Letters to the editor

A4

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6 Comment(s)

In response to James Travers' column ("Khadr tugs at country's conscience," July 21) I wonder why there's such an outcry about this youth imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay while there are no comments concerning Ashley Smith, the teenager from Moncton who took her own life at Grand Valley Institution for Women in Ontario.

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Travers describes the Khadr family as having seized the best of what this country offers while dumping on it the worst of imported hatreds. While Omar Khadr is not responsible for views expressed by his mother and sister, who agreed with what happened on 9/11, it could hardly be said that he had been brought up in a family of loyal Canadians.

In Khadr's situation we can easily shift blame to the governments of Canada and the United States and demand they do something.

In the deplorable circumstances of Ashley Smith's death, the blame cannot so easily be placed upon the prison systems and their employees, for many other people know about the injustice that sometimes exists in these institutions and especially the scarcity of effective mental health and addictions services. Most citizens just don't want to hear about it or become involved.

Could the reason for this indifference be that we share a collective guilt in that the prison systems we have built cannot fulfil the goals to correct and rehabilitate? Aren't we all responsible for ensuring that no other Canadian becomes part of the travesty of human rights as happened in the case of Ashley Smith?

MARION PERKINS

Saint John

Who do we believe on climate change?

This concerns Mr. McQueen's letter headed "Back up climate crisis references."

While I heartily agree with that statement, I failed to find the letter followed his own recommendation. The sources for the 'facts' stated are not given, nor his own qualifications justifying making them in lieu thereof. As his conclusion is in apparent contradiction to so many other presumably highly qualified scientists, I believe the reader is entitled to at least that.

A report in Wednesday's Globe and Mail entitled "Health report to get 'low-profile' release" referring to two studies on climate change. One entitled "Human health in a changing climate: A Canadian assessment of vulnerabilities and adaptive capacity" and the second from the Department of Natural Resources entitled "From Impact to Adaptation" might provide the needed substantiation for Mr. McQueen's conclusions or the reverse. Both apparently speak of serious impacts of climate change. Is it a case of whom to believe? My training is in economics thus I too, must rely on the scientific community for guidance on climate change.

S. BRUCE BENTON

Oromocto Unemployment rate up 40.5 per cent

If one was lucky enough to have $69,000 in the stock market and the next year it stood at $97,000, your stock broker would tell you you had a 40.5 per cent increase. You would be quite happy.

Now Stats Canada tell us New Brunswick's unemployment rate went up from 6.9 per cent to 9.7 per cent. No one tells the hard truth that our unemployment rate really went up 40.5 per cent in one year. Yes, my friends, 40.5 per cent more people were looking for jobs than last year.

Where is Premier Graham on this important issue?

We don't need hide-and-seek games, or attacking the messenger. This seems to be all the Liberal government can offer. Higher taxes is not the answer.

DONALD A. GOODSPEED

Bathurst

EFI contributing to other problems

I would like to commend you for your editorial on July 21 and the writer of the letter published in the same edition concerning early French immersion. Both of you, in my opinion, understand the real issues around the French immersion debate.

The supporters of the status quo in the teaching of early immersion would have us believe that the best way to teach French is the only issue under discussion. There is far more involved than that and the big issue, in my mind, is an equitable and quality education for all our children. Congratulations to you both for articulating this so well.

My experience teaches me that the early French immersion program has failed to deliver as promised as far as bilingualism is concerned and has contributed to many other problems in the system. I urge the minister not to return to a failed program under the pressure of the early French immersion lobbyists. Surely we can find a program that gives all our children a chance to be bilingual without setting up a system which divides our children.

HARRY PALMER

Fredericton

EFI problem is bad management

Re: your editorial "Access for all" (July 22). The Telegraph-Journal is confusing management with structure.

Access for all and the other problems identified in your editorial are all management problems. Eliminating EFI is a structural change. Management problems require management solutions. Structural changes cannot correct management deficiencies. Bad or incompetent managers are always suggesting structural changes to escape responsibility for their mismanagement.

Some years ago, senior staff at the education department convinced the government of the day to scrap school boards and concentrate all the power in the hands of the senior bureaucracy. Now that their mismanagement has given us the lowest test scores in Canada, they are trying to blame the structure.

The problem is not structure but bad management. A successful system is one in which parents and teachers have their say in formulating programs and systems as was done in Ontario. A top-down system as we have in N.B. has to fail. The Telegraph-Journal would be more helpful to the finding of solutions if it recognize the difference between structure and management and offered solutions that matched the problems.

JEAN-GUY RICHARD

Notre Dame

Compensation could have been better

Veteran Affairs Minister Greg Thompson said of the ex-gratia Agent Orange compensation package that "At the end of the day, it's good and I don't think we could have done any better."

At the end of the day it's bad and the present-day Conservative government could have done much better. The government could have fulfilled an election campaign promise made by Stephen Harper in Woodstock in which Mr. Harper promised that a Conservative government would ensure that "all" victims of the Gagetown defoliant spraying program would be medically tested and compensated. The present compensation program is limited to victims sprayed in 1966 and 1967. I was shocked to read that Mr. Thompson thinks the package they came up with "is probably in the 80-90 per cent range in terms of perfection."

It will be interesting to see if 80 to 90 per cent of the voters in Mr. Thompson's riding agree with him on the next election day.

ART CONNELLY

London, Ont.

Keep Kelowna Accord on shelf

Recently, the Kelowna Accord was in focus and a brief discussion by a reporter and former PM, Paul Martin, ensued. The accord remains dead in the water; now, Mr. Martin believes the accord should be front and centre at the premiers' upcoming meeting. An indistinct shopping list with no financial parameters will evolve.

The document symbolizes a shared commitment to action by all parties. Initiatives set out were the first steps in a 10-year dedicated effort to improve the quality of life of the aboriginal peoples of Canada.

First ministers and national aboriginal leaders agreed to immediate action, to build commitments over time and move forward in a manner that will achieve the maximum results for aboriginal peoples.

Interestingly, there was no dollar figure affixed to the accord at that time; conversely, Paul Martin referenced a $5 billion figure over a period of 10 years. Ottawa expects to disburse monies for this and provinces would enjoy any commitment to reduction in social problems. A native right is acknowledged repetitively, but never anything about native responsibilities. A permanent forum for demands will be dealt, with no guarantee that $5 billion is adequate. This would promote a revolving demand for added financing and no improved auditing of band funds.

The Conservative government has taken a number of conscientious, pragmatic steps to improve the lot of indigenous peoples. The Kelowna Accord was a volatile document and until explicit solutions are in place, the government would be pragmatic to continue to oppose it.

RONALD J. YASCHUK

Quispamsis