Skip to main content
letters

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

..................................................................................................................................................

Housing dreams

Re Ottawa Looks To Provinces For Billions To Support Housing Plan (Nov. 23): The federal government has left behind an entire generation of middle-class, first-time home buyers in Toronto and Vancouver.

The National Housing Strategy provides no aid to middle-class Canadians who voted for this government with the understanding that their interests would be represented.

Exorbitant prices, rising interest rates, tighter mortgage-lending rules, higher CMHC premiums – all of these impediments to first-time home buyers have received mere shoulder-shrugs from the self-proclaimed champions of the middle class.

When so many Toronto households are not eligible for a mortgage for the average home price, politicians should be responding with strong multifaceted policies, not indifference. Young professionals need to protest and demand that all levels of government take drastic measures before a whole generation of middle-class home buyers is left behind.

Cameron Mancell, Toronto

...........................................

From your headline, National Housing Strategy Falls Short (Nov. 23), one would think the newly announced National Housing Strategy was a bust. That attitude does not reflect the views of 30 housing leaders in Toronto who roundly (and literally) applauded the new strategy. Their words – landmark, breakthrough, milestone, ambitious and historic – are as far as you can get from "falling short." Why can't good news ever be presented as such: good news?

Sherri Torjman, vice-president, Caledon Institute of Social Policy

...........................................

Focus on pensions

Re Trying To Understand Morneau's Blind Spot (editorial, Nov. 23): It is not Finance Minister Bill Morneau's assets I am concerned about, it's his mindset. I don't believe he entered politics to enrich himself, but I suspect that he has not left behind the attitudes of the plutocracy of which he is clearly a member. His proposed revisions to pension law – facilitating a shift from defined-benefit to defined-target plans – hardly seems consonant with the Trudeau government's promises to help the middle class, which is much more dependent on pensions than the 1 per cent. I want a closer look at Bill C-27, not so much at Bill Morneau. Please.

Andrew Leith Macrae, Toronto

...........................................

It is deeply disturbing to see how both the federal and Ontario Liberal governments are attacking the defined-benefit pension plans of millions of Canadians. The feds with Bill Morneau sponsored Bill C-27, which opens the door to the conversion of defined-benefit plans to target-benefit or defined-contribution plans. In Ontario, the Kathleen Wynne Liberals sponsored Bill 177, which gives the green light to permanent underfunding of pension plans, putting the pension security of two million Ontarians at risk.

How many more Nortel, Stelco and Sears-style pension fiascos will the Liberals idly stand by and watch before Justin Trudeau actually lives up to his commitment to "have the backs" of hard-working Canadians, and the Wynne Liberals do the right thing by changing the Ontario Pension Benefits Act so that it actually protects pensions?

Employers and pension plan administrators were happy to have both hands in the till when pension plans were in surplus situations. They should now be legally obligated to make up deficits when they aren't.

Paul van de Bospoort, Mount Brydges, Ont.

...........................................

Ideas spoken here?

Re Safety On Campus Shouldn't Require The Muzzling Of Ideas (Nov. 23): Wilfrid Laurier University's stated institutional goal is to lead the nation in combining the comprehensive human development of students with outstanding intellectual development in liberal arts and sciences.

This goal is far from evident in the open letter of apology from professor Nathan Rambukkana to his maligned graduate student. The letter is so poorly written, and the situation so tawdry that I wonder about the quality of the university's program in Communication Studies, and if it needs a thorough review.

Michael Chadwick, Grand-Barachois, N.B.

...........................................

We have now heard a lot about the kangaroo disciplinary hearing for Laurier teaching assistant Lindsay Shepherd. When will we hear about a disciplinary hearing for Prof. Nathan Rambukkana?

Ted Percival, Toronto

...........................................

Re Lindsay Shepherd Delivers A Wake-up Call (Nov. 21): Kudos to Margaret Wente for illustrating how the Righteous Left has emerged as a Leftist Reich.

Jeff Goldman, Toronto

...........................................

I spent 13 years as Canada Research Chair in International Human Rights at Wilfrid Laurier, retiring in 2016. Before, during and since that time, I have always maintained that freedom of speech is the bedrock of all other human rights. Fortunately, I taught grad students in political science and public policy, who were aware that more serious things were happening in the world than whether an individual might be offended by usage of the wrong pronoun.

Accordingly, I fully support Lindsay Shepherd in her brave fight against bullying political correctness.

Rhoda E. Howard-Hassmann, Hamilton

...........................................

Beyond Hollywood

Re Gentlemen Of Hollywood, Your Tool Does Not Impress (Life & Arts, Nov. 20): Kudos to John Doyle for explaining the male reveal to those of us who do not share the Y chromosome. Bathrobes which do not robe, exhibitionism which does not impress – what is wrong with these strange men? How pathetically inadequate they are.

But oh, I am so mad at Charlie Rose for taking his intellect away from us (CBS News, PBS Fire Charlie Rose After Sexual Harassment Allegations, Nov. 22).

Carolyn Brown, Toronto

...........................................

John Doyle's column suggests that "penis worship" is rife in Hollywood among powerful men who habitually abuse powerless women. But I see no evidence that Hollywood is an anomaly. We are interested in Louis C.K. and Harvey Weinstein, and take strange pleasure in their downfall, precisely because they are well known, as are their accusers.

I suggest the "paraphilia" Mr. Doyle describes is just as prevalent in C-level suites as it is in insurance offices and Uncle Costa's restaurant. Except that, if Uncle Costa drops his pants, who will call him out? Who will care about and listen to a waitress earning minimum wage? Hardly the stuff of newspaper columns. As always, class and economics explain it best.

Spyro Rondos, Beaconsfield, Que.

...........................................

Medal meltdown

I am writing to you from Manitoba (the oft-unnoticed first Prairie province west of Ottawa). Out here, we have volunteers who have worked hard in our communities to create and maintain outdoor rinks. At our community centre, they don their long johns and parkas and flood the rinks with garden hoses. Snow is removed manually with old technology (shovels). We are trying to fundraise to buy a snow blower because one of our 30-year volunteers wrecked his shoulder.

So, just wondering if the Senate could send any of those spare medals our way? We would melt them down, and the proceeds would go to the snow-blower fund. While we're at it, we would reflect briefly on how our senators are pitifully out of touch with the people they purport to serve, and how very selfish their costly medal game appears to most sensible Canadians. Shame on those senators who took a medal. They are unstrung, not unsung!

Jan Sullivan, Brandon

Interact with The Globe