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Don't just try
The Canadian government position of "aiming to secure" Indigenous consent for resource projects sounds suspiciously like the recent spate of "aspirational" (read: rhetorical, not actual) goals put forth in the past few years by politicians of various stripes (First Nations Leaders Break Off Talks On Resource Rules With Ottawa, Oct. 20). It reminds me of when people say "I'll try" and actually mean that they won't do the thing they are talking about. No wonder some Indigenous leaders are upset.
As one respected elder once said around a different swamp: "Do, or do not. There is no try."
Conrad Sichler, Burlington, Ont.
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Singh's cloudy ways?
Re The Dark Clouds Behind Singh's Sunny Ways (Oct. 19): Jagmeet Singh, the new NDP leader is quoted as saying, "To me, Quebec is a nation …" Surprising, coming from a lawyer, born and raised here. Someone should tell him Quebec is not a nation, it is a province of Canada.
If Mr. Singh truly has Canada's interests at heart, he must work toward maintaining the integrity of Canada. As a leader of a federal party and a potential occupant of the prime minister's office, this is his fiduciary duty.
He is under no such restraint when it comes to questions about his tacit or implied approval for a separatist movement in India and the establishment of a Sikh homeland. If the NDP comes to power, the time will then be ripe for him and Canada to adopt an appropriate position on the question of Khalistan.
That is how democracy works.
Ashok Sajnani, Toronto
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Jagmeet Singh's clear, unambiguous and principled support for Quebec's right to self-determination is a refreshing departure from what most federal leaders have to say on the matter. So, too, is his approach: connecting his own experience as a racialized man to that of Quebeckers as a linguistic and national minority within Canada. Where many would see difference, Mr. Singh finds commonality. If this is "pandering," it fails to explain Mr. Singh's similarly unequivocal defence of Muslim women in Quebec to dress as they choose. In a climate of rising Islamophobia, and against a long history of anti-Quebec chauvinism, Mr. Singh successfully resists both.
James Clark, Toronto
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Race, identity
It is a dogma on university campuses that white people can experience discrimination but not racism (Dalhousie Student Faces Penalty For 'Concerning' Post, Oct. 20).
Racism and structural racism should not be conflated; while white people are privileged in avoiding structural racism, it is certainly possible for them to experience racial discrimination; a.k.a., plain old racism.
Jonathan Colvin, Vancouver
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The first (and perhaps last) question for Dalhousie to ask is: How many white students have faced disciplinary action for racist comments?
Allan C. Hutchinson, Osgoode Hall Law School
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Re Appropriation Prize Debate Spurs Indigenous Writing Award (Oct. 20): I don't believe there is such a thing as cultural appropriation. Our accumulated cultural heritage belongs to all of us. In particular, though, I'm disturbed by the racist implications of the new Indigenous Voices Awards. Will there be a litmus test for Indigenous identity? Perhaps a blood test, or a genealogical chart? Ridiculous, of course. Because anything other than the freedom to declare one's own identity (or, more correctly, identities) is the basic definition of racism.
Consider a hypothetical alternative: a White Voices Award. Who wouldn't see that and instantly agree that it's a repugnant, utterly unacceptable notion? Why do the well-meaning opponents of racism repeatedly erect walls, rather than working toward the ideal of a colour-blind and undivided world?
Brian P.H. Green, Thunder Bay
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NAFTA's measure
Canadians, and for that matter Americans and Mexicans, need a simple way to assess in real time the impact of what Donald Trump is pushing with his take on NAFTA.
We need to take a simple commodity everyone can relate to, and show how its price would change as each new trade variant is exposed. Take, for example, the suggested list price of a handful of popular vehicles. The automotive industry is so finely tuned among the three nations, that any disturbance is sure to affect the consumer. Or perhaps appliances, or a basket of consumer goods.
With column A listing what the items typically sell for today, column B would project, with each new utterance from down there, what they will likely sell for when NAFTA is finally signed off or abandoned.
Consumers would begin to have a much better sense of where this thing is headed; one would hope some of them would begin to tweet those insights to Mr. Trump.
Dick Moutray, Kitchener, Ont.
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Re On Supply Management, The Americans Should Be Careful What They Wish For (Report on Business, Oct. 19): When the European Commission abolished supply management, the price of milk at the farm gate dropped – farmers went out of business. Today, the wholesale price of butter in France and Germany is higher than the Canadian price.
The recent wholesale price for butter in Germany works out to $4.28 Canadian per pound.
In Moncton, a national drugstore chain has butter on sale every week at $3.99 per pound. Last week in Auckland, N.Z., Countdown Grocery had butter on sale at the equivalent of $4.60 (Cdn) a pound, with premium butter double that price.
Today the Canadian consumer pays lower prices for milk and other dairy products than consumers in many countries.
Fred Waddy, dairy farmer, Colpitts, N.B.
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Pay now. And later
Re Accounting Tricks (editorial, Oct. 20): There is a basic flaw in your electricity logic. If I finance a car over eight years and it will last only five years, I am foolish. But if we build electric capacity that lasts 50 years and finance it over 25 years, we are also foolish.
Why should today's consumers pay the whole cost and give consumers for the latter 25 years a free ride?
John Ison, Toronto
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Finding healing
Re Women And Weinstein: End The Blame Game (Life & Arts, Oct. 19): Women taking responsibility for our actions should not be construed as victim-blaming.
"Yes, I went to the hotel room, yes, I kept quiet about it, yes I worked with him some years later. I still did not deserve to be assaulted." Admitting I have a role to play in the situation doesn't mean I asked for it. The sexual-assault act was committed by the perpetrator and I still need to own my part, say what I did and look closely at why I did it. This is where we have power and this is where we may find healing.
Playing the victim is just as misguided as blaming the victim.
Celia McBride, Port Hope, Ont.
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Seems about right
President Donald Trump is giving himself a "10" for his response to the hurricane damage in Puerto Rico.
I agree: 10 out of 100 seems accurate to me.
Tom Scanlan, Toronto