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Laurier's shame
Re Wilfrid Laurier University Exonerates Teaching Assistant (Dec. 19): Power is dangerous, regardless of who is in control.
The Lindsay Shepherd case serves as a reminder that McCarthyism and Salem are around any corner where people cannot reasonably express themselves and defend their ideas.
There is no benevolent suppression of free speech.
The bullying and thought-control tactics employed against Ms. Shephard have at least been exposed, thanks to her bravery. What we need to know now is that the fabrication of complaints and the manipulation of a disciplinary process designed to curb free expression will no longer be tolerated.
Robert McManus, Dundas, Ont.
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So much for academic integrity at Wilfrid Laurier. The interrogators of teaching assistant Lindsay Shepherd were not just economical with la vérité, they flat out lied, citing "confidentiality" to cover their tracks. In what world is an apology an adequate response to such abusive behaviour? What student would want to be taught by such professors?
David Beattie, Chelsea, Que.
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Securities shame
Re Fake Names, Big Gains. Cheat, Repeat (Dec. 19): Maybe Globe and Mail journalists should pivot from investigating the failures of securities regulators to investigating securities crimes themselves. They sure seem to be doing a better job than the bureaucrats.
Marty Cutler, Toronto
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Re Why Does Canada Abet Stock Fraud? (Dec. 19): Did your editorial writers look up the meaning of "greed"? Unless mentally challenged, the victims receive exactly what they deserve.
Or, as my mother always reminded me, trust no one.
Robert M. Nesbitt, Lindsay, Ont.
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Pot-pricing strategies
Re Street Cost For Cannabis Lower Than Legal Price Point, Statscan Finds (Dec. 19): It appears the federal government and the provinces hope to drive their underground competition in the marijuana trade out of business by selling weed at a low price.
The same governments also hope to reap substantial revenues from marijuana sales. The two goals may be incompatible.
In Ontario, marijuana will be sold through a subsidiary of the Liquor Control Board, which is not a low-overhead operation; in addition, the province will be buying its supplies from heavily regulated, hence higher-cost, producers. Will Ontario be able to sell its product at a lower price than the illegal suppliers and still make a profit?
Alan McCullough, Ottawa
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Opioids. Why?
Re Canada Needs A New Battle Plan Against Overdoses (Opinion Section, Dec. 16): Decriminalization? Well, okay. Legalization? I don't think so. But surely both options are approaching the problem from the wrong end.
What I want to know is, why are people using these drugs?
Is it boredom, depression, despair, isolation, stress, loneliness – these are the issues that I think we should be tackling, fundamental issues about the society we have created and how we might want to try and change things for the better. Issues like inequality, enduring a "crap" job, needing multiple incomes, community and family cohesion, dashing around like flies, mind-numbing consumption.
How to tackle these issues? Mm, difficult. But if we don't …
David Lumley, Calgary
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Making it as a millennial
Re Anxious, Educated, Ambitious: The Millennials Are Rising (Dec. 16): Elizabeth Renzetti was spot-on. Let's not forget that this is the generation that came of age during the rise of "greed is good," corporate mergers, massive downsizings, and the egregious unpaid "internship" scam.
Many of these young people saw one or both of their parents, often more than once, kicked to the curb by their employers after years, if not decades, of service – dedication, conscientiousness and stellar performance reviews be damned.
Little wonder the millennials don't buy into the "work ethic" so piously espoused by managers and bosses. They've experienced its hypocrisy firsthand.
Mary Anne Beaudette, Kingston
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Gen Z's wish list
Reading the list of expectations that Gen Z is looking for, I find it to be the same wish list that I had 47 years ago (Hating On Younger Generations Is So 2013 (And 1983 And 1963 …) – Opinion Section, Dec. 16). Except that I was willing to trade one thing off against another in an effort to be practical – for example, give up work/life balance for all those things that came before it on the list. Also, I did not focus on mental-health support, as it didn't really exist, and I accepted that.
I don't see anything wrong with Gen Z's wish list. The difference may just be that we feel they must have their wish and we – who made our own compromises with life as it is – are on the hook to give it to them, rather than counselling them as to how much of what one wishes for is likely to materialize.
That's a lack of realism on our part, which will lead to unhappiness and disappointment for them in the end.
Martha MacRae, Dartmouth, N.S.
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Wages. Capital, too
Re What's Behind North America's Tepid Inflation Numbers? Labour Peace (Report on Business, Dec. 12): While the decline in strength of organized labour partly explains wage stagnation, it is a massive error of omission not to focus on the cost of capital. The most important lessons of stagnation/inflation around 1980 are: 1) that inflation can happen during periods of recession and high unemployment, therefore the "workers wages bidding up the cost of goods" model is incomplete at best, and 2) that when interest rates are high, the cost of capital becomes a significant input cost.
Further increases to the interest rate impacts all (local) producers simultaneously; they pass on the cost to consumers, hence general price inflation.
Among the most obvious differences between the early 1980s and today is that the prime rate was 21 per cent in 1981, and it's 3.2 per cent now.
Adam DeVita, Richmond Hill, Ont.
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Not so fast …
Re The Measures Of Morneau, (Dec. 19): Letter writer Paul Cherrie, of Laguna Beach, Calif., says he would gladly trade one Donald Trump for one Bill Morneau.
At first blush, I thought fairness would require 10 of the former for one of the latter – but I quickly came to my senses.
Romain Pitt, Toronto