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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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Me, my canoe, and privilege

Last Saturday, Margaret Wente asked: How privileged are you? It is a question I often muse about, one which seems particularly apt to reflect upon as we head into the August long weekend. Considering myself to be highly privileged, I was surprised to find I scored only five on her privilege test (How Privileged Are You? Take This Test To Find Out, July 29).

After all, I own a home and a car – albeit an old Honda Civic – and worked as long as I needed to in a job I found engaging. I have an adequate pension and have led what I think of as a charmed life, never having known poverty, abuse, discrimination, dislocation, natural disaster or the horrors of war.

But perhaps most important is all that is implicit in "you can paddle a canoe." Because on any summer day, I can launch my canoe on one of many nearby lakes, I consider myself privileged indeed.

Gail McLaren, Lakefield, Ont.

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Intervenor reversal a bad move

Re Supreme Court Justice Offers Explanation For LGBTQ Decision (Aug. 3): How reassuring that the Supreme Court doesn't want any group to feel left out. Changing the initial decision about intervenors in the Trinity Western case after public criticism from the LGBTQ community gives further evidence to critics' claim that the court indulges far too often in judicial activism, shaping social policy rather than limiting itself to applying the law as it is.

The unprecedented public statement by Justice Richard Wagner explaining the initial decision not to grant intervenor status to some groups, and the subsequent change seem to confer a special status to LGBTQ advocacy groups.

Ironically, the Trinity Western case is about exclusion, but not in the way it is being framed by the LGBTQ community. Primarily, this case is about religious freedom: Is an unpopular moral position based on religious beliefs and principles grounds for exclusion from the practise of law?

Tim Waterhouse, Ottawa

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Addicted, isolated, jailed

Re Overuse Of Solitary Confinement Mostly In Past, Official Testifies (Aug. 2): I spent 30 years as a correctional officer in the Toronto area and witnessed, to my great personal distress, the revolving door of the ravages of drugs and the cost to society.

I speak not only as a jail guard, but as someone who overcame an opioid addiction and knows how hard it is to escape from its well-known destructive effects on society. Something urgently has to be done about treating addiction in prison and ending the use of isolation there.

My understanding is that the purpose of this lawsuit is to work toward finding alternatives to the abhorrent practice of locking up prisoners alone for criminally long periods. I personally witnessed the slow disintegration of mind, spirit and body. Countless men and women kept in solitary for no apparent reason other than that the various jail management or clueless psychiatric staff had absolutely no idea what to do with them.

Society can only hope the trial's findings lead to the long overdue introduction of proper rehabilitation methods and eliminate treating human beings (yes, no matter what they did) like caged animals.

Dan Fraser, Toronto

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U.S., China: 'Money' spoken here

While Donald Trump pushes to loosen controls over Wall Street, China is pressuring large insurance companies and banks to reduce risky, short-term, high-interest investment products fuelling offshore takeovers (China Asks Anbang To Sell Offshore Assets, Aug. 1). Can it be that a Communist government knows more about sound financial oversight than a capitalist, real-estate developer President?

Marty Cutler, Toronto

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A relationship on the rocks?

Mark MacKinnon writes that Russia is losing hope of improving relations with the United States, especially since the recent congressional vote to add more sanctions, and to constrain the President's power to lift them (To Many Russians, Trump Is A Victim. That's A Problem For The Kremlin; Focus, July 29).

The real question is what the longer-term consequences of this diplomatic stalemate will be for international relations. Mr. MacKinnon seems to suggest that the most important consequence will be increased difficulties for Vladimir Putin's re-election campaign, since Russian public opinion has a much more favourable opinion of Donald Trump than Barrack Obama, whose negative image served as a convenient scapegoat for the frustrations and failures of the Putin government.

There is another possible outcome, stemming from the growing military friction between Russia and NATO, signs of a renewed nuclear arms race, the unresolved differences over Syria and Ukraine, and increasing tensions over North Korea and Iran.

The combined impact of these trends may well reinforce Russian perceptions of growing strategic inferiority vis-à-vis the United States, and push the Russian government to pursue a new strategic alliance with China – itself in a growing confrontation with the United States – an alliance complete with security guarantees for allies including Syria, Iran – and possibly even North Korea.

Scott Burbidge, Port Williams, N.S.

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Re Trump Signs 'Flawed' Russia Sanctions Bill (Aug. 3): It must be tough keeping a bromance alive when Congress insists on chaperoning every "date." Wonder if The Donald knows that Vlad (code name Platov) is fond of scallops and classical music?

Moira O'Neill, St. John's

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