Citizenship, the veil
Re The Right Not To Be Accommodating (editorial, Oct. 20): I agree completely with Multiculturalism Minister Jason Kenney that Canadian citizenship is a privilege and not a right, and that the woman in question has the obligation to remove the veil under mutually agreeable accommodations to prove her identity. As your editorial notes, such accommodation is provided in some criminal court cases.
Canada is essentially a secular country where facial recognition is an important part of our society. While our Charter guarantees the right to practise the religion of one's choice, it does not follow that one can choose (dictate?) one's own terms of acceptance of citizenship.
Either the terms apply equally to all or they don't. Even accommodation has its limits.
Sam Markou, Mississauga
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I have no objection to women removing their niqabs – provided men with faces covered in beards and longish hair and/or sideburns are also required to show their bare visage under these circumstances. It's no hardship for them, as the hair will grow back.
This unnecessary and untenable position on removing niqabs is a mask for religious and social prejudice – nothing less.
M. Ruth Elliott, Edmonton
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Catholic realities
It would be easy to despair over the failure of Catholic bishops to come to terms with the realities of our millennium by rejecting the Pontiff's efforts to encourage inclusion and respect for gays (Activists Decry Synod's Stand On Gays – Oct. 20). Some may see it as "a personal defeat" for the Pope, or one more sign that the church is losing all relevance.
Nonetheless, by having brought the discussion to the table – and try and put that genie back in the bottle – there is cause for optimism with a Pope who favours leadership over infallibility.
Ross Howey, Toronto
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The synod's stance on gay and divorced Catholics will widen the gap between the hierarchy and the people, who are increasingly following their own conscience and common sense rather than structural dictates.
Joe Schwarz, Penticton, B.C.
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Inequitable, unjust
Exceptionally high levels of First Nations unemployment, 1,180 missing and murdered indigenous women and counting, and an averted tanker crisis highlighting the pipeline concerns of the Haida Nation – Oct. 20th's front page speaks volumes about the precarious situation of Canada's indigenous peoples (Lack Of Statistics On Aboriginals Opens Door For Foreign Workers; Native Leaders, Politicians Work To Build National Forum On The Missing; Crippled Ship Heightens Tanker Safety Concerns). This is the result of a legacy of colonization and racism and a deep failure to address land and treaty rights.
In 1996, Canada essentially shelved the report of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, failing to implement the 440 recommendations and the 20-year-plan. In June, 2015, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission will release its final report and recommendations. Canada must not miss another opportunity to truly become an equitable and just nation.
Jennifer Henry, executive director, KAIROS
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Beer battles
Ontario Conservative premier George Ferguson and his fellow travellers, now residents of Toronto's Mount Pleasant Cemetery, must have felt some impulse to shift themselves with the news that the issue that won victory for the Tories over the Grits in the 1926 election was the Tory plan to deliver to Ontarians a "communist-style" liquor system, as described by Progressive Conservative MPP Monte McNaughton (Wynne To Tap Beer Store For Infrastructure Funding – Oct. 20).
Like me, they must wonder how future Tories will be describing the aspirations held by those such as Mr. McNaughton and his fellow travellers in the PC Party of today.
Craig Hall, Kingston
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The Beer Store is a highly efficient retailer; Ontario consumers pay the lowest beer prices in Canada as a direct result of these efficiencies, despite a tax rate that takes 44 per cent of the price of a bottle of beer.
The Asset Review Panel's proposal that the province apply a new tax on beer sold at the Beer Store would drive that tax rate even higher than 44 per cent, and cause prices to rise. Selling more beer in the higher-cost Liquor Control Board of Ontario outlets instead of the low-cost Beer Store also drives up retailing costs, as LCBO beer sales are subject to an additional charge of $4.95 per case. This also has an impact on consumer price.
If government increases the costs of the beer retail system through taxes or other actions, it will be the beer consumer who ultimately pays.
Jeff Newton, president, Canada's National Brewers
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The Globe's choice
Few seem bothered by your endorsement of John Tory as mayor of Toronto (John Tory Is Toronto's Best Bet – Focus, Oct. 18). That's hard to believe when many see him at best as decent, at worst as vacillating and indecisive.
He is clearly better than the Fords and has the ear of the powers-that-be. However, he's also a man who has flitted from one job to another at the drop of a hat (Tory's Way – Oct. 18). His so-called accomplishments are marginal; he is a perennial political loser. His one-plank SmartTrack transit plan is so full of holes it would make a Swiss cheese blush.
I'll choose Olivia Chow any time. She may not be dynamic but her platform is sound and makes sense.
Willem Hart, Toronto
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Stopping Ebola
The first strategy to be used in the dozen or so as yet unaffected countries of West Africa should be "education for prevention of Ebola" (How To Stop Disease 'Dead In Its Tracks' – Folio, Oct. 20).
More than three months ago in Gambia, a Canadian-Gambian NGO – the Nova Scotia-Gambia Association (NSGA) – was quick off the mark with a pilot "Ebola education for prevention program" for 100 secondary students and villagers in 10 rural communities. This is being followed up through NSGA's countrywide Peer Health Education Program.
What has it cost to initiate the Ebola project as an adjunct to NSGA's current programs? A few thousand dollars!
Why are the UN and Western governments not immediately putting millions of dollars into Ebola education for prevention programs in the (till now) uninfected countries and regions of West Africa, rather than waiting till the epidemic spreads beyond control and the treatment and related costs run, as WHO predicts, into the billions?
Burris Devanney, Halifax
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Hmm …
Re Naomi Klein's 'Magisterial' Effort Wins $60,000 Hilary Weston Non-Fiction Prize (Oct. 15): I guess it's "no logos" – unless it's Holt Renfrew!
Kathy Millard, Toronto