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Express your views on global press freedom

On May 4, as part of its ingoing coverage of World Press Freedom Day, The Globe and Mail will devote the Opinion Section to examining the state of press freedom around the globe. We invite letter writers to share your views on the role of a free press, and will publish a cross-section of responses in the Letters to the Editor section on May 4. Letters addressing the role of a free press should be submitted no later than April 29, and be kept under 200 words. Letters to the editor must include a name and city of residence. E-mail: letters@globeandmail.com

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Ontario Finance Minister Vic Fedeli is congratulated by Premier Doug Ford after presenting the 2019 budget at the legislature in Toronto on Thursday, April 11, 2019.Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press

Beer before books?

Slashing funding to the Ontario Library Service will hurt vulnerable Ontarians who need support the most – those without the funds or skills to access e-books, the vision-challenged who need larger-print books, and people in rural communities who rely on these services to access books they might otherwise be unable to read (Service Agency Reductions Will Hit Rural And Indigenous Communities – April 23). Strangely, none of these folks seem to be the “elites” Rob Ford has been gunning for since his government was elected.

The fact the Premier appears to believe that being able to buy a beer at 9 a.m. is more important than having access to a well-funded library system speaks volumes.

Julia Aitken, Picton, Ont.

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This is truly a case where the government knows the cost of everything and the value of nothing. The availability of books and the promotion of reading is a core value of our society. “Everything” is not accessible online. This situation is exacerbated with the cuts to Ontario’s rural and Indigenous peoples, particularly in the North. Stop the insanity.

Bertram Frandsen, Ottawa

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Interlibrary loans are all about sharing. Obviously, Ontario’s Tories are not.

Ken DeLuca, Arnprior, Ont.

Worth a try?

Re Ukraine’s President-Elect Has A Strong Mandate, But Few Clear Plans (April 23): We keep electing politicians who turn out to be clowns. Electing a comedian who might turn out to be a politician is worth a try.

Russ Powell, Pontypool, Ont.

Alberta, by the numbers

Re Jason Kenney Won Because He Understands Albertans (April 23): Preston Manning contends that Jason Kenney’s United Conservative Party won because it responded to an electorate that prioritized economic issues over “identity politics.” But the fiscal and social conservative vote was almost as strong in 2015, when the combined vote for the then-Progressive Conservative and Wildrose parties was 52 per cent, which yielded 10 and 21 of 87 legislative seats. Rachel Notley’s NDP won 41 per cent of the votes and 54 seats, thanks to vote-splitting and the workings of the first-past-the-post electoral system.

The PC-Wildrose merger into the UCP solved the vote-splitting problem. In last week’s election, the UCP gained 55 per cent of the votes and 63 seats. The NDP totals were 33 per cent and 24 seats. So, did Alberta voters rank economic issues over social issues? Or simply coalesce around the UCP?

Donald Barry, Calgary

Mental health, territory

Re Psychiatrists Shouldn’t Have A Monopoly Over Psychotherapy (April 22): To call Ontario’s (let alone Canada’s) mental health system a patchwork is to insult quilt-makers. There are psychiatrists and psychologists (who may or may not have training in psychotherapy), then there are psychotherapists (whose work may or may not be regulated, depending on the province). Which profession is covered by what public or private plan, and for whom, is an ordeal: Only psychiatrists are covered by OHIP, for example, yet for some reason, social workers are covered by far more private plans than psychotherapists.

The battle over which therapeutic approach is more effective puts the cart before the horse: There is too little public access to trained professionals, with grave consequences for some who cannot gain access. Meanwhile, demand is growing. Let individuals decide on the approach; in my experience as both a therapist and someone who has been in long-term personal therapy as part of my training, psychotherapy works best when the “fit” is good; it’s not about which style is supposedly better than the other.

The most important point is the primacy of allowing Canadians the ability to gain access to psychotherapy in the first place.

Matt Cahill, psychotherapist, Toronto

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Of course psychiatrists shouldn’t be the only ones doing psychotherapy. But let’s get rid of the myth that there are savings if medically funded psychotherapy is stopped. Psychiatrists doing psychotherapy get paid the same as social workers in private practice, and much less than psychologists. Psychotherapists of all descriptions go through a rigorous training. They should be paid well, so implying there is cheaper labour to be had is devaluing my non-medical colleagues.

There is a battle under way for territory in the psychiatric world. Some biological psychiatrists fear the psychological, and wish to erase it from consideration. We need the availability of a variety of psychiatric treatments for complex mental-health problems.

Adult survivors of childhood abuse need intensive, long-term psychotherapy to recover and live functional lives. The erasure of this population in these pronouncements suggests a wish to deny the dark corners of our society. Those of us who do this work, face this every day.

We all have the same goal – helping our patients get better.

Heather Weir, psychiatrist; president, Toronto Psychoanalytic Society

Retire. Make some room

Re Retiring Sooner, Later (letters, April 23): I retired from my job when I was able to, not because I needed to, but because I wanted to get out of the way and create an opportunity for a young, bright person who was just getting started on their career. What people forget when they hang on to work even after they can afford not to is that they are depriving a young person (with student debts to pay) of a potential career.

The millennials are going to be paying for the sins of the boomers: The least we can do is ensure there is work there for them to do.

Jane McCall, Delta, B.C.

Tipping hotel cleaners

Re Out Of Sight, But Not Out Of Mind (April 20): Most business travellers can’t claim tips as a “business expense” when they stay in a hotel. If I started tipping hotel cleaners the suggested $10 a day, it would be a significant personal expense, as I stay in hotels roughly 200 days per year. I would much prefer that hotel operators pay fair wages to cleaners to reflect the work they are doing, and increase the room charge.

I disagree that hotel cleaners are “almost always women, often migrants.” It varies. In many Asian countries, room cleaners are men. For example, in Thailand or Bangladesh, in high-scale hotels, it is virtually always men.

And in the Eastern European countries where I travel, hotel housekeepers are inevitably local people – for example Latvia, Ukraine and Poland.

I do tip hotel cleaners, especially in emerging countries with low minimum wages and non-existent labour-protection laws, but only if they do a good job. It does not matter for me whether I see them or not, and having them “out of my sight” is not a reason not to tip. I decide based on the service they provide.

Victoria Umin, Winnipeg

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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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