Letters to the editor: Lament for a lost Canada & More News Here

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‘We are no longer a nation of thinkers’

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Re: Book excerpt: The Canada I fell in love with is gone, Lydia Perovic, May 8

Lydia Perovic is completely proper in her lament for a lost Canada. I’m satisfied the many immigrants from former Communist nations in Europe have arrived at the identical conclusion, maybe even prior to Lydia. My life in Canada began in 1968 after leaving Czechoslovakia. For folks residing behind the Iron Curtain, the West had an simple attraction. It was the a part of the world teeming with alternative, freedom of thought and loads of causes for particular person betterment. The biggest discovery for me was that I may lastly assume by myself, with out the thought police and the stress for conformity skilled underneath the totalitarian regime. The spectre of political correctness didn’t even exist and free speech was enshrined in the Charter of Rights signed by the elder prime minister Trudeau.

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Now, for the previous 50 years I’ve witnessed the lack of id Canada as soon as boasted. We are divided not as a result of we’ve got accepted folks from all corners of the Earth. We are divided as a result of some shout louder than others, not caring whether or not their shouting makes any sense. We are not a nation of thinkers as a result of we’re not allowed to assume for ourselves. If we deviate from those that need to assume on our behalf, we’re racists, swastika-waving folks and brazenly anti-state. These have been exactly the circumstances I left behind to come to Canada 53 years in the past. Alas, to quote Ms. Perovic, “The Canada I fell in love with is gone.”

Zdenek Kutac, Calgary

Yes, we ought to be blaming the Bank of Canada

Re: Embattled Bank of Canada has nobody to blame however itself for eroding belief, Carson Jerema, May 10

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Carson Jerema says that “This quantitative easing, which critics derisively call money printing, had the result of increasing how much money banks had access to, and could therefore lend.“

We critics of Keynesianism (the shortest and most accurate description of which is, “Government is your Daddy”) and Modern Monetary Policy (a.okay.a. Magic Money Tree) derisively name quantitative easing money-printing exactly as a result of that’s precisely what QE is, the creation of recent cash from skinny air.

Indeed, as Mises Institute fellow Prof. Philipp Bagus wrote approach again in 2010, when then Fed chair Ben Bernanke was launching QE II, “The rhetorical tricks should not distract us from the fact that QE is simple money creation. The aim of Money Creation II is to finance government spending, debasing the dollar. We should dismiss the term QE and instead call money creation what it is: inflation.”

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Harry Koza, Toronto

I’d say the Bank of Canada has a competency drawback in addition to a credibility drawback. The financial institution wanted to begin elevating rates of interest and decreasing quantitative easing at the least a yr in the past. Instead it did nothing and now we’ve got severe inflation expectations. To me the Bank of Canada resembles a sleeping guard canine that has lastly awoken to see the robbers taking off with the protected and is now working round in circles barking.

Garth M. Evans, Vancouver

Two views on medically assisted dying

Re: We have a proper to select dying and our causes are no person’s enterprise, Jesse Kline, May 12

Canada’s assisted dying legislation is about compassion, avoiding struggling and elementary rights. The eligibility standards, as set out in the legislation, are rigorous and there are safeguards to be certain that individuals are shielded from coercion. The resolution to pursue an assisted dying is that of the particular person and so they can change their thoughts at any time.

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Recent tales in the media have featured individuals who expertise lack of social helps — particularly housing — who need to or have accessed medical help in dying (MAID). It is necessary to make clear that nobody can obtain MAID on the foundation of a lack of social assist. An individual will need to have a grievous and irremediable situation to be eligible for an assisted dying, and be accredited by two unbiased assessors. MAID assessors and suppliers work inside the parameters of the legislation; they’re cautious and considerate of their work.

Community sources for psychological well being, palliative care, incapacity helps and housing have to be improved to guarantee folks throughout Canada can thrive, and these might be supported and developed in parallel with modifications to the assisted dying legislation. We can not deny MAID to those that are eligible and wish to finish their struggling due to the failings of those separate techniques.

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Helen Long, CEO Dying With Dignity Canada

Columnist Jesse Kline has inadvertently singled out the drawback with the deceptively named Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID). He states, “unless people are being coerced into making certain choices, or are making decisions that are actively harming others, it is really none of our business.”

His evaluation glosses over the pertinent incontrovertible fact that the earlier legislation was put in place to defend weak folks from dying by others. The aged, the disabled, the mentally ailing,
who’re all in a weak state, could have issue making an goal resolution concerning their dying. Living circumstances could make their lives tough and miserable, and due to this fact it’s not tough to persuade them that they’re ineffective and their lives are with out which means. Simply put, their “consent” to their deaths is, in lots of instances, extremely problematic.

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That is why it’s essential in a civilized society, that their lives be shielded from undue affect and from elements main to their despair. They want bodily, psychological and medical assist, monetary assist, counselling, and different social companies that can restore their human dignity, and renew their want to stay out their lives till pure dying.

The various proposed by Klein is to enable the killing of the poor, the troubled, and the disabled, as a cost-saving profit to society. Contrary to his assertion, it’s society’s enterprise.

C. Gwendolyn Landolt, National Vice-President, REAL Women of Canada

‘Shocked and appalled’

Re: ‘Shocked you’re publishing info as an alternative of politically appropriate opinion’, John Downing, letter to the editor, May 7

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Your correspondent, John Downing, a most distinguished denizen of the Toronto press corps from earlier many years, ought to have remembered that one can’t merely be “shocked” when penning a letter to the editor; one have to be each “shocked and appalled.” Merely being “shocked” is just half the battle. “Appalled” provides a layer of horror, dismay and immediacy, which the Ryerson fiasco wholeheartedly deserves.

Walter Tedman, Kingston, Ont.

‘There has to be a better way’ to promote French in Quebec

Re: Quebec about to go the most onerous language legislation in Canadian historical past (First Reading e-newsletter), May 10

Why can’t the authorities use a heat hand of welcome to enhance the uptake of language in Quebec, as an alternative of an iron fist?

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As somebody residing in Quebec since 2015, having moved to the space for work, I’ve completed a lot to be taught the language. Studying in lessons out there to me, watching on-line applications, studying French newspapers, and speaking in French to my francophone neighbours. I’m decided, and but I’ll let you know that studying a new language when not in class may be very, very tough.

Imagine a situation the place beginning quickly you’ll not be served by your physician and different native companies in a language you perceive. Now you are feeling the panic.

People are simply making an attempt to stay their lives, studying a language is tough, and it does the francophone tradition no advantages when it begins to use bully ways to defend itself. There has to be a higher approach.

Premier François Legault ought to take a web page from the EU the place they actively promote at-risk languages (like Frisian) by cultivating them, with out threatening and fining folks.

Colin Postma, Gatineau, Que.

The National Post welcomes letters to the editor (ideally 150 phrases or fewer). Letters ought to be emailed to [email protected]. Please embody your identify, place of residence (city or metropolis and province) and daytime cellphone quantity. Letters could also be edited for size or readability.