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Trade, by rights
Re Deal-Killing Trade Tactics (letters, Dec. 7): Free-trade agreements are very much the place to insist on human rights. Without these as part of the deal, what we get is a race to the bottom on wages and the environment, and a betrayal of the common people. Great for those who own capital, terrible for the rest.
It is a complication for those negotiating the FTAs, but the masters of the universe ought to be up to this challenge, no?
Fred MacDonald, Peterborough, Ont.
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Re Canada, China Free-Trade Talks Fail To Launch (Dec. 5): China's leadership is obsessed with growth and China's role as the new leader in international trade. Justin Trudeau and Canadian officials should have focused Canada's free-trade proposal on the prospect of mutual economic growth instead of "progressive values."
Premier Li Keqiang, who just recently returned to China from pitching "One Belt, One Road" in Eastern Europe, would happily have directed his officials to begin formal negotiations with Canada for "growth."
In a top-down, one-party system, when the boss gives a green light to a trade deal, negotiators do everything in their power to let the deal go through. And that would have been Canada's chance to press China on issues such as workers' protection and gender equality.
In the end, negotiators in the State Council could have gone back to Mr. Li and reported a deal that "promotes China's export and economic growth," while Canadian officials could have walked away with terms that delivered on progressive issues.
Mr. Trudeau's and his aides' lack of knowledge of the Chinese political system cost us a golden opportunity to reach a truly progressive trade deal with China.
Robert Zhu, Toronto
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Jarred by Jerusalem
Re Trump's Jerusalem Move Roils Mideast (Dec. 8): Donald Trump knows his market. His Jerusalem move will serve four of his biggest clients very well.
America's (and Canada's, by the way) arms industry will profit from selling more weapons into the region. America's oil industry will profit from increased instability in the region. America's reconstruction industry will profit from rebuilding efforts after the weapons and instability fuel further destruction in the region. And America's financial industry (Wall Street) will profit from bankrolling all this lucrative action. It's another instalment of the Bush and Cheney show, now featuring 50 per cent more circus freak. In the Mideast, conflict and war are still better for American business than diplomacy and peace.
Chris Rapson, Toronto
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When someone invites us to supper, we do not tell the host in which room to serve the meal. If Israel says its capital is Jerusalem, then that is its capital. If we can't sit at the seat our host assigns, perhaps we should go home.
Patrick Cowan, Toronto
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Donald Trump claims to be master of "The Deal." A deal involves gain by both sides. This "deal" appears entirely one-sided.
Andrzej Derkowski, Oakville, Ont.
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Donald Trump's rationale on Jerusalem seems clear. By intentionally provoking violence ("on many sides, on many sides"), the apparent wisdom of his travel ban will be clear. In his mind, the violence he incites will prove him right. Sad!
Peter MacGowan, Toronto
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HR's future
Re A New Dynamic In The Workplace (Life & Arts, Dec. 5): As a college professor, I sat through a recent presentation delivered by two female 19-year-old human-resource majors, on the subject of sexual harassment in the workplace. According to these students, if someone at work asks you out for coffee and you say no, and they dare ask you a second time, it's considered sexual harassment.
The students' presentation was troubling for many reasons, but notably because some women of a certain generation have experienced true workplace harassment based on gender inequality.
Men may have a right to be scared – and so do women for that matter if the attitude of these future human-resource employees expresses the prevalent workplace mentality.
Where will this lead? One imagines an isolated world where life is lived through social media for fear of human contact.
Sexual harassment is about more than scrutinizing your male co-workers for adherence to a policy. Rather, it's a feeling – whether the perpetrator is male or female – of being violated or treated inappropriately or simply experiencing discomfort when someone crosses a boundary or uses power to advantage.
Now more than ever, work environments need to make this clear.
Margaret Mercer, Oakville, Ont.
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Gender imbalances
Re Here's The Gender Gap That Matters (Dec. 5): Margaret Wente raises a serious issue regarding the gender implications of the future of university studies in Canada that few scholars or politicians are prepared to engage.
Enrolment figures from McGill University for fall, 2017, indicate that overall undergraduate registration is split 58.2 per cent female and 41.8 per cent male. Every faculty at McGill has a majority of female undergrads save two: Engineering at 30.1 per cent and Management at 49.1 per cent. Conversely, the three faculties with the most female students are Education at 73.4 per cent, Arts/Science at 71.7 per cent and Medicine at 63.1 per cent.
The fact that future elementary and secondary teachers at McGill – and other teaching faculties in Canada – are overwhelmingly female forecasts a troubling public school future. As male teachers disappear from elementary and middle schools, the social and modelling impact on male pupils cannot be underestimated. What role models are young boys to use as they engage with the learning processes?
Gender matters and overly single-gendered specialty training impacts how that profession will act and evolve. The concerns raised by Ms. Wente deserve serious debate. University gender imbalances can no longer be ignored or dismissed.
Jon Bradley, associate professor (ret'd), Education, McGill University; Beaconsfield, Que.
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Weigh the source
Re Report Finds OSFI Rules Could Shut Out 50,000 Buyers A Year (Report on Business, Dec. 6): It is hardly surprising that Mortgage Professionals Canada, a national mortgage-broker industry association, is critical of stress-testing and the likely reduction in the pace of mortgage-lending growth.
I would lump opinions from trade associations, with their obvious biases and conflicts, into the same category as those from the think tanks so aptly singled out for criticism (Who Funds Canadian Think Tanks?, Dec. 4).
Mind you, self-interest is not a trait unique to real estate brokers. As they say, you don't ask a barber if you need a haircut.
Stephen Shevoley, Basel, Switzerland