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A sign warns of an underground petroleum pipeline at Kinder Morgan's facility where work was being conducted in preparation for the expansion of the Trans Mountain pipeline, in Burnaby, B.C.DARRYL DYCK/The Canadian Press

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

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Trans Mountain ironies

Why has the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion got me so worked up? Maybe because I don’t know who is right? Will Alberta be stuck with bitumen it can’t ship, or will the taxpayer end up in the pipeline business, which some would say, we already are?

I do know that when a Houston-based multinational looks like it’s ready to sneeze, the federal government is ever-ready with a proverbial tissue. On the up side, if there is one, The Globe and Mail will have plenty to write about as the tension ratchets up between the federal and provincial players.

Winners. Losers. What is particularly funny to me is watching two NDP provincial governments on opposing teams. This could be better than the Stanley Cup playoffs. At least we’ve got two Canadian teams vying for what may be a dubious big prize.

Sandra McEleney, Markham, Ont.

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Kinder Morgan has outlined billions of dollars of alternative investments to the B.C. pipeline expansion, including a pipeline to transport natural gas to Mexico and a massive LNG facility on the Georgia coast (Kinder Morgan Plans For Life After Trans Mountain – Report on Business, April 11). The message is clear: The company wants as little to do with Canada – and it includes B.C. in the sentiment – as possible. The rest of the business world is quickly forming the same opinion.

To add to the irony, flash back some 60 years. The original plan for Trans Mountain was to bypass the Vancouver area with a route through the state of Washington to an existing U.S. port. However, B.C. political parties petitioned the federal government to route the pipeline to a B.C. terminal and port so B.C. could benefit from the pipeline and its products. This commitment was enshrined in the Trans Mountain pipeline act of 1951. Today, that former embrace has turned to opposition.

Compounding the irony is that this PM surely doesn’t want to repeat his father’s mistake with the National Energy Program (NEP) of the early 1980s. Inadvertently, Justin Trudeau’s actions, and more notably, inaction, in creating consensus on the Trans Mountain expansion may result in the same kind of division and resentment that NEP did.

John Pitts, London, Ont.

Language of recycling

Re Changing Recycling Market Could Be Akin To A ‘Purity Tsunami’ In Toronto (April 11): Shaming people with notes on their recycling bins or not picking up the contents is not a good way to solve the contaminated recylables issue.

People try hard but it seems as though one needs postsecondary recycling education to fulfill the request for “non-contaminated” or very specific items. (I, too, find myself standing confused in front of food-court bins trying to decipher the graphics/words used to describe the remains of my lunch.) Recycling is another language, and until it is made easier for people to understand, shaming isn’t the answer. When people are punished for trying hard but not making the grade, they get disillusioned and stop trying.

Jane Moore, Toronto

Pot-induced psychosis

Re Pot-Induced Psychosis Behind Bat Attack, Judge Rules (April 11): The problem with today’s high-potency marijuana or “skunk” is that it has a nearly 10-fold increase in its addictive, psychosis-causing THC over the levels it had in the 1960s to 1980s, and much less of the anti-psychotic cannabinoid, CBD. Pot-induced psychosis attacks will be repeated unless the federal government decides to restrict high-potency marijuana.

James G. Wigmore, forensic toxicologist, Toronto

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Lawyer Mark Phillips, great-grandson of former Toronto mayor Nathan Phillips, voluntarily got stoned on pot, whacked an innocent individual with a baseball bat hard enough to crack a rib, and was given a conditional discharge and three years probation by the judge. This was an assault with a weapon, it caused bodily harm and it is conduct that merits being behind bars. Would any less-privileged individual who wasn’t a lawyer and who found himself in the same circumstances receive the same sentence?

Peter A. Lewis-Watts, Barrie, Ont.

Beware extremes

Re A Clean Vote, But For What? (editorial, April 11): Victor Orban’s Fidesz party has been re-elected in Hungary for a third term. Europe is moving to far-right extremism with xenophobia, Islamophobia and anti-Semitism, and not just in Hungary but in France, Holland, Germany and elsewhere.

This is more than just far right, it is neo-fascism. Europe is starting to smell like the 1930s. Stephen Harper tweeted congratulations to Mr. Orban. What on earth was Mr. Harper thinking?

Reiner Jaakson, Oakville, Ont.

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With the dangerous rise of anti-Semitism in Europe, it is a sad irony that, in some of the world’s most progressive countries, Jews are less secure than we have been in generations (Anti-Semitism Is Rising Around The World – And Maybe In Canada As Well, April 11). A Jewish Swede, for example, is some 20 times more likely to experience a hate crime than a Jewish Canadian. If it can happen in Sweden, France, or the U.K., we cannot be complacent here when it comes to the security of Jews and other minorities.

While Canada remains one of the best countries in which to be Jewish, the seeds of extremism exist here. History teaches us that what starts with the Jews never ends with the Jews. For the well-being of Canadian society as a whole, we must be vigilant in countering anti-Semitism on the far right and far left alike.

Shimon Koffler Fogel, Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, Ottawa

Planning to die

Re Dying To Live: Why Age Shouldn’t Be Considered A Terminal Condition (April 9): As a physician who provides medical assistance in dying (MAID), I find Tom Koch’s assertion that “physicians in this line of work have had termination as their reflexive response” insulting. We providers are as compassionate a group as you will find, not automatons who simply assess whether the patient meets criteria. We spend hours interviewing the patient and their family, exploring their fears, elucidating their knowledge and experience of palliative-care options, and problem-solving any barriers-to-care they face.

I disagree that most patients opt for MAID due to fear of the unknown. My patients are not ignorant, fearful people taking a quick exit as a knee-jerk response. They are organized, educated, and have carefully considered how they would like to die for months or even years before I meet them.

Eric Haywood-Farmer, MD, MAID assessor and provider, Kamloops, B.C.

Habs on … hiatus

Re Montreal Canadiens Win First Of Five Consecutive Stanley Cups (Moment in Time, April 10, 1956): As a Habs fan, I am always glad to see a mention of their former glories. However, after one of their worst seasons, it does seem like twisting the knife a bit. Oh well … there’s always next year.

Greg Hoggarth, Mississauga

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