80-year-old woman tasered a day after rules changed, Sept. 4
I find it extremely disturbing that Peel Region police officers called to Thomas St. and Erin Mills Parkway on Aug. 28 around 3:30 a.m. were unable to “talk down” an obviously anguished 80-year-old woman. According to the article, the woman was “walking along the road,” which is not at all busy with traffic at that time of the morning. Surely, even if they could not get her off the road of her own volition for safety reasons, they could have easily overpowered this senior citizen.
Instead, they tasered an 80-year-old, causing her to fall, at which time it seems that she fractured her hip, as well as incurring other injuries. In view of all of the unfavourable publicity regarding how police appear to rush to use force above all other methods, this does not bode well for our citizenry, young and old.
Grace A. Taylor, Streetsville
Really? Tasering an 80-year-old woman? Did Peel Regional Police feel so threatened by her that they felt their only option was to use a Taser?
Mary Smart, Kingston
Collision course for Hudak, labour, Column Sept. 5
The Conservative party in Ontario is ready to self-destruct and one big reason is that Tim Hudak, Randy Hillier and other dinosaurs in the party want to “deunionize to reindustrialize,” medievalize not modernize labour in Ontario. This backward vision whereby the province transforms itself into Mississippi or Arkansas in order to attract exploitive employers who treat their employees like dirt instead of paying living wages and providing fair benefits is a non-starter with the Ontario public. It is one of the main reasons the Tories are tanking in the polls.
We don’t need political leaders who take us backward. We deserve leadership that moves us forward, by following successful examples like Germany. Attacking unions might throw some red meat to the dinosaurs in the Conservative party, but the quicker they become extinct, the brighter Ontario’s future will be.
David Lundy, Merrickville
Re: Proposed bill would help building firm, hurt unions, August 31
Bill 74, a private members bill introduced by London-area Tory MPP Monte McNaughton, to overturn a Labour Relations Board decision re: the use of unionized workers caught my attention. This strikes me as another “race to the bottom” for Canadian workers.
The Labour Relations board gave the giant construction company, EllisDon, whose head office is also in London, two years to lobby Queen’s Park for a change.
A couple of questions: Did EllisDon become a giant company without the help of Canadian education/training programs/Canadian infrastructure/benefits and resources? Benefits that support the growth and success of Canadian companies are also due to Canadians.
If companies from other countries can bid for jobs here with complete freedom to hire non-union workers, isn’t that a sure sign that Canada and Canadians have been sold out by our governments?
If I were the head of EllisDon, I would exert pressure on the federal government to establish a level playing field, rather than try to undermine the workers who have made EllisDon profits possible.
If Canadian companies lost their right to a level playing field due to the free trade sell out, why should the most vulnerable workers be bullied and sacrificed?
Donna Chevrier, Mississauga
Any cop who needs a taser to handle an 80-year old woman deserves an immediate transfer to parking meter duty. He's certainly unfit to be a cop.
ReplyDeleteAs for that swine, Hudak, few of us today realize the critical role organized labour played in creating the broad-based and prosperous middle class of the postwar decades. It enabled a balancing of the power of labour and capital that curbed inequality and empowered progress in education, healthcare and our social safety net. Dismembering organized labour and thwarting collective bargaining are the instruments of those who would see democracy shunted aside, displaced by oligarchy.
Yet if the public doesn't wake up and vocally denounce Hudak and those of his ilk they will eventually prevail. They're following a blueprint that has proven successful south of the line.
Almost everything of import in this country relates to politics, either directly or indirectly, Mound. We can only hope and do our best to try to help people realize the power they can have through vigorous engagement with the issues.
DeleteHudak would be a good starting point for sending a clear message to the right that their snake oil has been exposed and rejected.