Father Joe was a good man | Letters to the Editor

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Evidence here: on Sunday past, on a one-and-a-half-hour ride, Visineau to Inness to Cyrville, Cummings to Ogilvie, Ogilvie to Blair, Blair to Inness and back home to Visineau (all bike lanes), I saw no less than 20 moving violations made by motorists. One time-crunched motorist clipped my right pedal as he shaved a microsecond off his progress to the gas pumps on Ogilvie. I was in the (rather crappy) bike lane. I have had motorists yell at me that cars always have the right of way over cyclists.

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Here’s a test for you: Spend 15 minutes at any busy intersection of your choice and I guarantee you that you will witness an equal number of dangerous moving violations by motorists in that time.

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We pedallers are far less a problem.

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Thomas Brawn, Orléans

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How government could effect real change in bilingual competency

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Mon dieu, yet again more baloney from the official languages commissioner and federal government regarding bilingualism.

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If the federal government was genuinely interested in assuring the bilingual competency of its employees, it would introduce changes that would result in real progress in this area. I am a strong supporter of a bilingual workplace and the bilingual services available to Canadians.

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As an anglophone who attained much of my French second-language capabilities thanks in large part to full- and part-time training programs provided free of charge at work by the federal government, I frustratingly witnessed the poor performance of many employees in meeting the official language requirements of their positions most of my 35 years employed there.

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At times I, too, was guilty, mainly because there was no “real” enforcement of official language regulations or any “real” accountability of employees in bilingual positions in regards to official language regulations. This was generally the case for both anglophones and some francophones.

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The federal government awarded me $800 every year as a bilingual employee, almost $30,000 over my career. It spent tens of thousands for the free part-time and full-time language training I received while at work.

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Incredibly, I was never held accountable for meeting the official language regulations.

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If the federal government were genuinely interested in its employees following official languages requirements, it would tie them to bilingual employees’ annual performance reviews, the outcome of which would determine if they received the annual bilingual bonus each year or remained in their bilingual positions.

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Bob McRae, Aylmer

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Musk, like other Americans, should mind his own business

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Elon Musk’s attempts to meddle in Canada’s affairs and incite separatist action are just another entry on a long list of insults from the U.S.A. How ironic that Americans spend so much time rabbiting on against the evils of foreign interference in their own politics when they have no qualms interfering in everyone else’s business.

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I would like to invite Mr. Elon Musk to go soak his head — in Lake ONTARIO.

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Francine Dewar, Ottawa

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The Donald is wrong, it’s U.S., Russia that need new presidents

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President Donald Trump, in what may be his most contemptible statement yet, suggested that Ukraine needs a new president. The two countries in most need of new presidents are Russia and the U.S.

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Trump’s ego, it seems, simply cannot abide the fact that whereas President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is widely respected, even admired, Trump is held in contempt by the vast majority of free people throughout the world. Were it not for Vladimir Putin, Trump might well wear the dubious mantle of “world’s most despised leader”.