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Trade? Put Canada first
Re Canada To Mount WTO Challenge Amid Worries Of U.S. NAFTA Split (front page, Jan. 11): Canada has become complacent and apathetic in its business attitudes since NAFTA went into effect in 1994. It was always too easy to trade with the neighbour next door, but in 1994, the United States was by far the largest economy, dwarfing all others. Today, China is second-largest economy (by some measures, the largest). It dwarfs the potential of the U.S. as a trading partner, and this is only going to increase exponentially.
This year alone, China's imports are forecast to grow by double digits. So I just cannot fathom why Canada is not taking a harder line with the Americans. They are no longer the only big game in town, which was pretty much the case in 1994.
We recently signed a pact with the EU, a market whose size rivals the U.S., and we have China poised to become the largest market in the world, and needing what Canada can sell it to help fuel its growth.
We should tell bully boy Donald Trump and his negotiator quislings to take a hike, and chart a different, more independent course than one tied to a wholly selfish and unreliable partner. We just do not need the Americans like we did in 1994.
Let's say, "Canada first."
Alan Mew, Baie d'Urfe, Que.
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Deciding what is racist
Re Lynn Beyak Is No Martyr (editorial, Jan. 10): I was taught to respect our political leaders and how important the Senate was in our form of democracy.
Lynn Beyak posted bigoted comments to her Senate website and is now playing the "free speech card." I am not a Conservative or a fan of Andrew Scheer, but in my view the Tory Leader did the right thing.
Can the Senate digest more embarrassment than we have witnessed in the recent past? We shouldn't be too critical of the leaders of our southern neighbours, we have our own circus.
Randy Clark, Sherwood Park, Alta.
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I would like to see Lynn Beyak sit before a panel of Indigenous leaders such as Lee Maracle, poet, author and granddaughter of Chief Dan George; author Rosanna Deerchild, host of CBC's Unreserved; Chief Edmund Metatawabin, author of Up Ghost River, and Thomas King, author of The Inconvenient Indian, to name just a few, and try to convince them of the good done in residential schools.
She could also convince them that the letters she posted on her Senate website that say Indigenous people "will sit and wait until the government gives them stuff" is not racist.
Finally, I would like this meeting of minds televised to all Canadians because, according to Ms. Beyak, "Discerning citizens don't need government to tell them what is allegedly racist."
Ms. Beyak is correct about this. In front of the nation, this Indigenous panel would ably clarify any question of residential school worth and racism for Ms. Beyak.
Deborah McLean, Napanee, Ont.
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A future very different
Re Finding A Way (Opinion Section, Jan. 6): Alicia Elliott is right: There can be no nation-to-nation relationship until Canada acknowledges Indigenous nations' sovereignty and right to self-determination. And she is right to highlight the insidious machinations of the ongoing colonial project (including those of the current Liberal government).
Yet it is both wrong and counterproductive to paint Canadians with the same brush.
We are not all sunk in a "denial of history" about Canada's checkered past, and to suggest otherwise alienates would-be allies in this struggle and the many non-Indigenous Canadians who fight tirelessly, as partners with Indigenous activists and communities, for the very causes she champions.
Like Ms. Elliott, many non-Indigenous Canadians wish for a future very different from the past.
Unlike Ms. Elliott, I believe we can get there without crude generalizations and divisive rhetoric.
Byron Taylor-Conboy, Montreal
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I have read and reread Alicia Elliott's article Finding A Way, trying to understand what she is saying, and I am deeply troubled by it.
She is angry at government domination in Indigenous affairs on the one hand, but on the other, upset that government spokesman James Fitz-Morris says the government doesn't want to interfere in internal Indigenous discussions.
I come away wondering if Ms. Elliott has any vision for how we can all work together to make Canada a country where Indigenous people can find independence and success, or if she expects the Canadian government – read taxpayers – to endlessly support the individual development of each of the 634 Indigenous nations, and to go along with whatever positions they choose to take vis-a-vis their relationship with the federal government.
Hope Smith, Calgary
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People with differences
Re A Crystal Ball for the Miracle of Life (Folio, Jan. 11): Mary Casagrande, the mother of a child with Down Syndrome, cautions that supports for people with Down Syndrome could be reduced if the number of people with intellectual disabilities declines (as a result of genetic testing).
As the mother of a son with a genetic condition, I'd take that a step further and ask the question: What will happen to us as a society if we become less tolerant of people with differences?
Will we lose sight of what makes us truly human: our ability to be compassionate, accepting, loving, generous, and instead become more judgmental, critical, self-centered and close-minded?
When we embark down the road to eradicate "flaws" in one another, I fear where it could take us.
Lucinda Hage, Peterborough, Ont.
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It's a revolution
Re 'Oughta Know Better' (Jan. 10): Letter writer Karin Treff tells us that the debate about where someone's sexual misconduct falls on the continuum is irrelevant. "Revolution isn't about justice. It's about change."
Isn't that what some people call "anarchy?"
Peter Myers, London, Ont.
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Flights … of fancy
Re In Search Of The Smile-High Club (Life & Arts, Jan. 10): The inflight play, Ahead of Time, that Liam Lacey participated in on an Icelandair flight sounds like a lot of fun and a great gig for actors.
I know of a former drama teacher who likes performing rehearsed lines and loves free flights. Perhaps he could, in exchange for travel to a Caribbean island, perform the play Ahead of Ethics, about the higher plane of morality he and his Finance Minister inhabit.
Rudy Buller, Toronto