Letters to the editor: Jan. 22: ‘The Royal formerly known as Prince?’ Harry and Meghan’s new titles, plus other letters to the editor

Letters to the Editor should be exclusive to The Globe and Mail. Include your name, address and daytime phone number. Try to keep letters to fewer than 150 words. Letters may be edited for length and clarity. To submit a letter by e-mail, click here: letters@globeandmail.com

Outside the box

Re Canada Presses Iran To Share Black Boxes From Flight 752 (Jan. 20): Foreign Affairs Minister François-Philippe Champagne demands full access to Flight 752′s black boxes. What in the world is there to learn from them?

We confidently know that the plane was shot down, that it was on its approved flight path, that there was no pilot error nor mechanical failure, there was no flocks of birds nor any natural event. It looks very much a fuss about nothing – except the government posturing as tough and decisive for domestic political mileage.

Rob Garrard Victoria

It seems inconceivable that the international community does not require instantaneous transmission of flight data and cockpit voice recordings from all passenger flights. The technology exists.

If the world had this data it would obviate the necessity of chasing Iran for Flight 752′s black boxes. It would also have enabled the world to know what happened to Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. Surely it is time to insist passenger airlines adopt up-to-date data transmission technology.

Larry Foy Thornbury, Ont.

Pipelines, Part 1

Re Will UNDRIP Block A B.C. Gas Pipeline? (Editorial, Jan. 16): The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples may not block this particular resource project in British Columbia, but it would certainly block many proposed future ones. I believe UNDRIP in effect creates a third order of sovereign government in Canada: First Nations.

The existing “duty to consult and accommodate” law has already killed the Mackenzie Valley and Energy East pipelines, and has forced Canadian taxpayers to buy the Trans Mountain pipeline. It has resulted in lost investment and jobs and flight of capital from Canada. A government that legally adopts UNDRIP would be committing economic suicide.

Peter Best Sudbury

The Globe’s editorial concludes that rewriting the “well-developed Indigenous legal framework” in Canada is not desirable. I believe Canada’s Indigenous legal framework has been anything but well developed.

I see it as the remainder of a colonial system, a patchwork of attempts to correct missteps that have exposed our country to allegations of genocide. The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples would provide Canada with a road map to effect a meaningful form of reconciliation and decolonization. It would be a means to work together. To frame it as the basis for an us-versus-them battle over resource rights seems to conflate issues in a way that looks a lot like fear-mongering.

Cheryl Lewis Toronto

John Horgan says “the rule of law must prevail.” Which law? If the Wet’suwet’en court-equivalent had been approached…

Elizabeth Kaller Victoria

Pipelines, Part 2

Re Supreme Court Dismisses B.C. Bid To Limit Heavy Oil Shipments (Jan. 17): The legal basis for the Supreme Court decision was that British Columbia’s proposal – which counsel for the federal Attorney-General characterized as regulating transport of oil between provinces – would be unconstitutional “because only Ottawa has oversight of the federally owned and regulated Trans Mountain pipeline.” I assume that this stands to clarify the position that Quebec cannot simply decide to impede the progress of a potential Energy East pipeline.

Provided the federal government undertakes a rigorous process in approving such a project, Quebec or any of the Atlantic provinces should respect Ottawa’s decision to proceed with a pipeline. As with TMX, it should all come down to the appropriateness of the environmental review. Further, it appears to reconfirm the point that the federal government does not have to actually own the pipeline for this to apply.

Nelson Smith Toronto

On track?

Re Bombardier Turnaround Derailed As Woes Mount (Jan. 17): I find it curious that Bombardier released a statement that “it is actively pursuing options to … enhance shareholder value,” rather than trying to improve manufacturing processes so that its products have fewer defects.

Linda Peritz Vancouver

Foul ball

Re Even After The Houston Astros, Cheaters Will Ultimately Never Prosper (Jan. 21): Despite its many shortcomings, the Olympics at least deals properly with cheaters: It takes back their medals. Major League Baseball should do the same to the Houston Astros and, it appears, the Boston Red Sox: Revoke their World Series “wins.”

Claire Hoy Toronto

Contributor Mark Kingwell, illustrating how deeply a team’s fortunes affect its fans, cites his wife’s grandfather, a lifelong Boston Red Sox supporter, who sadly never lived to see his team finally win it all in 2004. He could have been writing about my family.

My mother, from whom I inherited my lifelong love of the Red Sox, also passed away before their 2004 liberation from the Curse of the Bambino. When they were one out away from victory in 1986, I felt as if my life were about to change – then that cursed ground ball squirted through Bill Buckner’s legs. But in 2004 came elation, even a sense of personal redemption. Yes, it does go that deep.

But you know what? If the Red Sox are found to have won the 2018 World Series through cheating, I would applaud the team being stripped of the title, and turning elation into pain for me and other fans. Because only when we fans, as well as the ball club itself, suffer from the consequences of cheating, might we see the necessary pressure to stop it.

Maurice Breslow Seeley’s Bay, Ont.

Sign o’ the times

Re The Queen Has Fixed Canada’s ‘Megxit’ Issue (Editorial, Jan. 21): Who’d have thought it: The Queen has the power to remove royal titles from Harry and Meghan. Like many Canadians, I thought this came with birth or marriage and not with royal assent. So what example does she set for other parents who may disagree with the decisions their children or grandchildren make about the life they want to live?

Even when they may not follow the road the older generation might choose, we should strive to live a fulfilled life. Is revenge and antagonism the alternative to compassion and freedom of choice? I believe the courage of this couple and the values they represent cannot be understated.

As Harry has said, it brings sadness that it has come to this. I expected more from our head of state, especially since Harry and Meghan chose Canada, a Commonwealth country, as their second home. To me, this leaves no doubt that power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Monica Cullum Ottawa

Will Harry soon be referred to as “the Royal formerly known as Prince?”

Patrick Doherty Toronto

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