The COVID-19 vaccination clinic at the Ontario Food Terminal in Toronto on May 11, 2021.Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press
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Healing health care
Re Health Care Advocates Plead For Action As Ontario Legislature Summer Session Starts (Aug. 8): During one week late last month, 4,787 Ontario hospital staff members were off work owing to COVID-19-related illness and isolation, yet not once have I read of politicians suggesting we try to tackle the staffing shortage by taking further measures to reduce the spread of COVID-19. The photo accompanying this article shows not a single MPP wearing a mask. Cases began to rise when mask mandates were removed and people stopped worrying about getting COVID-19, calling it “just a cold.” Yes, the government needs to improve working conditions and wages for nurses and other hospital staff, but even if they do it will take time for those measures to have an impact. Reinstating mask mandates and encouraging people to get booster shots could slow the spread of COVID-19 and improve staffing levels now.
Barbi Lazarus Toronto
It is well past time for Ontario residents to demand greater accountability from the provincial government. The Conservative government was re-elected with a larger majority in June and is only now coming back to work. They are committing to do what is necessary to fix a broken health care system, but there does not seem to be a plan. What has the health care bureaucracy being doing while their political masters have been away? What we need to see is a well-thought-out plan with identified deliverables and a timeline. This plan should also have transparent and well-communicated details and consequences for failure. Right now only the public suffers the consequences for failure.
This has got to change.
Ken Duff Vankleek Hill, Ont.
Re Medicare’s Staffing Crisis Won’t Fix Itself (Editorial, Aug. 9): Shame on The Globe and Mail for suggesting that “this country has to recruit experienced nurses overseas” to help remedy our current shortage. Don’t you realize that many countries have much worse shortages than Canada and have already paid out of their severely limited health budgets to educate their health professionals? The WHO Global Code of Practice on the International Recruitment of Health Personnel says: “Member States should discourage active recruitment of health personnel from developing countries facing critical shortages of health workers.” The Globe and Mail published an article in 2008 about a group of public-health researchers who argued in a leading medical journal that “the poaching of doctors, nurses and pharmacists from sub-Saharan Africa by developed countries ought to be viewed as an international crime.” Although the WHO Code doesn’t go that far, its recommendations should be the minimum elements of a Canadian policy.
John Williams Ottawa
Why should we expect foreign-trained health care workers to accept conditions rejected by those previously employed in our health care system? Why should we expect those with foreign training to stay in these jobs? Why should we expect other countries to pay for the training of our health care labour force? While foreign-trained workers certainly can and do make an important contribution to care, we also have a labour force that could be attracted back now by improved conditions of work. Let’s begin by putting our own house in order.
Pat Armstrong, Professor Emeritus, York University
Plane facts
Re Bombardier Boosts Free-Cash Forecast Amid Strong Demand For Business Jets (Report on Business, Aug. 5): The surging sales of private jets is good news for the employees and shareholders of Bombardier. It is not good news for those of us concerned about climate change and the energy crisis caused by Vladimir Putin.
Although some jets are required by business, the use of private jets by the rich, who consider even taking business class to be slumming it, is the ultimate act of self-indulgence.
And people like me are trying to save the planet by turning off lights. Silly us.
Barry Lizmore Victoria, Australia
Rest in peace
Re Former Liberal Cabinet Minister Graham Dies (Aug. 9): William Carvel Graham represented in Canadian politics the apotheosis in decency and humility grounded within integrity. It was my privilege to have multiple conversations with him, which were an enriching learning experience. I will miss this man – his smile, his zest, his intellectual rigour, his social poise. The Bill Grahams in Canadian politics are few and disappearing, which is tragic.
Monte McMurchy Toronto
No silver bullet
Re Ottawa Outlines Ban On Handgun Imports (Aug. 6): The braying of the pro-gun lobby decrying measures to limit the ownership of handguns on the pretext that we can’t control the acquisition and use of illegal or stolen weapons should be resolutely disregarded. The solution to the grim spectre of gun violence cannot be achieved by a single intervention, but the measures outlined by the government on banning imports and sale are very sensible and deserve our support.
Paul Thiessen MD Vancouver
Pelosi’s message to China
Re Pelosi’s Visit To Taiwan Annoyed China? All The More Reason For Her To Go (Opinion, Aug. 6): Columnist Andrew Coyne is an astute observer of history. The past has amply demonstrated that appeasing dictators merely encourages them. For recent examples, we have only to look to Bashar Assad’s deployment of chemical weapons against his own people in Syria and Vladimir Putin’s illegal annexation of Crimea. Had the West stood up to the former, hundreds of thousands of lives would have been saved; and had we opposed the annexation of Crimea, Mr. Putin’s “special military operation” in Ukraine might never have happened.
Nancy Pelosi should be applauded for having the courage of her convictions.
George McNeillie Toronto
Bravo, Andrew Coyne! As debates raged recently about the appropriateness of Nancy Pelosi’s trip, I instinctively disagreed with those who criticized her, but did not have the time to figure out why. Mr. Coyne’s analysis solved that for me instantly, through the force of his clear and convincing arguments.
Connie Hunt Calgary
The problem with Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan is not that it angered China. As Andrew Coyne states, that was to be expected. The problem is that Joe Biden didn’t think such a trip was a good idea. When the U.S. President and the House Speaker aren’t singing from the same hymn book, you are compounding “strategic ambiguity” with “message ambiguity.” Unfortunately, ambiguity is not a problem-solving strategy.
Tony Manera Ottawa
Unprecedented president
Re FBI Raid Of Trump’s Home Unprecedented And Yet Predictable (Folio, Aug. 10): In his response to the raid on Mar-a-Lago, Donald Trump protested: “Nothing like this has ever happened to a President of the United States before.”
Gee, I wonder why not.
Nigel Brachi Edmonton
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