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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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Remember me? We're close

Despite Justin Trudeau's apology after the Ethics Commissioner ruled that he broke Canada's ethics law over two all-expense-paid family holidays, he says he did nothing inappropriate because he asserts that his host, the Aga Kahn, was a "close family friend."

Mr. Trudeau admits that he had only spoken to the Aga Kahn once in the 30 years before he became the Leader of the Liberal Party and then Prime Minister.

Over the past 30 years, I have met and spoken to many people on at least one occasion. Some had been friends/acquaintances of my parents. I hope that at least one of them will recognize my name in the letters to the editor, and think of me as a "close family friend" and invite me for an all-expense-paid holiday to their condominium in Florida or their cottage in Muskoka. I would even pay for my own helicopter ride.

Michael Gilman, Toronto

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It doesn't surprise me that a person as entitled as Justin Trudeau should act so huffy about being called out by the Ethics Commissioner for visiting his "close family friend" on a private island. What is incredible is that Sophie Grégoire Trudeau had the gall to call up the daughter of the Aga Khan to ask for her free family vacation and then call back to see if friends could come, too!

Now that's chutzpah!

Jill Reilly, Vancouver

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Humane help for wildlife

Every year, thousands of Ontario residents seek help for an orphaned or injured wild animal.

Most of these animals in distress are the result of extensive development and habitat loss. The once-strong wildlife rehabilitation community that provided care for these animals has shrunk from 200 to 60 rehabilitators, with more dropping out each year, due to the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry's unworkable regulations, inconsistent and arbitrary rulings and outright harassment of rehabilitators. The ministry seems intent on eliminating the service altogether (Wildlife Centres Feel 'Bullied' By Officials' Demands, Lack Of Appeal Process – Dec. 21).

Our centre, the first purpose-built wildlife facility in Canada, stopped doing rehabilitation years ago when the ministry seized healthy baby raccoons, taking them to a research facility while changing regulations that either prevented or greatly restricted humane help for wildlife. We decided we could no longer work with this ministry with any degree of trust.

The Liberal government should be delighted that communities, through the extraordinary commitment of volunteers and private funding, are willing to provide compassionate help for wildlife, and the public who desperately seek help on behalf of these animals. Premier Kathleen Wynne needs to assume the leadership that Ontarians expect on this issue.

Donna DuBreuil, president, Ottawa-Carleton Wildlife Centre

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Bread, gas … and dough

We have read the words of Anatole France: "The poor have to labour in the face of the majestic equality of the law, which forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread."

Can one suppose now that we can take great comfort in the knowledge that the same majestic equality applies to fixing the price of that bread?

Ross Howey, Toronto

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A huge thank you to letter writer Paul Farley (Wrong. For 14 Years – Dec. 21). From his letter, I have mobilized the members of my social media network to apply for the $25 gift card Loblaw says it will issue to customers affected by its bread price-fixing scheme and donate it to their local food bank. I hope it motivates those who might otherwise not think it was worth the effort to claim it.

Ken Duff, Vankleek Hill, Ont.

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So the bakers are busted, and the headline Loblaw Admits To Bread Price-Fixing Scheme makes it to the front page (Dec. 20). I suppose it would be to presumptuous of me to wish for another front-page headline this holiday season, proclaiming: Canadian Retail Petroleum Industry Admits To Gas Price-Fixing Scheme? How does this industry-wide, simultaneous gas-price choreography happen at the stroke of midnight?

Oh, wait. According to Big Oil, it's purely coincidental …

Ted Chivers, Victoria Harbour, Ont.

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Canada abstained. 'Sad'

Re Canada Abstains From UN Vote On U.S. Jerusalem Policy (Dec. 22): With the overwhelming UN vote to condemn Donald Trump's unnecessarily provocative declaration on Jerusalem, we really saw how much "Canada is back" on the global stage.

In spite of U.S. threats against countries supporting the resolution, we mustered all of our foreign policy fortitude and we firmly … abstained. No doubt this is just the type of moral clarity and decisiveness that the world wants from a country running as a candidate for the UN Security Council. As Mr. Trump himself might say, "sad."

Tom MacDonald, Ottawa

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It was disappointing to see Canada abstain from the UN vote denouncing the U.S. for moving its embassy to Jerusalem, recognizing the city as Israel's capital.

Were we intimidated by Donald Trump's vow to "keep score" – or perhaps we couldn't make up our mind? Shameful either way, especially for a non-binding, symbolic resolution. On an issue such as this, Canada should stand up and be counted, not cower in the fringes.

I doubt that this will help us with NAFTA, softwood lumber, Boeing/Bombardier etc. But I assume it will lead to an interesting few Question Periods next year … assuming our PM is back from vacation.

Peter D. Hambly, Hanover, Ont.

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Go, Torontos

Re Maple Leafs Forever (front page, Dec. 20); True Blue (Sports, Dec. 20): It's a fine point, and not one the NHL itself has always grasped so firmly in its 100-year history, but Toronto's initial NHL team wasn't known as the Arenas during that first 1917-18 season.

True, the Toronto Hockey Club was owned by the Toronto Arena Company, and played at Arena Gardens. But en route to winning the 1918 Stanley Cup, the team was commonly called (including in The Globe) the Torontos or Blueshirts. The following year, 1918-19, was when they became the Arenas, donning new sweaters that said so. The uniforms the modern-day Torontos wore last week alluded to that second-season garb.

Just to muddle the matter further, when the NHL got around in 1947 to engraving the original Stanley Cup with the names of champions previously left off, the slip was perpetuated in silver. Nineteen eighteen, that old Cup will assure you, was the Toronto Arenas' year, not the plain old Torontos'. Don't believe it.

Stephen Smith, author, Puckstruck: Distracted, Delighted and Distressed by Canada's Hockey Obsession; Toronto

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