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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Science, by choice
In first-year university, a more senior student asked what I wanted to specialize in. When I told him physics, he commented on a theory that hormones released at puberty interfere with visual-spatial awareness, so since women reach puberty earlier than men, their visual-spatial awareness suffers more damage. "This is a very personal question," he persisted, "but did you mature late?'"
"No," I replied. I wanted to ask, "How about you?"
There are well-documented instances when women perform better in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) if they are not discouraged by social factors. I cite for example the recent book Hidden Figures and the film based on it, about African-American women who worked for NASA in the Civil Rights era and contributed to the space effort. There are numerous other examples where women successfully take over men's roles, for example in wartime.
We are not aiming for 50 per cent of mathematics faculty or graduate students to be women, but it would be nice if the figure were higher than 15 per cent. This is the current figure for both faculty and graduate students in the department where I work.
Lisa Jeffrey, professor of mathematics, University of Toronto
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50 = 50? Depends
Re Amid Court Backlogs, Justice Minister Seeks Lower Alcohol Limit (Aug. 9): Lowering the blood-alcohol (BAC) driving limit to 50 milligrams of alcohol from 80 in 100 millilitres of blood would only allow better enforcement of the over-80 limit.
Due to the delay between driving and the evidential breath test at the police station of up to two hours, the average drinking-driving suspect would have eliminated about 36 mg/100 ml BAC. Currently, a driver could have a BAC of over 110 mg/100 ml at the time of driving, and not be charged with over-80 due to the lower Breathalyzer result.
James G. Wigmore, forensic toxicologist, Toronto
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150 ways to reconcile
As I read these stories on solitary confinement, I am heartbroken. ('You Feel Like A Dog In There'; Aug. 11). Yes, often what the perpetrators have done to end up in jail is horrific. It may have been done without conscience. But, the conscious decision to confine a human being in these kinds of cages is inhumane.
We must find better restorative approaches to prison care, and implement ways to restore and humanely heal the broken souls who end up behind bars.
Perhaps in our Canada 150 celebration, we need to consider 150 ways of reconciliation – in all aspects of Canadian life.
John Pentland, reverend, Hillhurst United, Calgary
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When whales die
Re Ottawa Announces Measures To Address Whale Deaths In Gulf Of St. Lawrence (Aug. 11): Sadly, most right whales do not exhibit vessel-avoidance behaviour, and slowing ships will effectively make their pre-collision approach quieter. Getting struck by a massive steel object at 10 knots (18.5 kilometres) an hour will still kill.
In addition to speed reductions, ships should return to a centuries-old, very effective whale-spotting practice. Put a mariner with binoculars aloft or on the bow when navigating known whale habitats. Most vessels have powerful spotlights for night use.
Ray Brow, former deep sea mariner, Georgetown Royalty, PEI
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Bad, bad border law
Re A Fair Trade For A Slimmer Border (editorial, Aug. 11): You could not be more wrong about granting additional powers to U.S. Customs and Border security. The sooner this bill is withdrawn, or dies on the order paper, the better for all Canadians.
If you produced a ranked list of the accountability, trustworthiness and transparency of police and quasi-police agencies from mall cops to international spies, at the bottom of the list would be U.S. Border Services. To suggest that these new powers would not be used without racial profiling is naive in the extreme.
With no definition of "temporary" detainment, no right of appeal or review process, without being subject to Canadian laws, with no access to information on the activity of the U.S. Border Services, these are the last people who should be granted any, let alone added, powers in Canada.
I agree with the Rolling Stones reference: What I want is fair and equal treatment for everyone who is subject to public oversight, what you can't have is a fast lane for white folks, while others, particularly someone with a Muslim name, is strip searched.
If the government goes ahead with this flawed legislation, I recommend we start setting aside funds for the millions of dollars in lawsuits resulting from U.S. actions with Canada's active participation, or have we forgotten Guantanamo already?
If the U.S. agents working in Canada don't feel safe without their guns, tell them to stay home, where I am sure they'll feel much safer – given the gun death rate in the United States?
Cathy McRae, Thunder Bay, Ont.
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Tax change will hurt
Re The Sky Is Falling On Small Businesses – Or Is It? (Report on Business, Aug. 9): The private-corporation tax proposals by Finance Minister Bill Morneau are clear that their objective is to have business owners and employees ultimately be taxed at the same level. As a professional adviser to small businesses for more years than I care to think about, I disagree with the proposals as currently drafted (other than as they might apply to some MDs). They will be unfair to owners, discourage entrepreneurship and hurt the economy.
Unlike employees, owners risk their own capital. Most new small businesses fail, many others make profits significantly lower than the salary and benefits of an average government employee. Unlike employees with pension plans to which their employer contributes, owners have to fully fund retirement from savings.
The tax system has to be designed to provide encouragement to entrepreneurs to at least partially offset these negatives, as opposed to simply providing a perfectly level playing field with an equivalent employee.
I would exclude MDs from this analysis to the extent they are providing services paid for by the government. As such, they are essentially a specialized type of public-sector employee, one who does not generally incur the risks and disadvantages of business ownership referred to above.
Jan Holland, Montreal
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Baby on board?
Given the spate of stories this summer about parents, grandparents and other caregivers who leave young children in the vehicle on hot days, maybe those BABY ON BOARD signs should be put on the inside of the windshield – on the driver's side.
Jerry Steinberg, Surrey, B.C.