Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew speaks during a B.C. NDP campaign event in Vancouver, B.C., Sept. 12.ETHAN CAIRNS/The Canadian Press
As is
Re “None of this is built to withstand Donald Trump” (Sept. 21): How ought the news media cover the ravings of Donald Trump?
Instead of naive and disingenuous attempts to alternately “sanewash,” normalize or deplatform him, all of which also serve an outlet’s own healthy levels of readers, subscribers or clicks, the media should quote him verbatim on every single issue and incoherent commentary.
By going to extraordinary lengths to treat Mr. Trump like a typical politician, the mainstream news media has succeeded in covering up for a dangerous and deranged demagogue.
Lesley Barsky Toronto
The message
Re “The conservative defeat of carbon pricing is the defeat of economics – and of conservatism” (Opinion, Sept. 21): Economists will sing about the effect of carbon pricing when increasing it, but few talk about the effect when reducing it to zero or, in some cases, negative values through the rebate process.
Most importantly, there has been little testimony as to what the populace does with their rebates to fight climate change. Without this type of publicity, as well as the lack of visible impact, the usual cynicism and confusion reign.
One might add that the continual bombardment of apocalyptic climate-change predictions leaves one feeling that the rebate is like taking a water pistol to a forest fire. No bright light is delivering the message that we need to add up all the water pistols. But then, no one has ever figured out if the water pistols were filled in the first place.
We need a positive tribal story to get the masses behind the desired actions.
Chris Tworek Calgary
In defence
Re “Does Wab Kinew not understand how our justice system works?” (Opinion, Sept. 21): I applaud columnist Robyn Urback for her defence of those of us who devote our lives to keeping the criminal justice system honest.
A half-hearted defence bar is a freeway to wrongful convictions and miscarriages of justice. It is beyond tiresome that after centuries of this, criminal lawyers still have to justify their jobs (except when those decrying the profession find themselves at the wrong end of criminal prosecutions).
None of us went to law school to “stand with” those accused of horrendous acts, and none of us work in defence of any crime. We defend the accused, not the crime.
We shouldn’t be pilloried for doing our essential job. But it is not for those whom we “choose to defend” – our clients choose us, not the other way around.
Wab Kinew ought not perpetuate the fallacious notion that criminal lawyers should be pilloried for defending those who hire them.
Lorne Sabsay LLB, CS; Toronto
We seem to be in the midst of a stampede of people, businesses, sports leagues, institutions and political parties all trying to outdo each other in demonstrating their moral superiority, by messaging their abhorrence to sexual crimes.
The problem with the stampede is that it can trample on fundamental principles of a just society, such as the right to a fair trial and be presumed innocent until proven guilty.
A criminal lawyer is an essential part of our judicial system, and should never be subject to guilt by association nor excluded from a political party on that basis. This simplistic prejudice did not used to be a feature of Canadian politics.
Philip Augustine Ottawa
Not okay
Re “Canada’s civil courts are a mess. What will it take to ensure justice is done faster?” (Sept. 21): It seems that, as Canadians, we have accepted service levels of just-above mediocrity.
A grade of C+ or the occasional B is okay, as long as our education system is in the Top 10, our justice system is pretty good despite its snail’s pace and occasional injustice, our social programs are better than most in Asia and Africa, and so it goes with many of our institutions.
Even in sports (well, at least in Toronto) we tolerate season after unsuccessful season. Is this a reflection of our psyche or character as a nation, where okay is an acceptable standard?
Perhaps we should be demanding excellence. If somehow we don’t quite reach it, at least we came closer.
If we aim for the moon but don’t quite make it, at least we’re among the stars.
Anthony da Silva Toronto
Stuck in the middle
Re “How Canada’s middle class got shafted” (Report on Business, Sept. 21): Let me get this straight.
We are the world’s most educated country. We have “an extremely high-performing research and higher education infrastructure.” We work longer hours and have less time to spend with our children. And the topper: “Our businesses have enjoyed rising profits – rising faster in the past decade than profits among many global peers.”
Yet middle-class income growth is stagnant. The author’s culprit? The failure to promote “innovation and engagement in new knowledge.” Really?
How about the lack of collective bargaining and the anemic rate of unionization in this country? There is profit, after all. Why isn’t it being shared with the very people who help to create it?
How will any gains from increases in “innovation and engagement in new knowledge” be shared in that absence?
Martin d’Entremont Calgary
Canadians distrust business, fearing it more the bigger it is. We therefore endorse overregulation to make us feel safe.
As a consequence, the environment in Canada does not exist for the level of risk-taking needed to produce gains in productivity. I am astounded, then, that proposed solutions for Canada’s lagging productivity include more government.
Our desire for heightened competition is a case in point. It is hard to refute that Canadian telecoms will likely spend less on technology than they otherwise would have, now that they have to share it with new competitors.
Yet elsewhere, Mario Draghi wants the European Union to dilute competition rules to allow telecoms to become transnational, and presumably more productive, powerhouses (”Mario Draghi wants the EU to build global corporate champions like Airbus. Good luck on that” – Report on Business, Sept. 21). Q.E.D.
Rob Richards Toronto
I was a young pup, early in my sales career at a tech company. We had just received laptop computers.
I suggested to my boss that I would give a presentation to a potential client using Microsoft PowerPoint. He said no, that was too risky, unproven, and that I should stick to using acetates on an overhead projector.
Even at the time, I thought: How Canadian.
Ken Lancaster Guelph/Eramosa, Ont.
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