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The University of Alberta plans to award an honorary degree to Canadian scientist, environmentalist and broadcaster David Suzuki.Chris Young/The Canadian Press

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Honouring David Suzuki

Re School Tribute To Suzuki Sparks Debate (April 25): In the commentaries that decry the University of Alberta for planning to award David Suzuki an honorary degree, there is a telling silence about his championing of human rights, a subject central to the Canadian Studies classes I’ve taught for more than 30 years.

Dr. Suzuki, a third-generation Japanese Canadian, experienced firsthand how the state can attempt to destroy racialized groups. In 1942, at age 6, he was interned with his family for the duration of the Second World War along with 22,000 other Japanese Canadians – at the time, 90 per cent of their population in Canada. Dr. Suzuki speaks out about the brutality of the wrenching displacement and internment, what he calls “one of the shoddiest chapters in the tortuous history of democracy in North America.”

His experience of institutionalized racism informs his commitment to Indigenous peoples who have suffered the corrosive effects of colonization and cultural genocide. The scourge of racism continues to plague our society.

To honour David Suzuki, who demonstrates the remarkable resilience of our Japanese Canadian community, is to celebrate his many achievements in science and environmental literacy, along with his work as a public intellectual dedicated to anti-racist mentorship and education.

Janice Williamson, professor, Faculty of Arts, University of Alberta

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Calgary oilmen are justified in their opposition to this nomination. David Suzuki also has another cadre of opponents in the farming communities of Canada (and globally). His opposition to the use of genetic sciences to greatly improve crop yields, resulting in lower food costs, decries his qualification for this recognition.

Martin C. Pick, Cavan, Ont.

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Controversy over an honorary degree at the University of Alberta is not new, and the unique governance model at Alberta universities is an outcome of an earlier dispute. In the early 1940s, the Honorary Degrees Committee nominated then-premier William Aberhart for an honorary degree, but the senate rejected the recommendation. Soon after, the Alberta government amended the University Act and stripped the senate of most of its powers, except two: the election of the chancellor and, ironically, recipients of honorary degrees.

Most of the powers that university senates in other provinces have were transferred to the General Faculties Council, the members of which were predominantly faculty and administrators until around 1970, when students were added. The senate’s role was changed to be a body that reflected the university to the Alberta community, and to receive input from the community; its membership is primarily external.

I doubt this latest incident will lead to a change in governance, but it helps to explain why at least two deans have distanced themselves from the decision.

Alexander (Sandy) L. Darling, Flamborough, Ont.

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The engineers, lawyers and accountants who are considering pulling their support for the U of A are acting as businessmen, not as professionals. Their type would be proclaiming their enlightenment if their revenue depended on the alternative energy sources that must eventually be used for the Earth’s sake.

Those apologetic deans would do well to consider this.

Jim MacDonald, Halifax

Rage, isolation

Re Suspect Charged As Police Sweep Toronto Streets (April 25): This latest tragedy in Toronto highlights a truth about our society that we must address, as individuals and as a community. As a social worker, I witness it daily: how our stressed-out, hurried, preoccupied society fosters isolation, loneliness, anxiety, and a sense of being adrift in a world that no longer provides a strong moral compass. Add mental illness to this environment and the potential for violence is very real.

Too many of us live beside people for years without any neighbourly contact. Our obsession with our cellphones doesn’t help. This lack of genuine community is fostering more isolation and a feeling of being disconnected. We have become “human doings” instead of “human beings.”

We have to find a way to slow down, embrace the values that make for a kinder, more humane world, and reach out to each other. We hear a lot about living more simply and mindfully these days, but unless we wake up and apply it, the tragedies will escalate.

Sandy Amodio, Burlington, Ont.

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Re When Young Men Play The Victim – And Then Take The Lives Of Others (April 24): Even the headline of this piece shortchanges young men, and all of us. Any conversation that includes “play the victim” is loaded with inflammatory tension. Do people get to share painful emotions? When is that called “playing the victim”?

An element missing in the conversation about male violence (at any age) is also missing in the dialogue about bullying: shame. Men and women deal differently with shame; the difference makes men vulnerable to rage, and women vulnerable to bullying. Our 24/7 cycle of selfies has created a culture disposed to shame, rage and bullying, caught in a cycle of trying to be seen, cool, in, a winner …

Jane Kelly, Montreal

The art of enough

Re Quebec Government Grants David Painting Heritage Protection (April 25): I am utterly frustrated by federal Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly’s inaction in the Chagal/David debacle. While she sat in silence, Quebec Culture Minister Marie Montpetit took an important stand and declared the David to have special heritage status. She showed that ministers of heritage/culture do have a critical role to play in protecting Canada’s cultural property.

Marc Mayer, director of the National Gallery, looked a complete clown when he released a statement that the National Gallery is going ahead with the sale of the Chagall, even if it can’t buy the David. He said the gallery would use the proceeds to establish a “financial safety net” that would be used to acquire other works of art that are at risk of leaving the country.

Is the National Gallery in such a precarious financial position that it needs to sell an important work by Chagall? This last straw makes the National Gallery the laughing stock of the international arts community. Enough is enough.

It is time for Ms. Joly to act.

Aaron Caplan, Toronto

Fourth-quarter Fred

Cathal Kelly may have missed the key element in the equation on the Raptors’ problems: Fourth-quarter Fred (For The Raptors, Accountability Is Not A Synonym For Responsibility – Sports, April 24). I’ve noticed that the Raptors have been evading fourth-quarter collapses by inserting Fred Van Vleet to help the starters, as they did with Cory Joseph last year.

I admire Raptors management: Fred isn’t that big or fast, but he has a presence, and a wonderful three-point shot. He seems to have an uncanny sense of a situation, and an usual ability to make something good come out of it. I hope they can win without him if they have to, but I’m pulling for his shoulder to heal, as I’m sure management is!

Ed Childe, Ottawa

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