Blame for Tina Fontaine’s murder
Pam Palmater’s piece on the tragic case of Tina Fontaine (NOW, March 1-7) concludes that, “Tina’s death is not on Tina or on her family or on her community. It’s on Canada.”
The federal government should indeed provide as much funding for First Nation child and family services as other provincial residents. Addiction and violence can find their way to children raised in even the most stable environments.
But Palmater’s implication that it is Canada, not Fontaine’s family and community, that should shoulder the primary responsibility is wrongheaded and patronizing.
The people who bring a child into the world and raise her, and the people making up the culture and environment to which she is exposed in her formative years, bear the greatest burden of protection regardless of the economic resources at hand.
And no amount of quoting UN conventions, or even achieving parity in funding, is going to change that.
Daniel Gormley, Toronto
Fashionably off the mark
I just read In Defense Of Knock-offs, Which Are More Fashionable Than Fashion (NOW Online, February 26) and found it to be deeply troubling.
Fashion, just like any other art form, takes inspiration from many different sources. It seems to me that those influences are more diverse than ever.
This article misses one of the biggest concerns with counterfeit goods: the working conditions of the people making them.
Jackie Moore, Toronto
Tarantino, no matter how ugly
As a huge Quentin Tarantino fan, I was very interested in reading your roundtable (NOW, February 22-28). His relationship with Harvey Weinstein in light of the allegations made against him has made this a reasonable discussion to have.
But one thing I have to push back on is the idea Tarantino is just another white guy making money off of other peoples’ culture.
He is a historian of cinema and honours its past by bringing those elements back into the public eye, no matter how ugly it may be. He may not be right to use the n-word, but to honour the past is to look at it, warts and all.
Of course Tarantino’s movies don’t reflect the real world. Why is that a problem?
Chris Levy, Toronto
More questions about Pickering’s nukes
Regarding David Baker’s letter in defence of the safety of Ontario’s nuclear power plants (NOW, February 22-28). The question remains: are they the safest and most cost-efficient technology available?
As renewable energy costs continue to plunge and as nuclear waste continues to pile up with no safe solution in sight, the growing consensus is a resounding “no!”
The Pickering nuclear station, in particular, is way past its design life, with greater vulnerability to accidents and high operating costs.
It’s time for the province to close Pickering and embrace the renewable engineering marvels in our midst.
Rena Ginsberg, Toronto
