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Jumping the gun
Dear Republic:
I read your recent article concerning the prison in Iraq [ The Republic issue 105]. I'd like to remind you that Milosovic, unlike the others you mentioned, has not yet been found guilty . . . that is unless you yourself have already convicted him.
- Peter Children
Trouble in the sandbox
Dear Republic:
I am a Conservative, but more appropriately a Reformer. I am not at all happy with what is happening with the Conservative Party of Canada and what Stephen Harper is constrained to do to satisfy the red wing of the New Conservatives. At a recent CPC Christmas dinner I attended at the Centre Block on Parliament Hill, I noticed Stephen Harper's body language as he left the room I was sitting in. He walked as though he had the weight of the world on his shoulders and the look on his face was not that of a man happy with the burden he is bearing. I know he is a blue conservative, but the leadership seems to be out of his hands. He appears to be leader in name only.
We have one of two choices to make. We can either ask that he make room for a stronger leader, but then that would open the door for a complete take over by the Red Tories and we would be back in the same shit we were in leading up to 1993, or we can let him know that we want him to lead us back on the blue Conservative track where the grass roots want to be, away from the compromises and away from pandering to the Quebec wing of the party who are most likely separatists and definitely left of centre, and who know which way the wind will blow during the next election.
For him to get us back on track, he would need the strong support and assurance of the great majority of the membership, that they are behind him for a change of course that will take us back to the values of a true conservative rather than the wishy washy, fence sitting, middle of the road, neither here nor there attitude that seems to have taken over the direction of the party via his apparent leadership. A true Conservative stands for strong values and does not sway with the wind just to get votes because such votes are empty and most likely the foundation for threats and blackmail. The Party does not have to be extremist to have strong values. It just has to state its policies and stick to them come hell or high water. And those who can't take the heat don't belong in this kitchen.
So, the revolution starts within the party, not to split it because we've been there already, but to clean it up and set it straight. That is grass roots democracy as opposed to Red Tory and Liberal Elite democracy.
—Sebastian Anders, Abbotsford BC
The tsunami was political
Dear Republic:
In your article "The safety of tsunamis" ( The Republic issue 105) you write "nature's fury, about which we can do absolutely nothing aside from issue timely warnings where time exists," and later, "The tsunami is . . . a bad thing, and we can agree since no human agent was involved in creating it, there is no politics in this issue".
I do not agree that there are no politics nor that no human agent is involved in this issue. What is being ignored, by both the media and the public in both cases of the tsunami and of Iraq, and in issues such as of AIDS in Africa, of poverty in our Downtown Eastside, among First Nations Communities, and in developing countries, etc. is that all these events are rooted in the same blind, selfish ignorance of the current capitalist imperialist agenda.
It is rooted in the politics of economics. And in the case of the tsunami, as well as the landslides and floods here in BC, it includes the politics of environmental issues and the market economy. Please see Devinder Sharma's article "Tsunami, Mangroves and the Market Economy” ukabc.org/tsunamis.htm#h
Whether we clear cut mangroves for shrimp farming or tourism, or if we clear cut our rainforests for urban development, there will be major consequences in the resulting so-called "natural" catastrophes. It's time we become conscious of how everything is intricately interconnected.
- Laiwan
Open letter to Fry
Dear Republic:
Ms. Fry and other Members of Parliament, we strongly urge each of you to act quickly and positively to help support housing co-operatives like ours which have people on low-income as part of our membership. The Section 95 program was supposed to match changes in mortgage payments dollar for dollar; instead, these fluctuations have affected over 160 co-ops in BC adversely (including ours), and more than 1000 across Canada. The subsidy that makes housing affordable for these people is disappearing.
Canada is a signatory to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (10 December 1948), and Article 25 states (in part) that: “Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself, and of his family, including . . . housing and . . . the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.”
Our low-income members are amongst many in society who should be protected and respected according to both the text and spirit of this United Nations document. Shelter is a basic human right.
Please demonstrate your leadership, vision and compassion.
- Kari Hewett (Ms), Co-Secretary,on behalf of the Board of Directors,View Court Housing Co-operative, Vancouver, BC
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