A Huawei mobile device is displayed inside a 5G sign at its research and development centre in Shenzhen in south China's Guangdong province, on Dec. 18, 2018. The company's goal to be a leader in next-generation telecoms is colliding with security worries abroad.The Associated Press
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Beijing. And influence
Re Huawei Chairman Challenges Security Risk Concerns, Demands Proof That Tech Giant Is A Pawn Of Beijing (Dec. 19): Please refer the chairman of Huawei to another story in the same day’s Globe and Mail, Xi Reinforces Party Power In Key Speech. He can read all about China’s leader once again stressing the importance of Communist control over “all tasks.”
Simon Farrow, Kelowna, B.C.
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While China’s government is critical of a democracy which safeguards the judiciary from political interference, it allows thousands of students to study here, exposed to our supposedly toxic system. Isn’t China afraid some of these students may return with the “wrong” ideas?
Lorne Hicks, Keswick, Ont.
Brad Blair’s example
Re Ford Backs Taverner As OPP Head, Takes Aim At Deputy (Dec. 19): Concerns about Ron Taverner’s appointment as head of the Ontario Provincial Police have likely already cost him the trust of many of its officers. Whether or not he is the right person for the job, a leader who isn’t trusted will struggle, and most likely fail. Doug Ford, Trumpian in his defence of his friend’s appointment, insists Mr. Taverner will be “the best commissioner the OPP has ever seen.” I wonder how former commissioners and the rest of the OPP feel about that statement.
The Premier’s allegations of Police Services Act violations against former deputy commissioner Brad Blair, made without evidence or specifying the nature of the offence, and the false and subsequently retracted statement that Mr. Blair submitted his retirement papers are worthy of Donald Trump’s playbook on personal attacks. Mr. Ford should pay close attention to what is actually happening to Mr. Trump now; two years in, things don’t look so good.
As soon as Mr. Blair raised his concerns about the hiring process, his chances of ever becoming a commissioner probably evaporated. His behaviour looks very ethical to me – something Mr. Ford should try to emulate, not criticize.
Wayne Stangle, Ottawa
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Ron Taverner’s odd and disturbing appointment as Commissioner of the OPP reminded me of an article run by this newspaper in May, 2013 - Globe Investigation: The Ford Family’s History With Drug Dealing. It told of the Ford family’s past and, in significant part, of Doug Ford’s activities as a drug dealer in the 1980s. The point today is not that the now-Premier dealt hashish back then, but of relationships fostered during that period. Drug dealers have relationships with drug suppliers who, themselves, are often related to, affiliated with, or members of organized crime.
If you were a drug dealer who became a premier and wished to immunize yourself from a murky past filled with shadowy figures who might come back to haunt your present, then there is no better way to do this than to appoint a loyal friend to become the highest ranking police officer in the province.
Michael Slattery, Toronto
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Brad Blair has nothing to gain by challenging the stench from this hiring process and much to lose. His courage and integrity are an inspiration for those of us who very much “give a damn” (Dis/Respect For Process, letters, Dec. 19).
Anna Mason, Waterloo, Ont.
Lily pads, slingshots, LAVs
Re Cancelling Our Saudi Arms Deal Would Be Merely A Feel-Good Measure (Dec. 19): Agreed: Our own arms shipments are a drop in the Saudi quagmire. But without looking ridiculous, how do we both preach from our lily pad, pressing the U.S to drain the supply swamp, and sell the Saudis so much as a slingshot?
Bill Brown, Ottawa
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Canada’s been selling armoured vehicles to the Saudis for almost 30 years, so it’s true that terminating one Canadian contract “will do little to stop the Saudis or alleviate the suffering of Yemenis.” No one has claimed otherwise.
But here are the pertinent questions. Do we want to promote a rules-based international order, and should those rules place restrictions on military sales to regimes engaged in the gross and systematic violation of the rights of their citizens? Should there be restrictions on the sales of weapons to states guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity?
Canadian armoured vehicles go to the Saudi National Guard – its key attribute being loyalty to the royal family, and its key mandate being to protect the Saudi royals from dissidents, coup attempts and, ultimately, democracy. So, if you favour principled policies in support of a rules-based international order, should a state drawn to feminist values in its foreign policies be content to send weapons of repression to a state notorious for its systematic subordination of women?
Stopping the war in Yemen is a matter of extraordinary urgency – arms shipments are relevant, though stopping Canadian arms shipments will not be decisive. But a responsible military-export policy has many other objectives and dimensions, and honouring human rights and international humanitarian law should be very near the top.
Ernie Regehr, Waterloo, Ont.
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We made a deal with the Saudis and we should honour that deal. The way to show genuine outrage and disapproval of their abuse of civil rights is to turn off the tap for Saudi oil in our own country, and get that pipeline east on line.
Elise Weagant, Brockville, Ont.
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Canada is one of many countries that exports military equipment. As such, we live with the fact that we cannot control how that equipment is used once sold. Armoured vehicles are not ice cream trucks. What did we think they were going to use them for?
Art Dewan, Kentville, N.S.
Once-wonderful Pictou
Re In A Nova Scotia Town, An Effluence Pipeline Puts Forestry And Fisheries At Loggerheads (Dec. 19): Your Folio was very informative, but it only scratches the surface of the antipathy. Yes, there is the conflict between jobs in the fishery versus the forestry. But all of us in Pictou are affected by “the mill,” not just the fishers.
Our air is often unbreathable, necessitating staying indoors. Our harbour is polluted; Boat Harbour, once a pristine waterway, has been destroyed. Property values are far lower than comparable towns. New residents and businesses are reluctant to settle here because of the mill. All of these are personal losses.
But there is a greater loss to the environment from the effluent, the smoke and the clear-cutting of the forests. It’s difficult to find someon in Pictou not directly connected to “the mill” who supports the current plan. The “NO PIPE” signs are not just on fishers’ homes, but on hundreds of homes of other residents with no investment in the fishery.
We have been lied to and compromised for generations – always with the threat of job losses.
It is no longer humorous to say that the mill “smells like money” or “who farted?” or at night that it “looks like a cruise ship.” It is time that something is done to protect our once-wonderful town.
Gordon Young, Pictou, N.S.