Abhorrent to forcibly separate children

Re Trump digs in amid searing backlash over ‘immoral’ border policy, June 19 I am a clinical psychologist with many years of training and experience related to human development and behaviour. But one does not need a PhD to recognize that an atrocity is being committed by the Trump administration in separating more than 2,000 children from their parents because their parents crossed the U.S. border without proper papers. This is, as the United Nations High Commisioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein, called it, “governmentsanctioned child abuse.”

There is no question that forcibly separating children from their parents is traumatizing and will likely cause irreparable harm. These children are being taught that the world is a dangerous, callous place, and that other people are not to be trusted. It is not only unconscionable that the Trump administration is continuing this cruel and unethical emotional abuse, but that President Trump attempts to disown responsibility for his abhorrent policy by blaming the Democrats. His ability to claim that he feels “sad” and that this situation is “horrible” is the height of hypocrisy since he has the power to end this inhumane policy.

Our government needs to take a stand. As Canadians, we need to express our condemnation of this policy and urge the Trump administration to reunite the children with their parents. Our silence makes us complicit. Rickey Miller, Thornhill Where is the moral outrage?

Where are the unified voices of all the living former presidents, all Democratic leaders, moderate Republicans, prominent Japanese Americans who lived this themselves, Holocaust survivors and their families — decent people from all over the world? Why are the White House and Capitol not under siege by angry, disgusted, morally outraged Americans of all stripes, colours and political affiliations?

It will take 50 years for the U.S. to live this down. A cleansing wind needs to blow through the White House to vanquish the stench of this abomination. Rob Cowan, Toronto Have societies not learned from past injustices where children were torn away from parents as witnessed in the “Sixties Scoop?” Kathy Jetten, Newmarket