Demonstrators protest the separation of children from their parents in front of the El Paso Processing Center, an immigration detention facility, at the Mexican border on June 19, 2018, in El Paso, Texas. The separations have received intense scrutiny as the Trump administration institutes a zero tolerance policy on illegal immigration.Joe Raedle/Getty Images
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
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A child’s world entire
In 1979, my parents, grandmother and I escaped from then-communist Poland. I was five. I do not remember much from the trip, except that we pretended we were going on holiday to Germany and then claimed asylum.
We left an increasingly repressive regime characterized by poverty, violence and food shortages. My parents took two suitcases (like we were going on vacation), I took my favourite doll. No one knew we were going.
We stayed in Germany a year, then came to Canada. There were many unknowns, including worrying that our family in Poland would be persecuted. My parents had no jobs waiting. They did not speak German or English. We did not have a place to live.
While all this sounds frightening, I never remember feeling scared. I had my father to read me books, I found comfort in the food my mother made, my grandmother hugged me often. While our immigration and settlement process was at times difficult, I experienced no trauma. This allowed me to flourish and cherish this country.
Contrast my experience with what is happening in the United States. For a child of five (six, seven, eight, nine …), parents, families, are their whole world. That is what is being taken away.
Agnieszka Kosny, Toronto
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These parents know they aren’t wanted and they still come and they bring their kids with them. Yes, it’s sad. And awful. And the parents have only themselves to blame for their kids’ pain.
Martina Bayuk Jones, Edmonton
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The flood of refugees stems in large measure from economic and drug-trade issues. If the money earmarked to keep refugees out of the U.S. were invested in solving these problems in the source countries, before long there would be no refugees to keep out.
Sudhir Jain, Calgary
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This is about a President who is obsessed with “his” wall. Splintering families that are economically wasted is a self-fulfilling prophesy for the growth of young terrorists.
Robert Marcucci, Toronto
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It is a shame that Republican “family values” don’t value families!
Jerry Steinberg, Surrey, B.C.
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How can the individual officers who are taking these children from their parents look at themselves in the mirror? Why aren’t they – many of them doubtless parents themselves – turning to their superior officers and saying, “This is wrong. America stands for freedom and opportunity, not heartless brutality.”
But hey – they’re “just following orders,” right?
Jason Shron, Thornhill, Ont.
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This state-sanctioned child abuse will have an impact individually, and over generations. These are scary times, not only for these children and families, but for what it says about a country’s people that enables the continued lowering of the bar of respect, compassion and humanity.
We all need to join with those children’s cries for this to stop.
Trish Crowe, Kingston
One kind of law
Re The TWU Decision Is A Blow To Diversity (June 19): If Margaret Wente needs an example of what happens when an individual’s belief system shapes the law, look no further than the current situation in the U.S., where the country’s top lawyer uses the Bible to justify state-sanctioned child abuse.
James MacDonald, Kamloops, B.C.
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A school of law must prepare its students for one kind of state law that applies to all, regardless of creed or status. That was the intent of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
In no way does it restrict diversity. Students who are brought up under a restricted moral law are not properly prepared to deal with equal justice for all.
Margarida Krause, Guelph, Ont.
Huawei in Canada
Re Ottawa Silent On Huawei Concerns Raised By U.S. Senators (June 19): The U.S. is trying to enlist Canada to drive out Chinese technology.
While there may be some concerns, real or imagined, in building technological relationships with China, our universities are already benefiting from the exchange of global ideas and research. Augmented intelligence through 5G technology is the path to our many futures. U.S technology is not the only answer, and controlling how we grow our future is not an answer.
Let’s not go down the U.S path of operating in an island but take a path where global interests are embraced.
William Simpkins, Halifax
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When you have both Republicans and well-respected Democrats, such as Adam Schiff and Mark Warner in the U.S. Congress all agreeing with many in the Canadian intelligence community about the potential threat that this poses to Canada, the United States and our allies, then it is time for the Canadian government to sit up and take notice.
Ross Hollingshead, Toronto
Château Laurier is an icon
Re: Relax, Ottawa: The Château Isn’t Falling (June 18): In Ottawa, an addition to the Château Laurier is a really big deal. It’s not simply putting a mustache on the Mona Lisa. Prime ministers have stayed there (and it’s named after one); it has a Titanic connection; Karsh (whose photo of Churchill is definitive) lived and worked there for years; ambassadors have lived there; famous political historical meetings have taken place there; film and rock stars have stayed there, etc. It’s not simply a nice five-star hotel. It’s a legend.
Frank Lloyd Wright said that “A doctor can bury his mistakes but an architect can only advise his clients to plant vines.” The barbarians are at the gates.
Douglas Cornish, Ottawa
Ban calèches now
Re Montreal To Ban Horse-Drawn Carriages (June 15): Can there be any doubt that calèches don’t belong in Montreal? Life on the streets is misery for horses who have to pull oversized loads in heavy traffic and arduous weather conditions.
In the summer, they breathe lung-searing exhaust fumes and plod along scorching asphalt. They constantly must avoid collisions with careless or impatient drivers – not always successfully. There’s simply no good reason for horses to suffer another two years before a ban takes effect.
Jennifer O’Connor, Fort Erie, Ont.
Hmm …
Re Trump Orders Creation Of Space-Focused Branch Of U.S. Military (June 19): With the creation of the Space Force by POTUS, does that make Donald Trump the Chief Space Cadet?
Stephen A. Crocker, Edmonton