Re: Make The Senate An Election Issue, Andrew Coyne, June 9.
Somehow, some day soon, taxpaying Canadians must gather the authority to say to their senators, “Okay guys, the gig’s up.” For nearly 150 years, the Senate has had its way — writing its own rules, using our money to keep members in princely style, and being challenged occasionally when a particularly egregious situation comes to light. Then, they scurry away, back to their old ways, until the next outrage. Given a chance, they’ll do this again when the current pressure (the Mike Duffy expenses trial, etc.) is off.
Now, we learn an independent arbitrator has been hired — former Supreme Court Justice Ian Binnie. When feeling unloved and unappreciated, senators can take their ruffled feathers to him and proclaim their innocence. Where do these audacious senators — Speaker Leo Housakis, government leader Claude Carignan and opposition leader James Cowan — get the authority to hire an arbitrator, then charge it to us? Especially when they themselves have been implicated in the auditor-general Michael Ferguson’s report and apparently planned to take their own cases to the arbitrator — a glaring conflict-of-interest.
What would it take for fed-up Canadians to stand their ground for a change and say, “You’re the ones who want the arbitrator, not us. Pay him yourselves, like any of us have to do when we get caught taking money that isn’t ours.”
Tonia Kelly, Perth, Ont.
The offers by the three top senators to repay their questionable expenses is not good enough. In any other business or organization, white-collar crime is not acceptable and results in termination of employment or at least a substantial fine. The termination of the Senate should be the main election issue in the coming election
Donald J. Wood, Markham, Ont.
Liberal gun control?
Re: The Guns Of Freedom, editorial, June 6.
Liberal Senator Céline Hervieux-Payette feels “afraid” now the Mounties are carrying sub-machine guns around Parliament. Only a seriously deluded and paranoid politician would fear the armed police who discourage maniacs from shooting up the very Senate in which she sits. It really gives us pause to consider the hidden agenda behind her party’s gun control efforts.
Barry Glasgow, Woodlawn, Ont.
FIFA’s interests
Re: A New FIFA Is Coming, letter to the editor, June 8.
Letter-writer Madeleine Wannop Ross Salter has it all wrong when she claims FIFA represents and “runs the affairs of the best soccer players.” These millionaire athletes are extremely well represented by their families, clubs, and agents. FIFA is there to represent the best interests of the game. Sadly, it failed.
Dave Edwards, Kingston, Ont.
Handouts perpetuate dependency
Re: Old Idea Reborn In Unlikely Place, June 9.
I work for a charity that is involved in projects in several countries in the developing world. One of the big lessons we have learned over the years is to minimize handouts or risk dependency. There are a few scenarios in which handouts are warranted — the recent earthquake in Nepal is one. Even then, the relief phase, during which food is being given to families, will only last until harvest time later this summer. During the rebuilding phase, we provide only what locals cannot provide for themselves. In Nicaragua, we are funding agricultural training programs, and provide seed to the farmers, but they are expected to return twice as many seeds at harvest time.
Handouts destroy people’s self-respect and dignity. To suggest poverty can be solved by throwing money at the problem is simplistic and foolish. The guaranteed income proposal is intended to solve some of the problems resulting from our welfare system, but two wrongs don’t make a right.
Rick Postma, Word & Deed Ministries, Brantford, Ont.
Your article failed to discuss the most important issue — how tax revenues and expenditures would be balanced under Alberta’s guaranteed annual income (GAI) proposal: the abolishment of government social welfare programs. Dismantling the cumbersome, expensive welfare state apparatus is the only way to fund it. Otherwise, GAI would double government expenditures and consume more than 60 per cent of the province’s gross domestic product.
Dennis Wiatzka, Calgary.
Pope’s meddling unhelpful
Re: The Fictional Kingdom, Geoffrey Clarfield and Salim Mansur, June 8.
Pope Francis’s recognition of Palestine as a “state” is a huge embarrassment for anybody who has an interest in peace in the Middle East or sympathizes with the Roman Catholic Church. Since, apparently, not even the reciprocal recognition of Israel by the Palestinians has been conceded as a precondition, his ill-advised meddling is unconscionable. As Geoffrey Clarfield and Salim Mansur note, Jordan is a Palestinian state and as such nullifies the legitimacy of seeking to establish a second Palestinian state. The commonly accepted propaganda demanding the creation of a Palestinian state conceals that, in fact, a second Palestinian state is sought.
For geographical, ethnic, linguistic, religious and political reasons, the West Bank should be integrated into Jordan and Gaza into Egypt. Besides, who has thought through what problems a bicephalic state would create, i.e., the West Bank separated from Gaza by Israel and connected by a “secured” highway? Of course, neither Jordan nor Egypt is jumping on the opportunity to integrate a fanaticized populace, but why are these two states not pressured by the “moral authority” of the Pope to accept their coreligionist brethren?
Heinz Klatt, professor emeritus of psychology, London, Ont.
Wishes vs. necessity
Re: Getting Past A Sense Of Entitlement, letters to the editor, June 9.
Two assumptions have been made in the wake of the report of the Truth & Reconciliation Commission. Many non-aboriginals assume its 94 recommendations represent the collective view of all aboriginals in this country. Aboriginals have had difficulty for decades agreeing on anything — the education deal proposed by the Harper government, which saw the demise of aboriginal leader Shawn Atleo, is just one example. It is unlikely most aboriginals even saw the 94 recommendations. The second assumption, held by many aboriginals ,is that Canadians feel responsible for actions of governments in the past, and somehow almost magically they will embrace a collective guilt for something they had no part in.
What aboriginals and non-aboriginals should be able to agree on is this: the residential schools were a tragedy, but we can’t fix the past. However, we can fix the educational prospects, the housing and health problems of our aboriginal people. This will provide the framework in which to address other issues in the aboriginal communities. A shopping list of 94 items means you will never separate the wish list from the necessary.
Jeff Spooner, Kinburn, Ont.
National Post