Letters to the Editor Nov 13

MENTAL HEALTH

Mr. Trump insists the Texas incident is not a firearm problem, it’s a mental health issue. Unfortunately, under the proposed American health plan expected to replace Obamacare, the fellow would not have been eligible for coverage because he had a pre-existing health issue. Which bring us back to problem No. 1.

CASIMIR GALAS 

TORONTO 

(Or it means America has two problems when it comes to gun violence)

PEELING THE ONION

We read stories about off-shore tax havens and think of elites gaming the system, taking advantage of tax code loopholes to evade paying their fair share. We think naughty bastards, sitting on extreme wealth and not putting any back to the effort of replenishing societies. The media contribute to hopeless feelings when they necessarily report the havens are legal. We start believing counter prophets like Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump, professing a rigged world we instinctively know to be true. We don’t ponder where all that money goes, it’s just accepted as a pile of loot sitting in accounts. What escapes the public discourse is the relevant power of buried treasure. There should never be an assumption it lays dormant. In fact, considering a handful of individuals control over half the globe’s wealth, we should only have assumptions the dough is actively engaged in commerce. The media should be focused on trading of assets in a hidden economy. The enormity of this evading wealth implies a certainty in the activity of business interests. A secondary economy influencing structures of the rightful first economy is absolutely illegal. Panama and Paradise reporting includes a wall of international law firms, standing as foot guards to aristocratic castles. In unravelling this onion, a good place to start would be examining results from 20 years of private-public partnerships. 

MIKE JOHNSTON

PETERBOROUGH

(What the Panama Papers suggest to us is that illegal tax evasion isn’t the problem. It’s that tax evasion is legal)

MORE SCHOOL FUNDING

The lack of funding in public schools creates a deficit of textbooks, electronics, and teachers, among other things. If the government were to give less funding to Catholic schools, they could give more money to public school boards. There are many students in my school that don’t have textbooks for their courses because the school didn’t have enough of them or the money to buy more, and this could really affect the students’ education. Also, they don’t have money to hire enough teachers so many of the courses are overfilled. This means that students don’t have time to speak one-on-one with their teacher or to ask questions, which makes many students feel like they are not being taught properly. Finally, they do not have enough money to do basic maintenance or to install air conditioning. The latter is also an issue of safety because a few students fainted this year due to overheating. We can do things like fund raise or make donations to help, but the solution to the problem rests in the power of the government to give public schools more funding.

JACLYN RILEY

BOLTON

(We, too, believe in one, properly funded, secular, public school system. Unfortunately, the government doesn’t and neither do the major opposition parties)

Share this post