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
..................................................................................................................................
Pipeline rights, wrongs
Re The Trans Mountain Pipeline Will Never Be Built (Feb. 21): Margaret Wente suggests many First Nations are "complaining" about not being adequately consulted about the pipeline, when our constitutional rights are at stake.
The Coldwater Band challenged the federal approval of the pipeline in court after a route running directly through the recharge zone of our community's aquifer was approved. Attempts to have Canada consider a viable alternative were rejected – including by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau – after a hand-delivered letter asked that an alternative route be considered (to avoid unassessed risks to the community's drinking water).
This is not a case of whining, but a serious objection to a pipeline route that threatens the future of our community and its source of clean drinking water (which is, apparently, a top priority for Mr. Trudeau's government).
Lee Spahan, Chief, Coldwater Indian Band (Nlaka'pamux Territory, Merritt, B.C.)
..................................................
Since the expansion would follow the same route, go through the same environmentally sensitive areas, cross the same First Nations lands as the existing pipeline, which has been in service for more than 30 years, answers to questions of safety and possible environmental damage should be readily available, rather than the subject of wild speculation.
Peter Riediger, Oakville, Ont.
..................................................
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has attempted to strike a balance between environmental responsibility and oil industry development, which is commendable.
But if any new oil pipelines are going to be built, he needs to go one step further: Sit down with the provinces and First Nations and agree on a cap on oil production in exchange for oil pipeline support. We need all three: environmental responsibility, a fair price for our oil (which we will not get from the Americans) and energy security.
Jim Paulin, Ottawa
..................................................
Presumption of guilt?
Re A Difficult Call, But Necessary (Feb. 21): Your editorial about Patrick Brown's leadership bid in the face of sexual misconduct charges states, "the bottom line is that the two allegations have not been disproved." In other words, guilty until proven innocent.
If this is to be the new standard by which we are to judge each other in the future, God help us all.
John Russell, Toronto
..................................................
Justice, race
Re There's No Need For Criticism. Canada's Jury System Works (Feb. 20): The author of this column, Charles Lugosi, asks: "What if [Gerald] Stanley were tried for murder by a single judge who was an Indigenous person?"
I ask: What if Clayton Boushie were a white person?
Maria Walsh, Surrey, B.C.
..................................................
It is unfortunate that Charles Lugosi defended the wrong ideal in his spirited argument against the influence of politics and the judiciary on juries. The issue is not about the putative impartiality of juries, it is about the historical exclusions of Indigenous peoples from a process that has impacted them detrimentally, and often without recourse to an impartial system.
Change happens in the law's processes. The inclusion of victim statements or the exclusion of a complainant's sexual activity have both demonstrated an acknowledgment of the need for the law to reflect the societal values it purports to protect.
The ability of defence lawyers to simply recuse any individual from a jury may be seen as a component of the ideal of "fairness" to the accused who is to be judged by a jury of peers.
Yet, when that process furthers a history of institutional racism, by excluding people from serving on a jury where the accused or the victim is Indigenous, then the law is no longer fair or impartial.
It also ignores and shuts out a large portion of its own peoples at a time when reconciliation requires that their voices be heard by all – particularly in the processes of the law.
Michael Bergob, Comox, B.C.
..................................................
$20 an hour
Re Australia Pays Fast-Food Workers $20 An Hour And The Sky Hasn't Fallen (Feb. 20): I lived in Sydney for many years before moving to Toronto.
In Australia, there is no concept of tips or a gratuity. Australians pay what they see on the bill; here, the consumer ends up paying an additional 18 to 20 per cent in tips.
No one would begrudge workers being paid more if the end-consumer were also freed from the compulsion to pay gratuities. The expectation – and this has taken on the form of a "basic right" in North America – that a worker will be tipped, no matter what the quality of service is, is not only unfair to the end customer but ridiculous.
The truth is that, over all, if tips are also included in the calculation, restaurant workers here make more money than they do in Australia.
Suma George, Toronto
..................................................
(Over)Paid for stats
Re Holiday-Pay Changes Irk Ontario Employers (Report on Business, Feb. 19): On Jan. 1, I paid two staff a full day's stat holiday pay although they worked one and two days respectively during the pay period preceding New Year's Day. Both have other jobs that also paid them a full day's wage.
I've brought the issue to the attention of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business and my MPP. The Labour Ministry doesn't seem to understand the impact of its rule changes or care about addressing the problem.
I am a good employer who pays more than minimum wage but this is just wrong. Full-time workers should get a full day's pay on public holidays, and that amount should be prorated according to their full-time equivalents for part-time employees.
Paula Conning, Collingwood, Ont.
..................................................
Kids who ghost you
Re Are My Kids 'Ghosting' Me? (Life & Arts, Feb. 20): I feel the need to tell the parent who wrote about her virtually non-existent kids that she is not alone.
Not that this makes our kids' behaviour any easier to bear, but there might be some comfort in knowing that many of us are dealing with the same issue.
I would counsel her to tread carefully around the advice given by David Eddie, which was to confront them about their ill usage of her. Many of us are afraid to approach our kids about their perceived lack of day-to-day caring, because we fear, and not without foundation, that this might make the situation worse!
And these are not just kids in their 20s. This behaviour lasts long into their 50s.
Maybe we just have to accept the fact that they don't like us, don't want to spend time with us, or simply prefer their friends' company. Let's face it, if we were honest, many parents prefer their friends to their families, too – it's just that, in our generation, showing such disrespect for a parent would have been unheard of. Today, we are simply afraid to say it out loud.
Annette Snowdon, Collingwood, Ont.