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