The antisemitic shooting attack on Bondi Beach, Australia, elicited the usual condemnation from political leaders across the world.

It remains to be seen whether those leaders will make the necessary changes to prevent these types of attacks.

However, at the local (Victoria) level, we can make some useful changes that will discourage individuals or groups from carrying out violent acts:

1. Enforce the Criminal Code of Canada “blocking or obstructing a highway” (Section 423(1)(g)), where the “protesters” take over a street shouting hateful slogans.

2. Remove hateful graffiti and posters attached to city light poles.

3. Remove illegal “protest camps”, particularly at university/college campuses (Canadian Criminal Code Section 175 (1) ).

4. Prevent a Victoria Muslim preacher from spreading his antisemitism (and also, anti-Christian) messages on YouTube.

Kenneth Mintz

Victoria

Re: “Allow entry into medical school from high school,” commentary, Dec. 13.

With regard to the more than a million British Columbians who lack a family doctor, there is a clear way to entice more medical-school graduates to enter family medicine.

We need to promote more interprofessional teams to improve people’s access to primary care.

We should also ensure that we pay family physicians equally to other specialists.

If students entered medical school direct from high school, I’d be worried about 21-year-old doctors who haven’t taken the kind of undergraduate courses in biochemistry, physics, and biology that prepare them for medical school.

I’d be equally concerned about the loss of undergraduate humanities courses that help make very young doctors become more rounded individuals.

Peter R. Newman, MD

Assistant Professor

Department. of Family and Community Medicine

University of Toronto

Re: “Allow entry into medical school from high school,” commentary, Dec. 13.

Ten out of ten to John Stevenson for his comments about entry into medical school.

I graduated from Cape Town university in the mid 1970s. My friends and I all went to medical school straight out of high school. By the age of 23 or 24 we had qualified and were starting to pay off out debts.

Many other countries such as Australia, New Zealand, and the U.K. do the same.

I have worked with many colleagues from........

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