Passenger trains sit on the tracks at the Via Rail Canada Maintenance Centre in Montreal, on Feb. 22.Christinne Muschi/The Canadian Press
Grounded
Re “A perfect storm is coming as Air Canada pilots prepare for strike” (Report on Business, Sept. 2): I believe a key factor affecting labour disputes in the airline industry is the notion that strikes are “outside of a carrier’s control,” which frees them from the responsibility to compensate passengers for cancelled flights.
Labour disruptions should absolutely be considered within airlines’ control. Collective bargaining gives employers the authority to negotiate a collective agreement.
A government decision to designate labour disruptions as within the control of airlines would provide a powerful incentive to reach collective agreements – and keep planes flying.
Chris Bradshaw Victoria
Door to door
Re “Over 200 Via Rail passengers stranded for 10 hours due to mechanical issues” (Sept. 3): Last September, I was invited to an event in Ottawa at the Museum of Canadian History. It was a welcome for the Indian Residential School Memorial Monument, a special totem pole to honour the children whose unmarked graves were found at a residential school in Kamloops, B.C.
I decided to take the train to be there and back in one day, with less trouble than driving and no luggage. But the train was three hours late arriving and I missed the event. (I did meet the carver and saw the pole lying on its side, bundled for travel.)
The train to Toronto was also three hours late. In fact, they put us off in Oshawa and took us in buses to Toronto.
I got up at 4:50 a.m. and arrived home at 1:50 a.m. We received a credit for half the fare, to be used in six months.
Margaret Bryce Toronto
Decisions elsewhere
Re “Ontario regulator clears former emergency room doctor of gender discrimination and improper billing, for the second time” (Aug. 26): The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario could not conclude that doctor Marko Duic intentionally engaged in gender discrimination. As a retired cardiac surgeon who took my own case of gender discrimination to the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario, and now as a lawyer, I am astonished by the analysis undertaken in assessing discrimination.
As stated in my own case decision (2021 HRTO 213): “Adverse treatment does not need to be intentional for it to result in a Code breach.” It is then up to Dr. Duic to give a credible explanation as to why over 16 years he did not hire a single female physician, which, on its face, I find discriminatory. Whether he intended to discriminate should be immaterial.
The CPSO should rectify its approach to discrimination; otherwise, unconscious bias and stereotyping will likely persist, and female physicians will continue to be stymied throughout their careers.
Irene Cybulsky Ottawa
Prison reform
Re “The revolution in online learning has skipped over our prisons – and that helps nobody” (Sept. 2): Many more people in our prison systems would be helped if they were tested to determine their education level, then provided mandatory education to bring them up to at least a Grade 8 level in reading, writing and arithmetic.
From more than five years volunteering with young offenders, I found that far too many of them were illiterate. This may have been a factor in them choosing to go down the path they did.
Once their education is upgraded, teaching them basic life skills would also dramatically help their lives once they leave the prison system.
Edda Manley Burlington, Ont.
Hit play
Re “The joy of dance: Why our brains can’t help but tap along to a beat” (Aug. 30): If music is of such fundamental importance to human society, why do so few schools teach it?
How many of our schools actually have a trained music teacher capable of getting kids to sing in tune or a band to play?
Charles Heller Toronto
Float on
Re “Why we swim? A meditative, transforming experience” (Editorial, Aug. 31): After a summer swimming in a Northern Ontario lake, I came home to Edmonton expecting only to be diving into chlorine. Much to my surprise, I discovered the new Borden Natural Swimming Pool.
Imagine the same “this may be too cold” feeling as the bottom-sloped water rises slowly to the waist, and then the plunge. Two minutes later, feel how comfortable and wonderful it is to swim, open mouthed, with no chlorine, no salt and just a natural bit of filtering green algae in the water.
Terry Anderson Edmonton
My friend Ruth (age 90) and I (78) are fortunate to have access to the mighty St. Lawrence River. We enjoy daily dips, weather permitting. This summer we started on July 1.
Ruth’s noodle and my flotation belt keep us buoyant, as neither of us are strong swimmers. Over the summer, we’ve watched families of Canada geese, mallards and gulls, and solitary cormorants.
The river is narrow at this point and we can see our American neighbours in New York State. Always the cloud formations are beautiful. Last year, our final dip was on Oct. 5, and we hope to repeat that.
Indeed, being immersed in this historic body of water is “the elixir of life.”
Margaret Williams Brockville, Ont.
No thanks
Re “My teenaged son still doesn’t have a smartphone. Here’s why” (Aug. 28): My 66-year-old self still does not have a smartphone.
Here’s why: I don’t want one.
Anne Hansen Victoria
Meet the letter-writers
Throughout the late spring and summer, The Globe will feature personal insights and missives from some of our most frequent contributors every Sunday in Letters to the Editor. Survey responses were collected as a part of the research behind A Nation’s Paper: The Globe and Mail in the Life of Canada, a collection of history essays from Globe writers past and present, coming this fall from Signal/McClelland & Stewart.
(The following responses were received by The Globe after a call for submissions in May, 2023.)
I write letters to The Globe to express opinions contrary to conventional or received wisdom, or to counter or expand on what I have read.
I really like letters that make me smile or laugh, that take a humorous look at a serious subject. I particularly appreciate those that practice “economy of language.”
A favourite letter was during the time of outrage about Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses. I said that “if you had a convention of all the people from around the world who had actually read Satanic Verses, I’m sure you could convene it in your local Starbucks.”
I think Letters to the Editor remain an important public agora, where readers with a wide variety of opinions can be heard. I particularly appreciate when well-known public figures such as cabinet ministers or senior civil servants get published.
Paul Thiessen Vancouver
I get struck over a currently reported topic, thinking that my perceived knowledge and opinion detects an omission by the reporter.
I comply to the 150-word maximum. Yet other published letters seem to be many more. I don’t care, I keep short.
I like my short letters. I write first what comes out. Then I edit, edit more, count words, delete more. I learned culling words from my wife, a journalist and professor.
Allan Fox Toronto
As a student 60 years ago, we took debating and often had to support a topic that we did not believe in. That is what I like to see in a newspaper (disregarding extreme views).
Our newspapers, and media generally, are the main difference between our society and those controlled by dictators or oligarchies.
Ken Stock Port Hope, Ont.
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