A child is comforted by Thelma Favel, Tina Fontaine’s great-aunt and the woman who raised her, at a march last Friday in Winnipeg.John Woods
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Tragic ending
Tina Fontaine was defiled and murdered (Missing, Mourned, Unresolved, Feb. 23). There is no argument: What happened to her and hundreds of other Indigenous women is a tragedy that cuts deep into our society.
Tina's death was the catalyst for the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women inquiry. If this case has been so pivotal, then this heinous act should have been treated with the utmost of care, and gone over with the finest toothed comb.
Regardless of verdict, the system has failed another Indigenous woman. Had Raymond Cormier been found guilty, the systems put in place to protect this child's life had still failed her. Mr. Cormier being found innocent is a failure, too. Either it is a failure of law enforcement and the Crown to find the real perpetrator by being too hasty and reckless (see the expert opinions on the handling of the case), or it is the failure of our peers to see the criminality of the defendant.
How long are we as a society going to permit such terrible tragedies, and fail to resolve them?
Aaron Blanche, Ottawa
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Tastes like chicken
Chickens raised for meat in Canada aren't raised in cages (Why Chicken Doesn't Taste Like It Used To, Feb. 23). Hormones and steroids, too, have been illegal in chicken production since the 1960s.
Yes, chickens are bigger than they were – healthier, too, because of genetics, DNA mapping and so on (the same process that gives us Mastiffs and Chihuahuas), and as a result, leg health has improved to support those changes in growth.
Supporting supply management means supporting family-owned chicken farms raising chicken locally, following enforceable, mandatory food safety and animal care programs, and contributing $6.8-billion to the gross domestic product, without subsidies. In a recent survey by Leger, chicken is Canada's No. 1 meat, because of flavour and taste, versatility, and its healthy source of protein.
Karen Armstrong, registered dietitian, Manitoba Chicken Producers, Winnipeg
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Throwing stones
Cathal Kelly had it bang on in his article on Canadian curling skip Rachel Homan (Homan Will Be Remembered For One Thing, Feb. 22). You can't say in the same sentence that you played well and lost four games.
I'm getting tired of hearing Olympic competitors say they are proud of their time when they finish way out of the medals. I thought the goal was to win a medal.
R.J. Mazza, Stoney Creek, Ont.
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I am not a curler, but I believe an athlete who is representing my country when she tells us, "We gave it all we had. We never gave up." I respond, "Thank you for all the hard work you've put in – thank you for doing your best."
To me, the Olympics – and life itself – is not about winning and losing, as Mr. Kelly's last paragraph suggests. It is also about effort, growth and compassion for the other.
Karen Fee, Ottawa
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Apostle of war and fear
Professor emeritus Ian Hunter wrote a dithyrambic tribute to Billy Graham (Billy Graham Preached The Gospel To All Who Would Listen, Feb. 22). Unfortunately, this romantic vision of the U.S. preacher turned a blind eye on too many dark zones.
To give just a few examples, Mr. Graham stood in opposition to the work of Martin Luther King Jr. and he supported war after war. He also made anti-Semitic remarks in a taped 1972 conversation with U.S. president Richard Nixon.
Writer and former priest James Carroll has summed up the man perfectly: "Graham had his finger on the pulse of American fear, and in subsequent years, anti-communism occupied the nation's soul as an avowedly religious obsession. The red scare at home, unabashed moves toward empire abroad, the phrase 'under God' inserted into the Pledge of Allegiance, the scapegoating of homosexuals as 'security risks,' an insane accumulation of nuclear weapons, suicidal wars against postcolonial insurgencies in Asia – a set of desperate choices indeed. Through it all, Billy Graham was the high priest of the American crusade."
Marco Veilleux, Montreal
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Hail to the chief
Thanks to the Toronto Police Board for supporting Chief Mark Saunders (The Police Union's Scaremongering Is Falling Flat, Feb. 23). Mr. Saunders was hired to implement recommendations that were proposed in various publicly funded reports to rein in the bloated police budget, and he is merely attempting to introduce operational strategies that will achieve this goal.
Only about half of Toronto Police Association (TPA) members responded to a survey asking if they have confidence in the chief, suggesting that association head Mike McCormack should conduct another survey asking his union members: "Do you have confidence in the TPA leadership?"
Avtar Dhanota, Toronto
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Drug marketing exposed
Finally, Ontario is taking small steps to expose pharmaceutical company payments to medical specialists for marketing their products to family physicians and other health professionals through free postgraduate lectures (Ontario Law Requires Drug Companies To Disclose Payments To Doctor's Groups, Patient Advocates, Feb. 22).
The present opioid epidemic was driven by pain specialists receiving money from makers of narcotic medications who relentlessly lectured other doctors on the "safety" and other benefits of their products. Every patient who is made aware of how doctors are allowed to receive money from drug companies finds it incredible that such an unethical and immoral practice is allowed.
The practice would cease if provincial colleges of physicians had the moral courage to ban it. The Ontario government could easily have made drug company payments to physicians illegal. Perhaps the government asked for just the disclosure of payments because it wants to preserve drug company contributions to political parties.
Paul Cary, MD, Cambridge, Ont.
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Foreign a farce
Did you wince every time our Prime Minister and his family were photographed during last week's official visit to India (Trudeau Family Visits India's Golden Temple, Helps Make Roti? Feb. 21).
Not to worry, apparently the Liberals are planning a brand new Ministry of Cultural Appropriation to handle the wardrobe choices for his next overseas visit to a foreign country. The ministry will share space with the new Office of Dinner Guest Vetting.
Fred MacDonald, Nanaimo, B.C.