Skip to main content
letters
Open this photo in gallery:

Ontario is being accused of using smoke-and-mirrors accounting to hide the true cost of electricity rate cuts.Darren Calabrese/The Canadian Press

Letters to the Editor should be exclusive to The Globe and Mail. Include your name, address and daytime phone number. Try to keep letters to fewer than 150 words. Letters may be edited for length and clarity. To submit a letter by e-mail, click here: letters@globeandmail.com

..................................................................................................................................

Not my tax dollars

Re Student Grant Fiasco Is Another Sign Trudeau May Lose The Manley Liberals (April 27): Christian groups – any religious groups – are welcome to pursue whatever agenda they wish using their own quite substantial funds (including the money they save through their tax-free status).

But no religious group is entitled to public funding for its biased and, by very definition, exclusivist activities. John Ibbitson should accept that most Canadians do not want their taxes to pay for the activities of religious interest groups.

Sandra Neill, Toronto

...........................................

John Ibbitson says certain religious groups, denied federal funding because they will not affirm what is the law in Canada about a woman’s right to choose, consist of people of “good will and deep faith.” This should allow them to ignore or flaunt the law while receiving government money? I would remind Mr. Ibbitson that it was Canadians of “good will and deep faith” who staffed and wholeheartedly supported Indian residential schools. And today those good-hearted and deeply religious people are widely considered to have been wrong-headed and even genocidal.

Mark DeWolf, Halifax

Ontario’s budget swamp

Re Ontario’s Budget Theatre (editorial, April 27): Covering up hydro costs and creating a false surplus is just the latest from the Kathleen Wynne/Ontario Liberal Party. Our neighbours to the south are having a real problem with facts and the truth. Please do not let this migrate north.

Kathleen Wynne is actually more Trumpian than Doug Ford. Drain the swamp.

Brock Winterton, Toronto

...........................................

While Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne may describe it as a disagreement between the government and the Auditor-General, that’s just further smoke and mirrors.

The significant issue is that the impact of the 25-per-cent rebate on our hydro bills is not properly reflected on the balance sheet. Why? Because at some later date our next generation will pay for this vote-buying scam through even higher hydro bills.

Under the Liberal Party’s mismanagement, our hydro bills have gone through the roof – but that’s not the end of the story. Think skyscraper’s roof for our children.

John Nicholson, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont.

Painted as a win

Re National Gallery Won’t Sell Chagall After All (April 27): Could the director of the National Gallery, Marc Mayer, and its board have done a worse job handling the sale (non-sale) of the Chagall?

Everything, from the way they communicated with the public, to how they failed to realize the Quebec government might give the David painting – which the National Gallery planned to sell the Chagall to buy – special status to block the David’s sale, to their failure to collaborate with the other two Quebec museums, is a lesson in how not to conduct an undertaking of this magnitude.

Now they’re trying to paint it as a victory. A “victory” that could cost taxpayers a huge cancellation fee – seven-digit territory? – for pulling the Chagall out of the auction. How stupid do they think we are? In an era when arts organizations across the country are scrounging to come up with a few thousand dollars for worthwhile projects, this is totally unacceptable. Mr. Mayer and the board need to be held accountable for the mess.

Peter Duschenes, Ottawa

...........................................

Kudos to the National Gallery for being responsive to public opinion. It’s a win-win. The Chagall stays in Canada, the David stays in Quebec. Unfortunately, the board ends up with egg on its face.

Manuel Matas, Winnipeg

(Dis)honoured in ALberta

As Alberta University Faces Flak, Its Leaders Call For Autonomy (April 27): My husband and I are alumni of the University of Alberta and donate each year. We support the senate’s decision to award an honorary doctorate to David Suzuki (he already has one from the University of Calgary!).

Universities are supposed to be bastions of free speech, even to the point of allowing those with controversial ideas to express them. We feel embarrassed to be Albertans when those who represent some Alberta corporations are so narrow-minded. They don’t seem to know that U of A scientists have done much to develop remedial measures to reclaim the land from the destruction caused by oil sands and other mining. This has allowed them to profit from the resources they depend on for their income.

We still need oil and gas, but we also must be mindful of the future. Industry, universities and technology schools need our support in developing renewable energy sources. Our very breath depends on it.

Kay and Ross Gould, Calgary

Testing sense in Grade 3

Re Education Report Recommends Ontario Phase Out Grade 3 EQAO Test (April 25): As a retired teacher involved in the early years of EQAO (Education Quality and Accountability Office) standardized testing, I witnessed teachers spending valuable instruction time addressing the testing fears of students and families. The needless stress it created was inexcusable. Young children had to be told not to worry, creating a culture of confusion as to why we were doing this.

In the early years, our primary students often cried and had to take frequent washroom breaks. Teachers in Grades 1 and 2 had to introduce this format of assessment, which had been foreign to them, to help students deal with their anxiety in order to familiarize them with being tested in this formal way in Grade 3. What sense did that make?

We had to explain to these children that we were not allowed to help them during the test, however, the tests would not impact their report card mark. Students kept asking why?

For many years, I had student teachers from Norway, where elementary children are not tested formally and teachers are provided time to teach – a valuable lesson to us. As an educator, I am deeply grateful that we are finally coming to our senses. Students would have been better served if the money wasted on these tests could have been used for program development and educational resources.

Rosan Pietras, Vaughan, Ont.

Once upon a time in 1967

Re Fallen Leafs (April 26): The demographics in this great country of ours show that the median age is around 40 years – half the population is older, half is younger. In turn, this suggests that more than half of the people living in Canada have never seen the Leafs win the Stanley Cup.

As we have become accustomed to seeing, the team managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, and once again we are regaled with superb excuses for a lousy performance.

Are you sure that there is nothing besides microplastic in the drinking water at the centre of the universe, a.k.a. Toronto?

Richard Seymour, Brechin, Ont.

Interact with The Globe