Too few day-care workers
Re: Day-care centres fit to burst, May 14.Yes, there is a definite lack of spaces in child-care centres, but the other issue that needs to be fixed first is the huge shortage of workers to operate the already licensed spaces. Unless we start recruiting and retaining staff, there will be even fewer spaces. Imagine what parents would do then.
TRACY PETERS
Niverville
Jewish and ashamed
Your editorial Standing up for Israel (May 12) says it is a little nation that continues to set an example to the world. I am Jewish and am deeply ashamed of the example Israel is setting.
To date, there have been more than 100 UN resolutions calling for Israel to stop its illegal and brutal occupation of the West Bank and Gaza -- all unheeded. In the last two months alone, nearly 300 Gazans have been killed by Israeli tank fire and targeted by deadly missiles. Just three weeks ago, a Palestinian mother and her four children were killed by an Israeli missile while they were eating breakfast in their front yard. A missile hit their iron garden fence, causing it to fall on them. Israel's response was to say that Hamas put the family in harm's way.
Since 1967, Israel has demolished more than 18,000 Palestinians' homes. In 2007, 50 were destroyed in East Jerusalem alone. According to Israel, none of the Palestinian owners had building permits -- which are all but impossible to obtain. Demolishing civilian homes is against international law, but who is asking?
I think many Canadians will know the name Rachel Corrie, who was a 23-year-old American peace activist. Five years ago, she was mowed down by an Israeli Defence Force-driven bulldozer when she tried to stop a house from being demolished. Israel has never offered so much as an apology for what happened to her. And the U.S. government has never asked for so much as an explanation.
What Israel does is not in my name -- and more Canadian Jews are coming to this opinion every day.
JUDY HAIVEN
Halifax, N.S.
Liberals support Israel
I am writing in response to your editorial, Standing up for Israel. In it, you correctly note that Canada's security is linked with Israel's security and I strongly support this position. You have also, rightly, praised Prime Minister Stephen Harper's strong statement of support for Israel on the occasion of its 60th anniversary. But I was a bit surprised that you did not reference St ©phane Dion's statement of support for the Jewish state on this occasion.
Readers of the editorial may also mistakenly infer that the Conservative government's support for Israel is new, uniform and that Liberals are not as supportive. To avoid any misconceptions, I would like to point out that while the government has been vocal in its support for Israel, it made no changes to Canada's foreign policy towards Israel or the Middle East. In fact, Conservatives are following in Liberal footsteps. For example, at the United Nations General Assembly, they made seven vote changes in the past two years, exactly matching the seven vote changes that the Liberal government of Paul Martin started in the two years prior.
Support for Israel is not a partisan divide. Liberals, beginning with Dion, are strong supporters of the Jewish state. This government's message of support is welcome, but it is not new.
Anita Neville
MP for Winnipeg South Centre
Co-Chair of Liberal Parliamentarians for Israel
Examine Mideast facts
Keith Bradley (Segev omits facts, May 12) needs to take a harder look at the facts if he believes a lasting Middle East peace can be achieved merely if Israel gives up the occupied territories and grants the Palestinians the right to return.
For the first 20 years of statehood, Israel existed strictly within the boundaries mandated by UN Resolution 181. It wasn't occupying any territory illegally at all; yet that didn't stop a variety of terrorists crossing over from Arab lands trying to kill civilians and destroy the Jewish state. Likewise, in the spring of 1967, no lands were being occupied when Arab nations massed troops on Israel's borders, closed the Suez Canal to its ships, evicted UN peacekeepers, and invaded Sinai to precipitate the Six-Day War. Two years ago, hostilities with Hezbollah flared up in southern Lebanon because this extremist group persisted with rocket attacks and incursions into Israel for several years after the Israelis ended their occupation of that region. Similarly we're now seeing Hamas in Gaza conducting its own attacks, also from unoccupied territory. So it seems obvious that much of the issue has less to do with any refugees or disputed areas than with certain elements not being able to abide a non-Islamic entity in their midst.
Despite all of Israel's settlements, demography and justice may point to a border based on pre-1967 lines with minor adjustments that Bill Clinton suggested in 2000. In return, the Palestinians would have to accept a return not to their homes of 60 years ago, but to a new state in the West Bank and Gaza. However, unless they, the other Arab countries and UN peacekeepers have the resources and resolve to suppress terrorist groups consistently, any peace settlements are likely to be shortlived.
Edward Katz
Winnipeg
Safety system worked
Re: Tragedy narrowly averted in mid-air: report, May 14.
The story on the air traffic incident near The Pas requires clarification, in particular the statement that "the planes were within 0.7 nautical miles... of each other mid-air."
In fact, as shown in the report of the Transportation Safety Board (TSB), Appendix B, there was also significant vertical separation of more than 2,000 feet. This was more than double the vertical separation requirement of 1,000 feet.
As indicated in the TSB report, The Nav Canada Conflict Alert System warned the controller of the situation when the aircraft were 14.9 nautical miles apart, with 300 feet of vertical separation, also well within separation standards. The controller took action to address the problem. As this was underway, another layer of defence -- the on-board collision avoidance systems -- alerted the pilots, who took action in concert with the controller.
The TSB report shows that with 7.9 nautical miles of horizontal separation and 300 feet of vertical separation, the aircraft had already begun to move away from one another vertically. By the time they were about five nautical miles apart horizontally, they were also separated by just under 1,000 feet vertically, a distance which later increased to more than 2,000 feet. This was a loss of separation, but only just.
Since this event took place, Nav Canada has worked closely with the TSB and with our personnel to ensure a good understanding of the lessons learned. However, it should also be understood that this was a case of the layers of defence in the air transportation system working as they should, as the controller and the pilots, assisted by the alert systems, combined to resolve the situation.
Larry Lachance
Assistant VP, Operations Support
Nav Canada
Ottawa
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