No effort made to keep park viable
Re 130 jobs cut at provincial parks in north,
Sept. 28 Last week it was announced that Ivanhoe Provincial Park in Northern Ontario will be closing to overnight camping. We have been seasonal campers at Ivanhoe for several years. The mismanagement of this park by Ontario Parks has contributed directly to its demise. Ontario Parks limits the number of seasonal sites to 25 per cent of a park, which works well for parks that are on major highways or close to residential areas and therefore get a lot of overnight campers. Ivanhoe always has a full complement of seasonal campers but not as many
Touchstone of our legacies
Re History gets a swift reprieve, Sept. 27 This is an Erin Brockovich-type story for Oshawa’s residents. If a bird in the hand is a chimney swift, then delays until the bird flies from its nest are no rescue. This house built by George McLaughlin is a human touchstone of Canadian legacies intertwined. Why care and who is George? Farm life, auto foundations in Canada and our war efforts to save world peace all get told through George and his stone house. A founder to Oshawa up until WWII and brother to Sam McLaughlin, together they built auto transportation. George became known this year as a significant Canadian to the war effort. We experience history in our senses. George designed and built a world-class Arts and Crafts architectural beauty in the 1920s in a stone farmhouse. His design is the inspiration for Minto homes to be built here. Minto will destroy their source. Profit and loss puts human experience and heritage in a puzzling place. Kathie Vanular, Oshawa
Contradiction in conservatives
Re Pro-life motion defeated despite support
of 8 key Tories, Sept. 27 So some Conservatives want a zygote to become a legal person at conception. Would that mean that the family benefit payments and tax deductions would begin then as well? Would a miscarriage lead to a charge of failing to provide? Will a pregnant woman have to pay admission for two? But seriously, this is not about the sanctity of life. There is a contradiction in conservatives who are anti-abortion but support the death penalty. This is about a more basic male desire to protect their seed regardless of the wishes of the woman. Ian McLaurin, Port Perry
An opportunity to step up
Re Parents barred from coaching at schools, Sept. 27 Parents are being barred from coaching teams and clubs at TDSB schools because liability insurance requires board staff members to participate. Why don’t some of the school board superintendents step up and volunteer their services? This would be an excellent opportunity for them to get to know the community their schools serve and help justify their generous salaries.
Gerald Goodman, Toronto overnight campers as some of the larger parks due to its location. Something as simple as increasing the percentage of seasonal sites would have increased the revenue, making Ivanhoe profitable. Ontario Parks has closed this park without even trying to look at ways to increase the revenue. We (several Ivanhoe campers) have written letters to Natural Resources Minister Michael Gravelle, who forwarded the letters to Bradley Fauteax, Managing Director for Ontario Parks, who sent them on to Ross Hart, the Northeast Ontario Parks Zone Manager. None of these people who are paid to represent Onta-
McGuinty must veto deal
Re Shouldice sale tests McGuinty’s com
mitment to public health care, Sept. 27 What are the Liberals thinking? That they really want to be Republicans? Selling the Shouldice Hospital to a for-handsome-profit company that is not controlled by Canadians has nothing to do with supporting Canadian-style health-care values. If Health Minister Deb Matthews isn’t enough of a Liberal to veto the deal and insist that Shouldice stay in the hands of the non-profit sector, then Premier Dalton McGuinty must either replace Matthews or veto the deal himself. Otherwise, Ontarians will veto the Liberals in the next election. Cynthia Dann-Beardsley, Toronto
Qur’an deals with blasphemy
Re Protestors: turn the other cheek, Letter,
Sept. 26 Dictionary.com defines blasphemy as: “impious utterance or action concerning God or sacred things.” Thus, Gary Dale, as with many other commentators I have read, clearly is either unaware of or chooses to ignore Qur’an 33:57. My Penguin Classics 5th edition of the Qur’an, as with two other of my hard copies, together with http:// www.alquranverse.com/ 33/57/, which lists several comparative translations of Surah 33:57, all state that “those who abuse Allah and His Messenger, are cursed in this world and the Hereafter and Allah has prepared for them a humiliating punishment.” Veda Mohabir, Toronto rio Parks and are in positions to make a difference and fight for our beautiful northern park took the initiative to do so, therefore letting down the people in the northeast.
This is a very sad day for Northern Ontario. We need people who are willing to get up and fight for this area. It doesn’t make business sense to close a provincial park rather than look for ways to make it viable. Why is the McGuinty government opening new parks when there are beautiful established parks like Ivanhoe Lake being so badly mismanaged that they are being closed? Linda Halt, South Porcupine
Let’s not be subservient
Re Harper’s love of all things British, Column, Sept. 27 Columnist Bob Hepburn presented an interesting quote when discussing the proposed embassy agreement between Britain and Canada. Stephen Harper’s 2006 comment that “in the Canadian context, the actions of the British Empire were largely benign and occasionally brilliant” requires more thought.
Currently, Canada is still facing the repercussions of the colonial policies of England that created what Harper is associating as the “Canadian” identity, that is, identity as a white settler society. Harper’s white, British-rooted family wouldn’t have experienced the more malignant aspects of colonialism. But he would be hard-pressed to find a First Nations community that would call policies of colonialism in Canada benign. Isaac Coplan, Toronto I totally agree with the tone of Bob Hepburn’s article. Like many others, I immigrated to Canada from the U.K. in the ’50s, and after a couple of tough years found a good living here. I still look back to the U.K. with great affection and enjoy visits there to see friends and family, but I am now firmly and proudly Canadian.
I do not want Canada to be subservient to any other country, good friend or not. We are well respected in the world and can stand on our own feet. Let’s do that. John Graham, Stouffville With a little more national confidence, which the writer seems to lack, we could look at things a little differently: Canada is running roughshod over British sovereignty! Imagine — a little British office in the back of a Canadian embassy. Those mean Canadians trying to dominate again, and that Harper trying to bully his way around the world. Sure it’s tongue-in-cheek but let’s recognize it for what it is — a reciprocal agreement. Don Mustill, Markham
A strange society indeed
Re Parents make ‘heart-wrenching’ choice,
Sept. 28 It is a strange society ours, where banks and other corporate citizens regularly announce multi-billion dollar profits while our governments cry poor and tell the sick and handicapped that we “must balance care with available resources.” Eugene Spanier, Toronto