Letters to the Editor: July 6, 2024

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Beach for the win

Even though the wind is blowing in the wrong direction for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, he has a chance to save his Liberal Party’s grip on power.

For 125 years or more, a plan to make the Turks and Caicos a province of Canada has existed in the basement of some building in Ottawa gathering dust. The New Democratic Party, at their Edmonton convention, already come out in favour of making a Caribbean island a part of Canada, but Stephen Harper rejected the idea.

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Adding the Turks and Caicos to the dominion adds 50,000 new citizens with education and homes on islands, while, right now, Canada has 500,000 people a year coming into Canada without language skills, some with limited education and possibly major lack of funds.

So, Trudeau could add a tropical island where retired Canadians and all citizens could vacation or live, but keep billions of dollars in Canada for the win.

What a great concept for Canada: a warm water port, beach and more influence in the world.

Wayne Robertson, Chatham

Joe’s big chance

If Donald Trump’s Supreme Court allows an uncouth president to do things with impunity, President Joe Biden still has a chance to make big changes while he is still in office.

My brother had a great idea. Retire all Supreme Court justices, stop lifetime appointments and let the American people vote and elect Supreme Court justices every four or five years. If any political party had an advantage over the other, it would only be for a short term and not a lifetime.

Most importantly, they’d be chosen by the public and not by a political party.

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This would help stop the madness in the U.S. justice system.

Robert J. Moskal, Winnipeg, MB

Western protest

Regarding the letter to the editor from Arzie Chant, about the “pleasant, happy to chat respectfully about their concerns” squatters at Western University, I am happy he found them to be as “unruly as a church choir.” Kumbaya.

I would challenge Chant to visit them again, and bring with him an Israeli flag, or wear a Star of David pendant, and then try again to engage with them.

He will find their “principled stance to right injustice” will change to outright verbal, and maybe even to physical abuse. He will experience the kind of anti-Semitic rhetoric and pro-Hamas outbursts to which these students and the non-student professional agitators among them (hiding their age and non-student status behind masks) have been subjecting Jewish students and professors at Western for months.

Administration is not doing nearly enough to clear from campus these illegal encampments of the defenders of Hamas terrorists. If protesters really cared about the Palestinians in Gaza, they would speak against Hamas’ atrocities of Oct. 7, 2023, and the assassinations they commit against their own citizens who dare oppose them in Gaza.

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Chant is either a terrorist supporter or happily lives inside a rose tinted bubble. I don’t know which is worse.

Ana Porzecanski, London

Tired of Trudeau

Obviously, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau won’t listen to his own party let alone the people of this country. Who’s he going to blame when they are decimated at the polls next year?

We are tired of this man’s arrogance, incompetence, overspending and inability to run this country anywhere other than into the ground. The more we see and hear from him the more bitter we become.

Get the message and take a hike.

Dean Rath, London

Bottom up better

Regarding the article Debate on proposed cuts to community grants gets testy (June 27).

Everyone seems to have forgotten about grants for faith-based initiatives.

What a great way to lower costs to the public at large and give faith communities a chance to stand up and shine and enrich the lives of both volunteers and those they help.

I believe strongly in “bottom up” initiatives despite the scorn that comes from “top down” thinkers who love power politics.

The latter has been predominant at city hall for years.

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Once I approached the city with some Christians experienced in helping the homeless and we were refused even the opportunity to meet and discuss our ideas.

We were told to apply under the community grants program, which is now teetering on the verge of collapse to save the city money.

How ironic.

Faith-based volunteer programs, properly monitored for results, can save the city money if council would help them.

Patrick Bestall, London

Eject protesters

Regarding the articles Western protesters build ‘more permanent’ base (June 29) and Ivey grad ‘mourning’ graduation day marred by protesters (June 29).

I am dismayed at what is happening to this country.

Has no one come to the conclusion that a large number of pro-Palestinian protesters have their faces covered so as not to be identified by authorities?

If they believe in their cause, they should not be afraid to identify themselves.

Someone should be checking the identities of these protesters and moving them out.

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Genevieve Grech, London

Words matter

It is painful to observe Canada’s right-wing media machine, the National Post, shovelling Lorrie Goldstein’s irrational opinion on us via The London Free Press.

Goldstein routinely kowtows to Piere Poilievre’s CPC, who reflexively voted against Bill C-59, putting the fossil fuel industry above the people. But to no avail, as their decades of lying to the public has stopped. Why? Bill C-59.

Naturally, the oil and gas industry and its wholly owned subsidiary in the Alberta government claim they’re being silenced through an unjust “gag order.”

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, who has a long track record of weaponizing the language of free speech to legitimize scientific misinformation, accused the feds of “attempting to make the promotion of Alberta’s energy industry illegal,” which is, of course, only true if that promotion is rooted in deception.

Susan Wright, a Calgary-based political blogger and seasoned corporate lawyer, noted that proposed regulation is precisely the opposite of a gag order, as it “requires companies to say more, not less, about how they’re going to achieve their climate mitigation objectives.”

Rather than elucidate how they plan to achieve net zero, fossil fuel companies and their advocacy organization chose to gag themselves, running away from the unproven claims they’ve been permitted to make with impunity thus far.

Michael Luce, London

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