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PM? He's in the club
Re PM Broke Conflict Rules, Ethics Watchdog Says (Dec. 21): We are left with two possible explanations for the Prime Minister's unethical behaviour. He knew he was flouting the law and didn't care. Or, more likely, the Trudeaus have lived for so long in the rarefied air of wealthy and powerful elites that this kind of behaviour is the norm.
Nothing so sordid as a direct exchange of favours. Trips to private islands are simply a signal that you are in the club.
Martin Birt, Uxbridge, Ont.
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Being a fine man with good intentions is not a pass to avoid ethical responsibility. The fact that Justin Trudeau doesn't grasp that it's not the trip or the money involved, but the circumstances around the trip, is the real problem. Surely someone close to him can spell it out for him that regardless of what he feels, he is wrong, and he needs to ensure that Canadians know that he understands this.
Jeff Spooner, Kinburn, Ont.
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Justin Trudeau made a terrible mistake in thinking there's such a thing as a free lunch. There is always reciprocity. This has nothing to do with ethics, but with naïveté. We who have not lived in a privileged bubble know that life exacts payment in kind when freebies are offered.
The fact Mr. Trudeau sees himself as a family friend of the Aga Khan is precious, but nothing for us to worry about as far as the PM's integrity is concerned. He is not in it for the money, as any rational person will recognize. Time will show this to be a tempest in a teapot. Justin Trudeau is not Donald Trump.
Bruce Henry, Waterloo, Ont.
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With his family's Christmas vacation to the Aga Khan's Caribbean island, Justin Trudeau has certainly extended the meaning of the term "friends with benefits."
Greg Johnston, London, Ont.
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Bread scam? Bah humbug
Re Price-Fixing Bread Probe Includes Seven Companies (Dec. 21): It is bad enough that the uber-richniks are greedy enough to try to fix the price of bread, but what really takes the Christmas cake is the abject spineless failure of regulators to prosecute and penalize commensurately with the scale of the offence and the offenders' wealth. It chimes in all too unhappily with the festive spirit attending the unprecedented tax-cut hijinks across the border.
In other times and places, greedy perpetrators and inept regulators who mess with the prices that plebs must pay for the essentials of life have had occasion to fear bread riots and worse. Way more admirable, at least in the inspiration, than to simply let the price-fixers of this world decide what, if any, sanction they should apply to their companies and themselves.
Let's hope that the least that comes out of this is that Galen. G. Weston, the poster boy for inherited wealth and now for bread price-fixing, will be too aware of the image-damage this bad business has done to inflict any more ads on us starring himself as the preppy-next-door type who condescends to guide our shopping misadventures.
John Hample, Winnipeg
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I am incensed that Loblaw would stoop so low as to fix the price of bread to enrich themselves.
Such an egregious, callous, insensitive and totally disgusting manoeuvre needs to be fully accounted for. Loblaw's offer to customers of a $25 gift card is woefully inadequate and completely unacceptable.
Some simple math bears this out: Assume, for the sake of discussion, an overcharge of a meagre 10 cents per loaf; I buy two loaves per week for 14 years = an overcharge of $145!
I demand a full accounting of the illicit profits gained from this fraud. I demand every penny be repaid, plus interest, plus penalty. I demand that this amount be paid to food banks in the form of bread at cost. This will benefit the people who were affected the most.
We must send a clear statement as a society that this type of behaviour will not be tolerated and anyone doing so will pay dearly when they are discovered.
What's that odour?
I do believe I smell a class action baking in the oven.
Marcel Urbanc, Toronto
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The really ugly thing
Re Let's Not Forget The Ugly History Of Canada's 'Khaki' Election (Dec. 16): The really ugly thing about the federal election of 1917 was the Wartime Elections Act, deployed by the Borden government to disenfranchise tens of thousands of Ukrainians and other Europeans branded as "enemy aliens" during this country's national internment operations of 1914-1920.
Those who lost their right to vote would likely have supported Sir Wilfrid Laurier's Liberals, knowing how he rose in the Commons on Sept. 10, 1917, to presciently warn: "If it be said in Canada that the pledges which we have given to immigrants when inviting them to come to this country to settle with us, can be broken with impunity, that we will not trust these men, and that we will not be true to the promise which we made to them, then I despair for the future of this country."
Lubomyr Luciuk, professor, Political Science, Royal Military College of Canada
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Transplant judgments
Re Give Delilah Saunders A Liver – Transplants Should Be Free Of Judgment (Dec. 21): Framing the debate over liver transplantation around the worthiness, or unworthiness, of the recipient is not helpful. Alcohol Use Disorder is a disease, not a moral failing. Its victims deserve our utmost compassion and care. But liver transplantation is not a right.
Organ donation in Canada is supported through the free choice of donors.
In the specific case of liver transplantation, grieving families, in the worst moment of their lives, need to be able to trust that the recipient will have a reasonable chance of complying with the post-transplant medical treatment, and will not resume alcohol consumption, thereby destroying the gift.
Whether potential recipients must demonstrate their control over their disease for a day, a month, six months, or more, is for medical research, and the potential donors, the citizens of Canada, to decide, not individual, would-be recipients.
Glen Geiger, Ottawa
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Of course liver transplants should be free of judgment – but they aren't for one key reason: Too few of us are signing our donor cards.
If there were enough livers to go around, no one would have to play judge and jury in deciding who gets to live. Since that's not the case, there are rules and obligations in place and they are hard – heart-breakingly hard, and go well beyond abstinence. It's a journey no one should have to endure.
We have the power to change this narrative, and it starts with registering as an organ donor.
Do it now, it's the best holiday gift you can give.
Beth Thompson, Mississauga