CannTrust facility located in Fenwick, Ontario.Tara Walton/The Globe and Mail
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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CannTrust’s transgressions
Re CannTrust Officials Told Of Unlicensed Pot (July 24): With shortages plaguing the Canadian medical and recreational marijuana industry, and the black-market weed business thriving, I hope Health Canada does the right thing about CannTrust’s transgressions.
Was CannTrust trying to pull a fast one on Health Canada, by growing marijuana secretly? Sure looks like it. But, in its defence, it also looks like CannTrust was preparing to supply voracious market demand in anticipation of the regulatory agency’s approval to grow the very same pot.
Obviously, CannTrust needs to be punished (as if its tanking stock price isn’t punishment enough). Health Canada can lift CannTrust’s licence, and destroy a new, very successful Canadian company, and it can destroy the illegally grown product.
The result?
A lot of people out of work and a big boost to the black-market marijuana industry. Health Canada needs to do the right thing: Fine CannTrust an amount equal to its profits from sales of its nefariously grown product.
Any other course of action would be of no benefit to Canadians.
Barrie Abbott, Port Coquitlam, B.C.
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CannTrust – what a great name, it invites your trust.
After CannTrust’s executives’ behaviour, who can or should we trust now? It is to be hoped that Health Canada will delicense CannTrust and that a criminal investigation will follow.
Grace Lallemand, Port Colborne, Ont.
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I am concerned that federal and provincial authorities may not be considering the impact of a shrinking supply of medical cannabis.
Thousands of patients have registered with CannTrust to be their licensed producer, and unless they arrange to change providers, that is their only source of medical cannabis. The halting of the sales of certain CannTrust products could quickly become a real problem.
These medical patients went through the “system” to obtain prescribed cannabis and it was not a simple process. It is now time for the “system” to ensure that there is an adequate supply available to them.
This is not a recreational-use issue, this is a medical one.
Governments chose to be part of this process. Now it is time for them to lead all related parties to work together to ensure a full medical-cannabis supply chain.
Tony Gizzie, Oakville, Ont.
Eyes of the Earth
Re Canada Urged To Quit Telescope Project (July 23): There is no doubt that in Hawaii (as in Canada), Indigenous culture has been much abused by the dominant colonial regime. However, it is a pity that astronomy and, in particular, the Thirty Meter Telescope, should be viewed as part of that. Astronomy is universal in its nature; all cultures have looked at the sky in wonder and tried to understand its mysteries. Each step in understanding enriches the wonder and mystery.
Mauna Kea is a sacred mountain. It is the best place in the Northern Hemisphere to look out into the cosmos and explore its wonders. A similar place exists in Chile. Together, these two are like the eyes of the Earth, viewing the rest of the universe. They should be regarded with the greatest reverence not only by Indigenous communities, but by astronomers and all humanity. The telescopes are lenses enabling those eyes to see farther into space and, consequently, further back in time. This enhances the sanctity of the mountain.
A key purpose of the Thirty Meter Telescope is to look for planets in other solar systems. How much would humanity be enriched if it could establish the existence of extraterrestrial life, the possibility of other intelligences, and other eyes looking back at us? The telescope is worthy of a place on the mountain.
Tony Thompson, Vancouver
Off-strategy jets
Re Liberals Technically Didn’t Break Their Promise On F-35s, But They Still May End Up Buying The Jets (July 24): What is sorely lacking in Canada’s written objectives is strategic thinking.
The prime objective for the 21st century is the Arctic and Arctic sovereignty. Canada needs basic, twin-engine jets, nuclear mini-subs and ice-cutting military vessels, also capable of operating effectively in the country’s warmer waters. The single-engine F-35 is a multibillion-dollar mistake that is off-strategy and impairs Canada’s ability to protect itself in this new century.
Alan J. Cooper, Toronto
France’s oui to CETA
Re France’s Parliament Approves EU-Canada Deal With Small Majority (July 23): France and Canada share a common history and language, in addition to being long-standing commercial partners. This privileged relationship has led to the presence here of 23,000 French students each year, and more than 9,700 French companies exporting to Canada.
Our relationship has reached a new high with the ratification this week of the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) by France’s National Assembly. The agreement eliminates tariffs on 98 per cent of EU tariffs lines. For Canada, it represents a privileged access to a market of more than 500 million consumers, at a time when Canada is trying to diversify its trade and reduce its dependence on the American market.
France is the first among the EU founding members to ratify CETA. This decision sends a clear message: CETA is profitable to Canadian and European consumers, as well as companies, no matter their size.
Nevertheless, to ensure CETA’s political future, every EU country must ratify the deal. Sixteen have yet to do so, however, a major impediment has been removed with the confirmation in May, by the European Court of Justice, of the compatibility of CETA’s provisions with EU law.
I am hopeful, with the removal of this considerable obstacle, that European countries will ratify the agreement, which will then stand out as an ideal of co-operation, and a pillar against President Donald Trump’s isolationism and protectionism.
Jean Charest, premier of Quebec (2003-2012); partner, McCarthy Tetrault
Boris, fishing for a deal
Re Johnson Vows To ‘Get Brexit Done’ As He Wins Tory Leadership, But House May Block His Way (July 24): Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (I’ll call him Bo Piffle for short) swells the ranks of pranksters, snake oil salesmen and carnival barkers running the world. Political cartoonists have, perforce, become photographers.
Howard Greenfield, Montreal
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Boris Johnson’s claim – delivered while waving a smoked herring over his head – that the European Union is responsible for unfairly restrictive conditions on the transport of British kippers has now been exposed as false news. It was in fact the British government that imposed the tougher rules on the breakfast delicacy.
One has to enquire as to what Boris must have been smoking …
A.S. Brown, Kingston
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