Readers weigh in on the issues, including Canada's new governor general, Donald Trump and the 'Madman Theory,' medical testing on animals, disappearing farmland, and more.
Ontario Medical Association behaviour ‘unfathomable’
Re: Two board members resign after Jewish doctor says he was singled out in Ontario Medical Association election — Avi David Blaff, May 6
I am disgusted but not surprised about the bias shown to Jewish palliative care doctor Hal Berman — and only him — during his attempt to be elected as the president of the Ontario Medical Association (OMA).
A number of weeks ago, I wrote to the OMA about my concerns regarding comments made by the new president in his social media, which were not very friendly regarding Israel a.k.a. Zionism or Jews, as there is really no difference these days. The response was basically, what a person does in their personal life is not the association’s concern or business.
It would appear though that if your approach is to defend your group from what is going on out there, and that group is who Dr. Berman defends, then it is open season.
Antisemitic events are escalating around the world and recent statistics in Canada and the U.S. prove this. To have a professional organization, supposedly with ethical standards, to be complicit in this, is unfathomable. My wife and I have done what we could, which was to resign our memberships in the OMA. I urge all physicians of conscience if they can, to do the same. If you do not have obligations such as insurance, resign membership, service on committees, etc. Write to your MPPs, MPs. This reminds me of the start of what was done to Jewish doctors in Nazi Germany.
J.H. Lipton, Toronto, PhD MD FRCPC
Political minefields
Re: There’s blood in the water around the Liberals’ immigration minister — John Ivison, May 4
There was a period during World War Two when German U-boats laid mines in the Thames Estuary every night, forcing the Royal Navy to spend the next day clearing them out. According to a story told to me by my father, who served as a medic in the Netherlands in 1944-45, the Navy eventually wisened up and decided to leave the previous night’s mines in place and to close the Estuary to British traffic for a day. The German U-boats that returned the following evening were blown up by their own mines and a few British admirals spent a day or two smiling from ear to ear.
Canadian governments play the same game with each other. The departing Stephen Harper government plants the Phoenix pay system in the bureaucracy just before Justin Trudeau arrives. Trudeau leaves the mess in place for a decade to plague whoever comes next. Trudeau, however, ups the ante. He makes sure every department plants its own mine for Pierre Poilievre to detonate. Then, quite shockingly, Mark Carney slips into office instead of Poilievre. Is there any other rational explanation for 100,000 unresolved air travel complaints, 15,000 unfilled posts in the Armed Forces, and masses of untraceable people in Canada with expired visas?
This article is part of a series of letters from readers. Other topics include Canada's new governor general, Trump and the 'Madman Theory,' medical testing on animals, and disappearing farmland.
