People, including members of the Manitoba NDP caucus, line up outside a tipi in front of the Manitoba legislature, on Nov. 4, where a fire was lit to honour Murray Sinclair. The former judge, senator and and chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission died Monday at the age of 73.Steve Lambert/The Canadian Press
Alberta alienation
Re “Ottawa draft rules cap emissions from oil and gas sector to 35% below 2019 levels” (Nov. 5): At 59, my entire lifetime has been filled with seeing the Liberal Party attack Alberta for the benefit of its base in Ontario and Quebec. The worst offenders have the name Trudeau.
The emissions cap, which I think is unconstitutional, is on par with Pierre Trudeau’s National Energy Program which destroyed the Alberta economy. It should be seen as a disgrace that this type of attack on one province is countenanced in the Canadian Confederation.
Bryce Code Calgary
Endgame
Re “The defence of Canada is no numbers game” (Editorial, Nov. 4): Linking defence spending to GDP inevitably prompts questions over which GDP projections are more credible. It implies that if the economy goes flat or retreats, then Canada’s defence needs decline commensurately; if GDP rises, then defence needs will apparently be much higher.
What if we focused instead on the best way to fund and deploy diplomatic, economic and military resources in order to make the most effective contribution we can to the pursuit of a safer and more stable world? What if we more seriously debated whether to finally treat the government’s promise to renew Canada’s peacekeeping operations as a solemn commitment, or whether we should focus only on trying to meet the insatiable spending requirements of the world’s richest, most heavily armed military alliance?
Wouldn’t the outcome of that discussion give us a more reliable reading on future defence needs, and costs, than arguing about GDP projections?
Ernie Regehr Waterloo, Ont.
Easy fix
Re “Let’s not be naive, there are no easy solutions for Canada’s productivity problem” (Report on Business, Oct. 31): On the contrary, I find that solutions are straightforward and well understood.
To create a foundation for investment and economic growth, and to boost productivity, governments should provide efficient and reliable basic services, such as a legal system, competition policy and transportation infrastructure.
As an example, Canada’s ports have been plagued by shutdowns. The country’s two major ports in Vancouver and Montreal are both experiencing strikes or lockouts, and many firms have no ready shipping alternative. Billions of dollars worth of exports, from autos to raw materials, are subject to costly cancellations or delays that lessen productivity.
A second example: Canada’s civil courts badly need repair, and a dysfunctional judicial system hampers investment. Who wants to put money into productive capital if a contract dispute means a long, complicated and uncertain judicial process?
Constance Smith Victoria
Life and death
Re “The courts are the worst place to address complex MAID cases” (Nov. 5): I find it correct to say that the courts are not the best place for decisions about medical assistance in dying.
However, it is important to remember that the entire MAID regime exists as a result of a judicial review decision that struck down Criminal Code provisions in 2015 that prohibited assisting others in dying. Parliament was given a year to draft a MAID regulatory regime, which is oddly still located in the Criminal Code.
Courts will always have a prominent role in MAID so long as the regulatory framework remains in the Criminal Code.
Shaun Fluker Professor, Public Interest Law Clinic, University of Calgary
Medical assistance in dying and abortion are both lawful in Canada because the courts decided they should be. Before that, both were criminal offences.
The court put guardrails on both procedures when they were legalized. The guardrails are enforceable by the courts as a condition of legalization. It is appropriate that we have oversight from the courts, unless we believe every single doctor in the country is perfect.
Brian Casey Halifax
Re “The Liberals are desperate, so they are raising abortion as an issue again” (Nov. 2): Most Canadian women know full well that access to abortion is always under threat by conservatives who want to deny our right to choice. Protecting our rights isn’t desperation, it’s common sense (how does Pierre Poilievre like them apples?).
Have others forgotten what happened in the United States to Roe v. Wade?
Cynthia Turner Sydney, N.S.
Truth to power
Re “Murray Sinclair stood for truth, justice to the end” (Obituary, Nov. 5): Earlier this century, Murray Sinclair brought the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to Victoria.
We wept with guilt and grief as our First Nations neighbours told their stories. The soggy tissues were gathered up in an astonishing act of sympathy, to be disposed of reverently.
No tear would go unacknowledged under Mr. Sinclair’s watch.
Anne Moon Victoria
Meeting Murray Sinclair at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s 2014 national gathering in Edmonton, I told him I was there to share my story: that of a non-Indigenous boy who’d grown up in the residential school of which his father was the principal.
He shook my hand and thanked me for making the trip to Alberta, and for giving testimony at the Halifax national gathering three years before. This was the man who also said publicly, “While the TRC heard many experiences of unspeakable abuse, we have been heartened by testimonies which affirm the dedication and compassion of committed educators who sought to nurture the children in their care. These experiences must also be heard.”
Mark DeWolf Halifax
My heartfelt sympathy to Murray Sinclair’s family, friends and colleagues.
I did not know Mr. Sinclair personally, but heard him speak once at what is now Toronto Metropolitan University. I was deeply moved by his gentleness and dignity, his sense of humour and his honesty and, most of all, his incredible ability to capture our country’s pain at that moment in time. He had the whole room mesmerized.
He did not flinch nor brush off the horrors he had been told about and seen, but he also did not foist his people’s pain on the listeners’ shoulders; rather he laid it down in front of us in such a way that we could not look away. As an educator, I try to hold that experience very closely when I talk about Truth and Reconciliation, knowing that my role is not to “educate” others, but to encourage ongoing growth and learning from leaders such as Mr. Sinclair, whose life, work and generosity was a gift to us all.
Miigwetch. May his journey to Gaagige Minawaanigozigiwining be peaceful.
Cassie Bell Toronto
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