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Letters vs. paid opinion

It may be that I write too many letters for some tastes, but I am motivated by the democratic belief that ordinary citizens should become informed of events and express disapproval of what they consider undemocratic ideas and legislation.
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It may be that I write too many letters for some tastes, but I am motivated by the democratic belief that ordinary citizens should become informed of events and express disapproval of what they consider undemocratic ideas and legislation. Except for verifiable facts, and I welcome correction if I'm in error, I never claim that what I write is anything more than my own opinion – and perhaps that of others – and is subject to reasonable criticism and argument.

Resentment of a mere letter contrasts with almost universal acceptance of the almost uniformly right-wing views informing the opinions of most professional columnists, protected by the editorial policies of most newspapers. If opposition exists, there is not much evidence of it.

A recent National Post column by writer Andrew Coyne is a prime example. With economics as background and frequent subject matter, Coyne nevertheless expounds on a variety of subjects that have the general effect of enhancing and promoting Conservative social policy as well. His recent column on the blackface episode, "Is Trudeau a racist? No. He's a fraud," was in the neighbourhood of 1,000 words and cited "racist" or "racial" no less than 10 times and "black face" or "blackening" six. He gratuitously threw in that scary and ambiguous label, "narcissist" (the more ambiguous the scarier, is the rule).

Trudeau is a "fraud" because while his policies are demonstrably pro-female, pro-gender minorities and pro-ethnic minorities, all of that represents hypocrisy and double-dealing because of an incident dating 20 years back. And the column certainly seems to promote the connection of Trudeau and racism, protests to the contrary notwithstanding.

Rex Murphy's recent column disparaged Trudeau for the same incident but I don't remember any criticism on his part on the far more significant racism of the Conservative record on Afghan prisoners of war, as well as the recent spate of indefensible wars against Muslim countries. While one wrong can't be cancelled by citing another greater one, there is the important principle of proportionality, and the attacks on Trudeau and the Liberals don't observe it.

Many columnists, Rex Murphy also among them, recently disparaged the idea of global warming generally and the 16-year-old activist who initiated what the youth of the world are calling "a climate strike": his picayune criticism includes a diatribe on the title, "climate strike": does it imply a union, a withdrawal of services, etc.? he disingenuously asks.

Greta Thunberg represents a movement that has found traditional ideas, procedures and institutions lacking when it comes to what many believe is the most important issue of all time. Letters to newspapers and public forums are also evidence that the public input of ordinary people is gaining status, inconvenient as that may be to the establishment.

Doris Wrench Eisler, St. Albert

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