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Don't bet on it
It is no surprise that the Liberals, through Ontario Lottery and Gaming, have ambitious plans to aggressively grow their casino gambling revenues (In Bid For Growth, Toronto-Area Gambling Sites Set To Go Private, July 24).
More gamblers, easier access, increased advertising will all add to the number of addicts ruining their lives and their families' at the invitation of our governments. Addicts provide a disproportionate share of gaming revenues. Government's answer is notices urging restraint and offering help to the addicted.
The Premier should walk through a casino at 7 a.m. any day and see firsthand the human cost of these policies: Desperate all-nighters, in near catatonic states, losing money they can ill afford.
J. C. Henry, Mississauga
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Kids helping kids
Re Ontario Boosts Resources To Remote First Nation Facing Suicide Crisis (July 24): While an increase in the availability of mental-health professionals is worthwhile, they will have limit-ed success unless they engage youth to help each other.
Trained and supervised youth working as peer helpers in elementary through secondary schools provide assistance other adults often miss. Peer helpers can identify peers with mental-health troubles earlier, provide needed peer support, encourage peers to talk about difficulties they wouldn't tell an adult, and successfully refer their troubled peers to professional adult help.
Most young people are willing to provide this kind of help if they can get the training and support they need so they can turn peer pressure into peer support.
Rey Carr, Peer Resources, Victoria
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Pension, past taking
Re About Those Pension Payments For Life You Were Counting On (Report on Business, July 21): The Ontario Pension Benefit Act requires companies to make up pension deficits over time. Sears's "make-up payments" amounted to merely the minimum contribution allowed under woefully inadequate legislation – in Sears's case resulting in a $267-million deficit. Nothing in the act requires a company to fully fund its pension.
The Supreme Court ruled pensions are deferred compensation, earned every minute worked – 20, 30, 50 years ago. Essentially, but not legally, a trust that the company commits to and governments ensure. Reducing the pension of a retiree is to reach back to the first day they worked and take away a little of what they earned that and every other day. How many executives have had past bonuses clawed back? None.
"An uncommon occurrence"? Nortel was mentioned, but there are many others: Stelco, Indalex, Wabush Mines, Algoma Steel are but a few examples of companies that were able to compromise their pensioners' future through bankruptcy or restructuring.
Michael Powell, vice-president, GENMO Salaried Pension Organization
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Biodiversity laggard
Canada agreed to achieve 20 UN Biodiversity Convention targets by 2020; nature reserves are only one of these (Canada Lags On Biodiversity Pledges, July 24). While expanding nature preserves is desirable, this will do nothing to slow widespread ecological degradation caused by ecologically unsustainable patterns of resource use, development and consumption – which many of the other UN Convention targets address.
Canada and the provinces have done virtually nothing to pursue these, choosing to mislead Canadians that the solutions lay with creating more nature preserves.
As we break more and more strands in the web of life on land and in our oceans, Canadians deserve a deeper examination of the political culpability of our governments by your newspaper, given the consequences.
David Coon, Leader, Green Party of New Brunswick
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The next Charlie
Re Saving Charlie Gard (July 22): About two decades ago, Marina Symcox was dying in Pennsylvania of a widespread sarcoma, with a prognosis so hopeless she was in hospice care. Her husband heard of a possible cure in Oregon and took her there, against the advice of experts. It turned out her tumour had a mutation which made it amenable to imatinib. Ms. Symcox is currently guiding her children to college.
Among the many parallels to the Charlie Gard story, an important one for society is that the clinical experience gained from treating her helped to launch imatinib as a successful treatment for gastrointestinal stromal tumours.
Having Charlie in the care of physicians dedicated to expanding knowledge may not (or may) help Charlie, but it is likely to contribute to helping the next Charlie. Most medical discoveries initially defy expert opinion.
Gabor Kandel, MD, Rita Kandel, MD; Toronto
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Margaret Wente says, "Nobody should die because of someone else's beliefs."
Unfortunately, there can be far greater suffering in illness than in death, and modern medicine has gained the power to extend tragically that suffering at times.
Perhaps she would also agree that nobody should suffer because of someone else's beliefs.
Simon Frank, MD, Halifax
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Buying. And selling
Re Regulators Set Their Sights On Double Ending (July 22): As a realtor of 24 years and president of the B.C. Real Estate Association, I have a different view on dual agency. This comes down to the consumer's right to choose.
If the government completely bans limited dual agency – where an agent represents both buyer and seller – it's saying consumers aren't capable of making their own decisions. Such a ban will prevent people from working with professionals they know and trust, and with professionals who have knowledge about specific types of real estate (such as islands or resort properties) or specific areas of the province.
Shouldn't people be able to choose for themselves who can represent their interests?
Jim Stewart, president, B.C. Real Estate Association
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Not amused
Re In Britain, A Homecoming For Franklin (July 22): When Sir John Franklin and his crew disappeared in the Arctic in 1845, Lady Jane Franklin embarked on a relentless search that included multiple expeditions. She failed to discover Franklin, but the sorties funded by her contributed hugely to knowledge of the Arctic.
Now we have a Swedish clothing company that has "introduced a Franklin-inspired clothing line." What image were they trying to capture: rags hanging from emaciated bodies, or woefully inappropriate British naval woolens of the era? The mind boggles.
Good thing Lady Jane is no longer on this Earth. She would definitely not be amused.
Sandy Blazier, Mississauga