People's Party of Canada leader Maxime Bernier speaks to reporters at the PPC National Conference in Gatineau, Que. on Sunday, Aug. 18, 2019.Justin Tang/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
Climate and democracy
Re Want To Talk About Climate Change During The Federal Election? You’ll Have To Register For That (Aug. 20): I suppose if Maxine Bernier, the leader of the People’s Party of Canada, announces that the Earth is flat, Elections Canada will forbid the teaching of astronomy?
Jay Allen, Hillcrest Mines, Alta.
Third-party campaigning rules are in place to prevent private-interest groups from unfairly influencing the outcome of an election. Elections Canada’s position that climate change is a partisan issue because of Maxime Bernier’s expressed skepticism is untenable: Allowing one person’s “belief” to hold hostage democratic debate during an election is a dangerous precedent. Any politician could simply deny say, the fact of the universal application of human rights, and that fact would suddenly become “partisan,” such that dialogue regarding it would be silenced during an election.
The appropriate way to tackle climate change, or whether one party’s plan for tackling climate change is better than another – these are genuine partisan issues.
We cannot allow free speech and democratic debate to be hijacked by a fringe “belief” that is better left to dusty chat rooms and the likes of the flat Earth society.
Wendy Zhuleku, Toronto
Democracy relies not only on having the right to vote but also on having access to the knowledge critical for informed decisions about how candidates will act on the most important issues facing a country.
Climate change – and its social, economical and political impacts on people in Canada and around the world – is one of the most pressing issues facing government. Elections Canada’s decision would hamstring charities from raising public awareness about the realities of climate change, and from encouraging political candidates to describe what they and their party would do about it.
We still have time to act to protect the health and welfare of our society and economy from even worse climate disasters, as emphasized by reports from Sustainable Canada Dialogues, a group of more than 80 scientists across Canada, including myself.
If we fail to talk about how the realities of climate change are reshaping Canada, from the thawing permafrost in the North to increased floods and droughts in the south, we will walk into the election blinded to a critical issue that candidates and citizens alike must face.
Sarah Otto, zoologist, Vancouver
The tragedy of Carson
Re The Search For Justice In Carson Crimeni’s Death (Aug. 20): Adam Smith, in The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759), a classic in the literature of the Enlightenment, made the case for a principle in nature in all of us, however selfish we may be, that he called pity or sympathy. From it, we derive sorrow from the sorrow of others, “a matter of fact too obvious to require any instances to prove it.”
Smith’s example was not a teen writhing in pain from a drug overdose, but our brother “upon the rack.” We can’t know from our own experience what a person is feeling, but we can conceive of what we would feel in the same situation.
Smith was wrong, evidently, that empathy or sympathy are principles in our nature, for they can be turned off by the mere possession of an iPhone and access to social media.
Pity.
Lynn McDonald, author, The Early Origins of the Social Sciences; Toronto
The story of Carson Crimeni’s death is absolutely heart-wrenching. I had to pause while reading the article to compose myself on the subway. To film his plight and share it on social media is incomprehensible; there must be legal accountability. We need a broader discussion on how we, as a society, can better support and protect our children and youth.
Jane McLeod, Toronto
How-to: skilled trades
Re More Young People Should Consider Skilled Trades Over University (Aug. 17): Applying to university is easy. You send your application through a centralized website and wait for the results.
But want to learn a skilled trade? There are myriad unclear routes, all of which are full of potential pitfalls (like the classically circular question, “How do you get experience to get an apprenticeship when you need that apprenticeship to get experience?”).
If you want more people to learn skilled trades, it shouldn’t require already knowing someone on the inside who can guide you through the process.
Michael Tuck, Toronto
Judges, post-bench
Re Retired SCC Judges Are Free To Work In The Private Sector, But Appearances Matter (Aug. 19): Law scholar Wayne MacKay fears that the “general public may fail to distinguish between retired judges and sitting judges, and regard the retired ones as still representing the court.”
I would credit the general public with being able to make this distinction, but there’s a worse problem: They may inevitably wonder to what extent the deliberations of sitting judges might be coloured by their post-retirement employment prospects.
J. Michael Pearson, Montreal
Wayne MacKay makes the analogy that retired Supreme Court judges should be free to continue their chosen legal profession, since there is nothing wrong with former prime ministers bringing their expertise to the private sector. This is a false analogy.
While former PMs wear their political stripes on their sleeve, and therefore would not raise eyebrows if they worked for a partisan think-tank or business, we expect our judges to be appointed on merit and without blatant consideration of political stripe.
After all, the criteria for Supreme Court appointees state that “a judge must be seen as able to weigh the evidence and argument in a particular case fairly and impartially.” No one would expect that of a former PM in a politically sensitive case.
But if a retired judged acted for a client intimately associated with the party that appointed them, there would be reason to believe there could be partisan factors influencing the selection process for Supreme Court judges.
Béla Szabados, Regina
Mona Lisa, one on one
(Letters, Aug. 20): On a rainy November morning in 1972, I spent a half-hour in front of the painting, a disinterested gallery employee the only other person nearby.
Someone had told me there was nothing special about the Mona Lisa. I glanced, then took a longer look: The light in the sky, the placement of the subject, the dimensions of the painting – it came alive. Even as I write, the gradual feeling of wonder comes back to me.
My advice to the directors of the Louvre is to take the painting off public display. Make half-hour appointments to view it in the presence of a guard. Those lucky enough to see it could form their own opinions that way.
Helen Betsy Stuart, Toronto
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