If you're going to reach out, make it count
Published Friday August 29th, 2008
Re: Conservative MPs who have mailed flyers to residents of other ridings across Canada
This letter was sent to Brian Storseth, MP for Westlock-St. Paul in St. Paul, Alberta.
I was surprised to hear from you, an Alberta MP, in a House of Commons mailout.
As a resident of Fredericton, N.B., I am used to receiving such flyers from our MP, Andy Scott.
"Andy," as he is known by Frederictonians, has been an outstanding representative for our riding and for a cause that is close to my heart - the cause of autistic children and adults.
Your pamphlet did not address autism or any other major health issue confronting Canadians.
Instead, you used your parliamentary mailing privileges to reach across Canada in an attempt to stoke fear of crime in Canada by sending a pamphlet featuring a picture of a young man, unshaven, wearing an sleeveless undershirt slouched on a couch with a beer. I am not impressed.
Since you did reach across this great county to communicate with me, Mr. Storseth, I will let you know what does concern me as the father of a 12-year-old boy with autistic disorder.
I ask that you encourage Prime Minister Harper to stop ignoring the plight of autistic children in need of treatment across Canada.
Stop pretending that the federal government cannot use its tremendous financial resources to ensure that autistic children, wherever their parents reside in Canada, receive the evidence-based treatment they need to live as full a life as possible. The Canada Health Act exists despite jurisdictional concerns.
Mr. Storseth, since you have adopted me as a constitutent, I ask that you encourage your party leader, Stephen Harper, to adopt a real national autism strategy.
Send federal dollars to the provinces to ensure that every autistic child receives treatment, regardless of their parents' postal address.
You have reached across the country once; you can do it again - for autistic children.
Harold L. Doherty
Fredericton
Get your racing act together or prepare to lose fans
Re: Racing in Geary
The Aug. 23 races were the most unfair I have ever attended, and I've been going every weekend for about three years.
I and many others believe certain racers at that track are treated with favouritism, and others are treated like they are not even needed to race.
If not for these racers that are treated poorly, there would not be races to begin with.
There are many fans that are fed up with this, including myself. There are racers who don't face the consequences after they cause an accident and others are being put at fault for things they did not do.
I believe that at every race, the rules should be specified so that everyone knows what is going on. Then they wouldn't be so surprised to see their favourite driver put to the back of the pack when they so plainly shouldn't be.
The people involved need to get there act straight, because if they don't, they are going to lose out on a lot of fans. They need to be watching the track better.
To every race fan out there, we need to speak up about this unfair treatment of various drivers or nothing will be done about it.
Lacey Brown
Oromocto, N.B.
That pat on the back is bound to hurt after awhile
Re: Ongoing Agent Orange payment dispute
Veterans Affairs Minister Greg Thompson has turned Fredericton MP Andy Scott's plea for more compensation for Agent Orange victims into a political situation, hoping his sniping at Scott will cause people to lose sight of the government's stingy and self-serving ways.
Thompson says, "A lot of that information is missing and makes it impossible to act, and that's why we took responsibility from the day we were sworn into government. We acted fairly and compassionately based on the information we have."
Why is the information missing? Could it be because neither the Liberal nor Conservative governments gathered it, although they've had over 50 years to do so?
They even had the Base Area Gagetown Fact-Finding Project to do the job for them. But the project did not collect any information from victims and they employed dubious companies connected to the chemical industry to do the so-called research on the pollution.
The pollution was the result of more than one billion grams of toxic chemicals spread over a large area during a 28-year period, and the project even directed the companies where to take soil samples.
The soil samples found in one area were 143 times the CCME limit, with other areas showing lesser but serious contamination decades after the toxic chemicals were distributed.
The government solved the problem of toxic contamination by ignoring it and declaring Canadian Forces Base Gagetown safe for current soldiers to train at.
Took responsibility? Acted fairly and compassionately? Only a politician would be congratulating himself and his government for such a disgraceful performance.
If Thompson needs medical help for the pain he's sure to suffer by continuing to pat himself on the back, I'm sure some of my New Brunswick friends can help. They can give him the names of some of the doctors they've been forced to use for decades due to being poisoned.
As an MP, no doubt Thompson will receive much better care than any of us ever have.
Gail Radford-Ross
Saskatoon, Sask.
Most radiation comes from the sky, not the ground
Re: Uranium debate in New Brunswick
Great land of glory!" to quote an old aunt of mine.
When are people going to learn the facts about radiation? Take the radiation connected with uranium deposits. Half of it will not penetrate paper or skin. Most of the rest of it will not penetrate a book or 30 centimetres of air.
What remains doesn't do much when it does penetrate something. We would say to a physics class that it is only weakly ionizing; in fact, that is why it penetrates more.
Uranium is hardly radioactive at all, but it decays into stuff much, much more radioactive. That means that any uranium lasts a long, long time.
What uranium decays into is so radioactive that in a year the leftovers are hardly radioactive at all compared to original uranium plus leftovers mass.
The leftovers are what goes into any slag heap, and they are never more radioactive than the undisturbed rock they came from. How could they be? After all, they came from the uranium, and most of the uranium has been removed.
We are indebted to an MLA for the information that accidents have occurred in uranium mining. Well, I suppose that dropping a 20-kilogram lump of uranium ore on your foot hurts as much as dropping a 20-kg lump of iron ore. Are you surprised?
Accidents occur in all industries, in offices, hospitals, even in the legislature building. Remember when the deer ran amok a while ago? Or was he an MLA protesting something he did not understand?
Take a look at some laws passed there. Calling them accidents would be a kindness.
Finally, much or even most of our daily radiation comes from the sky. Secondary cosmic rays, if you want to look it up. Going deep into the ground will decrease your daily dose, but I wouldn't want to live there.
Stuart Mills
Fredericton
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