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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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(A)cross the border

With the spike of asylum seekers walking across our border with the United States, I wonder when the cry for a wall or tougher rules will erupt into a chorus of "build the wall," much like what's taking place to our south (As Wave Of Asylum Seekers Swells, Quebec's Resources Wear Thin, Aug. 4).

Do we wait until we reach that boiling point – or do we take smaller steps now? Because that "build the wall" idea will cross the border eventually, too, just like many other made-in-America thoughts and ideas, from McDonald's to Wal-Mart.

Bill Bousada, Carleton Place, Ont.

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Your front-page photo stunningly evoked the thought that this is 2017's version of the Underground Railroad.

Ian Godfrey, Toronto

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My heart goes out to these brave people, long may Canada help and succour them.

Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,I lift my lamp beside the golden door!The words from Emma Lazarus's sonnet, New Colossus, inscribed on the Statue of Liberty must ring very hollow to these would-be immigrants now.

Margaret Thomson, immigrant, Richmond Hill, Ont.

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Studied privilege

Re Groups Defend Affirmative-Action Policies (Aug. 3): Something that is rarely included in any discussion of affirmative action in postsecondary education in the United States is the advantage given to children of alumni in the admissions process – a kind of affirmative action that almost exclusively benefits white kids from rich families.

For example, in 2013 Harvard admitted about 5 per cent of applicants, but some 30 per cent of applicants who were children of alumni were admitted. At Princeton, the advantage in having alumni parents was equivalent to having an increase of 160 points on the SAT, a widely used standardized admission test.

This might explain the mystery of how some political leaders of questionable ability have been graduates of Ivy League schools. It certainly clarifies how American elites enjoy the benefits of inheritance in more than just the financial realm.

Leslie Lavers, Lethbridge, Alta.

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Safeguards' limits

Re Petronas Did Canada A Favour. Just Ask Australia (Aug. 2): Canada has indeed done it better than Australia on liquefied natural gas (LNG), and we need to be grateful for our safeguards.

Our environmental review process, and the consultation process with Indigenous peoples are important elements of this protection. Yet, they are not strong enough: The struggle of the Lax Kw'alaams, Gitxsan and other Indigenous nations along B.C.'s coast to stop Petronas's liquified natural gas project, and recent decisions such as the case of the Chippewas of the Thames against Enbridge's Line 9, have demonstrated that while Indigenous peoples' right to consultation is respected, the right to free, full and informed consent, as accorded in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), is not!

The work that many Indigenous communities are doing to slow, stop, or responsibly manage resource extraction forms a fragile line of protection for all of us, against rampant destruction of local ecosystems, species extinctions, the increasing power of multinational corporations, and dangerously rising carbon emissions.

Canadians can help by fighting to embrace UNDRIP, supporting a high price on carbon (for example, a revenue-neutral fee and dividend), and supporting a reformed environmental review process that considers upstream and downstream impacts.

Rebecca Weigand, Toronto

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China's gain?

Many analysts claim China is terrified of a North Korean collapse that might send waves of refugees across the border (Beijing Denies Complacency On N. Korea, Aug. 1). It's quite a stretch to take that claim seriously. Tiananmen Square showed just how willing China is to use deadly force against its own unarmed citizens. How much easier to slaughter North Koreans trying to enter it?

So what does China gain from North Korea's horrifying nuclear antics?

The U.S. is easily distracted, especially when there is no apparent means to persuade North Korea to quit its threatening nuclear ambitions. While the Americans are spending a lot of time on considering their options (or lack thereof), China's naval development proceeds apace, along with the fortification of atolls in areas of the Pacific it lays claim to, massive construction of land links, ostensibly for trade, and so on. China is active in so many parts of the globe, it takes a sharp focus to keep track and develop policies in response.

Sadly, this American President doesn't appear to have the attention span to deal with even one facet of China's surge toward parity with the United States, let alone all of it.

Colin Lowe, Nanaimo, B.C.

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Ethical, affordable

I wasn't surprised to read the interesting but somewhat sad piece on access to "ethical" food for low-income individuals (Access to 'Ethical' Food Is Unequal: Study; July 31). As both a clinical social worker in mental health and addictions, and a local food activist for years, I have wrestled with this topic since I became interested in the food and agriculture system in the 1980s in British Columbia, where I grew up.

I was able to afford to buy local, healthy food at university by volunteering at food co-ops where I bought groceries. I've long believed this model, combined with urban agriculture projects, could deliver benefits to low-income folks interested in a healthy diet.

Over the past three years, I've been fortunate to have the support of my employer in starting a community garden run entirely by volunteers who are the principal beneficiaries of the food we grow. In addition to helping people access affordable, healthy (100-per-cent organic, although not certified as such yet) food, we've learned that gardening itself is "therapeutic" in a variety of fascinating ways we plan to study. Our experience demonstrates that community-driven local food movements can be and often are an excellent option for helping low-income individuals access healthy food.

John Richmond, Toronto

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Re 20% Of Grocery Store Sausages Contain Off-Label Meat (Aug. 4): If one in five sausages tested in this Guelph University survey proved to contain meat from a source other than that labelled, and if these were not trace amounts, then the sausage makers are selling faux food to the public.

Could there be a link here to the recent trend in fake news in the U.S.? Canadians have never seen such faux labelling before. Perhaps those sausages should be rebranded as Breitwurst.

Ken DeLuca, Arnprior, Ont.

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