Readers slam anti-Israel materials issued by CUPE at York University, the Liberal government's sale of coal to China, and more in Letters to the editor
Re: How the left is doubling down on its anti-Israel misadventure — Howard Levitt, Feb. 2; and Ottawa should give CUPE the Convoy treatment and shut it down — Conrad Black, Feb. 3
I do not expect better of CUPE or most unions, as they are generally populated by sheep, bleating the same tune as their leftist friends. But the conduct of York University, of which I am a long-time alumnus, is cringeworthy.
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Howard Levitt provides good advice for the university, disaffected union members and for Jewish students who are maligned by the behaviour of their school and their teachers’ representatives. Union members who do not wish to go along, should sue the union. Impacted Jewish students should lodge a grievance against the school. That gives the union a conundrum. The school should, but won’t, lodge a grievance against the union. It doesn’t sound like a decertification bid is in the offing. But as Conrad Black suggests, the government should put the union in trusteeship.
I disagree with Levitt regarding disposition of the teaching assistants. A written or implied job description is the basis of any employment contract, individual or collective. Yes, perpetrators of the illegal strike (refusal to teach assigned courses) should be fired. The TAs who follow their union “shepherds” should also be fired, not suspended.
Larry Sylvester, Acton, Ont.
Re: Ottawa should give CUPE the Convoy treatment and shut it down — Conrad Black, Feb. 3
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It is outrageous for Conrad Black to compare the rather orderly dispersal of the 2022 convoy protests to the 1989 bloodbath in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square.
First, both Justice Paul Rouleau and Justice Richard Mosley acknowledged that it was a close call as to whether the government’s invocation of the Emergencies Act was justified. Neither judge found that our government acted in a manner even comparable to that of a totalitarian state.
Second, the Tiananmen protesters assembled to demand basic democratic freedoms from an oppressive one-party state. Conversely, the protesters in Ottawa were dissatisfied with the duly elected government they had twice failed to beat at the ballot box in one of the healthiest democracies on the planet. Rather than organize and mount an electoral challenge, they threw a temper tantrum that was tolerated for far too long.
Finally, the notion that early 2022 in Ottawa was just the same as 1989 in Beijing — but without the bullets — is untenable. The massacre in Tiananmen Square is so evocative precisely because the People’s Liberation Army used live ammunition to indiscriminately slaughter unarmed citizens. That is hardly comparable to a bunch of cops with batons giving people the option to move off the street and go home.
The noncompliant protesters will now have their day in court and are very much still alive. Tiananmen this was not.
Nick Papageorge, Hamilton, Ont.
Re: Netanyahu’s right — this is not the time for a two-state solution — Jesse Kline, Jan. 24
I heartily agree with Jesse Kline’s opinion that “… it should be abundantly clear that the status quo (between Israel and Palestinians) is in nobody’s best interests.”
I was also pleased to read his comments on key practical details such as the supply of electricity and water to a viable future Palestinian entity.
But “the elephant in the room” in Kline’s column was the absence of any comment about how the West Bank would be included in a future Palestinian establishment. The current situation resembles, somewhat, the status of East and West Pakistan in the early Sixties. What are the alternatives in physical form for a viable two-state resolution?
D.B. Wilson, Port Moody, B.C.
Re: If Guilbeault actually cared about coal burning, he’d back natural gas — David Knight Legg, Dec. 14
Every year, Canada sells over millions of tons of coal to China — the same China that crushed democracy in Hong Kong, has vowed to use military force to “reunite” with Taiwan, and has persecuted Tibetans, the Uyghurs and members of Falun Gong. Apparently profit and morality are not intertwined.
Coal, of course, is a highly polluting fuel source and China is, by far, the largest polluter on Earth. Ironically, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau refuses to sell clean Canadian LNG to allies like Japan, South Korea and Germany, but has not halted the sale of coal to China. Why? The blatant hypocrisy and utter stupidity lurking in this policy is mind-boggling.
John Harley Whitlock, Brantford, Ont.
Re: Alberta’s new transgender rules — Tyler Dawson, Jan. 31
Thank goodness we have Premier Danielle Smith and Alberta’s United Conservative Party to protect young transgender patients from themselves! Politicians are clearly more qualified to make medical decisions for transgender youth than pediatricians, parents and the patients themselves.
Smith has stated that she is trying to prevent trans youth from making permanent decisions that will limit their future choices, but does she realize that is exactly what she is imposing on these kids? By delaying access to puberty blockers and hormone therapy until 16, she will be forcing unwanted permanent physical changes on this patient population. A transgender girl will never be able to change her deep voice and a transgender boy will grow breasts he does not want.
Why is it that parental rights and patient autonomy are only important if you align with the UCP agenda?
Andrea Skorenki MD, Edmonton
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