Prime Minister Justin Trudeau looks on as National Defence Minister Bill Blair responds to a question during a news conference at the NATO Summit on July 11 in Washington.Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press
Don’t spend it all
Re “Let’s stop bashing Canada’s defence spending” (Aug. 1): Yes, Canadians should stop beating themselves up over the amount we spend on defence.
Instead, we should stop deploying decrepit equipment to joint military exercises. We should either fill the 15,000 vacant positions in the Canadian Armed Forces or eliminate them.
If we don’t like the NATO commitment of 2 per cent of GDP, then we should leave. Justin Trudeau’s promise to fulfill our commitment by 2032 feels like a disgraceful joke.
We could negotiate a separate defence deal with the United States. And while we are at it, perhaps we could make our armed forces free of abuse against women. If we cannot do that, then we should create two armed forces, one for women and the other for men.
My bet is that within 10 years, the male contingent would be made up entirely of vacant positions while the female one would be a modern, vibrant organization.
Patrick Cowan Toronto
Equal access
Re “Quebec injects politics into its health care system” (Editorial, Aug. 2): Canada is supposed to be a bilingual country. The federal government is supposed to ensure that both official languages are spoken everywhere.
Here in Western Quebec, health care services have been adequate, and the level of care has been great. Having recently gone for X-rays, I stumbled through the assessment with my limited Franglais, as always, and managed to get enough information to know what was going on.
I fear, however, that with recent language laws requiring French-only government services for things such as income tax, business inquiries and now health care, something will get lost in translation – and lives will be lost.
In a so-called bilingual country where all kinds of concessions have been made for French elsewhere in Canada, health care should be one area where the federal government ensures that Canadians have the right to be served in the language of their choice.
Kensel Tracy Chelsea, Que.
Good start
Re “Point Lepreau station is among North America’s worst-performing nuclear power plants. Can NB Power turn it around?” (Report on Business, July 29): Point Lepreau was one of the world’s top-performing reactors for many years after first criticality.
It achieved record levels of availability and generated more than 5,000 gigawatt hours a year of energy for its first decade of operations. However, numerous problems started to surface in the 1990s due to poor maintenance and low investment.
Roderick Hogg Former employee, Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd.; Southport, N.L.
Stone’s throw
Re “The misogynists trying to turn the United States into Gilead” (Aug. 2): Columnist Marsha Lederman urges that we should send the current wave of American misogynists “back to the Stone Age, where they belong.”
While I appreciate the sentiment, it should be noted that during the Stone Age – a vast expanse of time accounting for the majority of our species’ evolution – evidence suggests that gender relations were far more equal than during the far shorter agrarian, metal- and city-based civilizations that followed, up to the present.
Let’s not tarnish the past by misattributing the origins of our own ugly ideologies.
David Bright St. Catharines, Ont.
Do better
Re “More life” (Letters, Aug. 2): A letter writer finds that the National Farm Animal Care Council and Canadian Council on Animal Care “do somewhat protect” farm animals. I believe that neither they nor federal or provincial governments provide meaningful guards against such cruelty.
Provinces have made animal agriculture essentially exempt from animal cruelty laws; anything considered “generally accepted practice” is allowed. And what is generally accepted by the animal agriculture industry – and by these councils – often entails horrific cruelty.
Instead of focusing on reducing cruelty, our governments continue to pass “ag-gag” laws designed to prevent the public from realizing the extent of the cruelty. Meaningful protection of farm animals on the part of our provincial and federal governments is long overdue.
Don LePan Nanaimo, B.C.
Corporate co-operation
Re “Managers, managers everywhere – but do people really want such jobs?” (Report on Business, July 30): A long-time individual contributor, my hesitation (eventually overcome) about management was chiefly its stress point at the intersection of several conflicts: with highly paid and driven executives, between company and employee needs, between one team and another or even among employees themselves.
The suggestion that employees now “look out” rather than “in” their organizations may be practical for career advancement, but bodes ill for organizational loyalty and societal benefits. Management vitally links employees not only for effective collaboration but also for human connections that contribute to broader social capital, an increasing challenge with the isolating trends of remote work.
In 2020, McKinsey reported that “relationships with management are the top factor in employees’ job satisfaction” and “the second most important determinant of employees’ overall well-being.” And legal scholar Cynthia Estlund argued that workplaces create meaningfully diverse relationships that build mutual interdependence, empathy, belonging and trust through shared goals and achievements.
Chester Fedoruk Toronto
Writ large
Re “Battle of Passchendaele begins” (Moment in Time, July 31): My great uncle, Private Charlie Wesley Lovatt, was a stretcher bearer who died in this battle, almost exactly three months later. So it is gripping to see a photo of stretcher bearers at work.
Uncle Charlie’s July 31 diary entry read: “Wet all day. On guard at night.”
We have given that diary to the University of Winnipeg Archives. He was a student there, at Wesley College, from 1912 until he enlisted early in 1916.
Lloyd Lovatt Edmonton
Newsworthy
My husband and I want to share our heartfelt thanks for The Globe and Mail paper carrier who took exceptional actions one morning last week, actions that made all the difference in someone’s life.
While I was away at our family cottage, my husband was at home and had a fall in the middle of the night. Unable to reach the telephone, he dragged himself through the house toward the front door while bleeding from deep cuts in his head and leg. He lost consciousness for a period of time.
When our morning Globe delivery arrived, he was able to pull himself to the front door and call out. Our delivery person came to his aid and called an ambulance. This person’s actions and willingness to get involved made all the difference.
While so many headlines bring difficult news these days, this delivery person was definitely good news for us.
James Elliott and Joan Anne Thraves Ottawa
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