Huawei chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou is escorted by her private security detail while arriving at a parole office, in Vancouver, on Dec. 12.DARRYL DYCK/The Canadian Press
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Huawei’s threat
The fallout over the arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou has obscured a more important issue in Canada’s relationship with her company and China (What’s So Scary About Huawei? Jan. 12).
Will the Canadian government allow Huawei to become a partner in developing our 5G telecommunications network? If so, Huawei will gain access to vast amounts of Canadians’ personal, political and commercial metadata.
Under Chinese law, the company is obligated to share this strategically vital information upon request with a regime that has already used its cyberwarfare capability to hack, disrupt and interfere in the internal affairs of Canada and other countries. That’s why, on the advice of their national security professionals, the United States, Australia and New Zealand have banned Huawei from participating in their 5G networks. To protect the privacy and security of Canadians and our allies, our government needs to do the same.
Gloria Fung, president, Canada-Hong Kong Link, Toronto
Oral traditions
Thank you for the very moving essay by Meghan Cox Gurdon, adapted from her book The Enchanted Hour: The Miraculous Power of Reading Aloud (Magic Words, Jan 12).
I was reminded of the intense pleasure of reading to a captive child. But even more poignantly, I recalled the books that my late husband and I read aloud to each other, especially when we had unscheduled time at the cottage. Those shared reading sessions are among my best memories and Austen, Trollope, and Wharton are now forever connected with his inimitable voice.
Looking for a way to spend quality time with your partner? Find a mutually agreeable book, a comfy couch, and let the power of the spoken word transport you.
Gail McLaren, Lakefield, Ont.
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The article corroborated my experience of facilitating an oral reading group for six months at a retirement home.
Each week I would select a topic with appropriate readings, share them orally with the residents and allow time for discussion. The participants eagerly and often touchingly shared their reactions and personal stories. The program, called Never Too Old To Read, became the best-attended activity at the home.
When I asked one resident why she attended so faithfully, her reply was, “Just because we’re old doesn't mean that we’re brain-dead.” Discussions continued outside the group, provided much needed social interaction, allowed friendships to blossom, and decreased feelings of isolation.
Margaret Thompson, Stratford, Ont.
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Perhaps instead of relying so heavily on pharmaceuticals to help our elders deal with anxiety, depression and dementia, medical professionals could think of prescribing reading-out-loud sessions, or group reading, as a complementary therapy, or even a substitute. Humans are pack animals. If up-close-and-personal works for children, people in hospital, and even dogs, then it’s worth a try for our frail and vulnerable.
Martha Lynch, Toronto
Planning pharmacare
Your editorial starts off right: There is no one model for pharmacare (Let’s Make This The Year Of Pharmacare (2), Jan. 12). Rather, there are many potential options deserving consideration.
The Quebec model, for instance, should not be dismissed as easily as your editorial does. Under that model, Quebeckers have access to prescription medicines through their workplace health benefits or through a generous public plan that covers more than 7,500 medicines (compared to 4,500 under Ontario’s drug benefit).
Quebec’s costs have been higher than other provinces in the past due mainly to policy decisions designed to keep pharmaceutical head offices in the province. Today, these policies have ended and studies show that Quebec’s model of universal pharmacare is more cost-effective than those of most other provinces. A careful consideration of pharmacare options requires an examination of the facts as they are.
Stephen Frank, president and chief executive officer, Canadian Life and Health Insurance Association, Ottawa
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Your editorial favouring the creation of a national pharmacare program abuts a letter describing the “national public health disgrace” of Canadian hospital crowding (Hallway Medicine, Jan. 12).
Canada’s medicare system is among the most expensive in the world, while placing near the bottom of the rankings among rich countries in areas such as accessibility to diagnostic procedures, wait times for specialist referrals, access to surgery and home care.
Are we to expect similar outcomes for the colossal public program you are advocating?
Eric Pugash, Vancouver
Vitriol goes viral
Thanks Doug Saunders for pointing out that U.S. President Donald Trump’s opportunistic exaggerations about the threat to the nation posed by refugees have already infected Canadian politics (The Politics Of Border-Crossing Bogeymen Are Unwise And Dangerous, Jan. 12).
Conservative leader Andrew Scheer is singing from the same songbook, speaking of “crisis” and “chaos at our borders,” and claiming that United Nations policy would “give influence over Canada’s immigration system to foreign entities.”
As Mr. Saunders notes, this baseless conspiracy theory undermining the United Nations was spread by neo-Nazi sympathizers in Europe and then picked up by Trump’s circle. Mr. Scheer, Canadians have seen too much truth-twisting, xenophobia, and dog-whistle politics south of our border. Unfortunately, we can’t build a wall to keep it out of the country. But can you try to keep it out of your party platform?
Norm Beach, Toronto
An opioid response
Re Ontario Regions Hit Hardest By The Opioid Crisis May Not Get Supervised Drug-Use Sites (Jan 9):
The opioid crisis is a complex social and health issue requiring multiple approaches to address its impacts.
Efforts are underway to reduce opioid-related incidents that have had such a vast impact across Ontario.
More than 500 family physicians in communities all across Ontario have developed a partnership with the Centre for Effective Practice to receive face-to-face education from a trained pharmacist about opioid-prescribing best practices and better management of chronic pain, based on balanced, evidence-based information.
The aim of the program is preventative intervention. The focus is on supporting physicians with the management of their patients living with chronic pain who may be dependent or at risk of becoming dependent on opioids. The program began last year, and preliminary participant survey results already indicate high rates of provider satisfaction.
Tupper Bean, executive director, The Centre for Effective Practice, Toronto