People coming here from the cities are changing the very fabric of our area
Letters to the editor, May 27, 2021: Readers weigh in on criticism of China, our ranking of the best communities in Canada and anti-logging blockades on Vancouver Island
May 27, 2021 Charlottetown residents take part in a free outdoor fitness class; the city scored well in the community engagement category of our ranking (Courtesy of DiscoverCharlottetown.com)
The problem with prisons
Kudos to Justin Ling and
Maclean’s for the excellent writing and analysis regarding Canada’s prison system (“Houses of hate,” Analysis, May 2021). Now it is up to the federal and provincial governments to begin a full revamp of these costly and largely ineffective programs. Warehousing those in conflict with the law has long been known to be a poor way to spend money on rehabilitation. New approaches must be found.
By the time Bob Thoms, a retired engineer, entered long-term care, he had already experienced a series of harrowing health crises. He was diagnosed with lung cancer in his late 50s, then lymphoma a few months later. In the wake of chemotherapy, his cognitive abilities began to deteriorate. Doctors chalked it up to “chemo brain.” “He just wasn’t him anymore,” his younger brother, Bill, says. Around the same time, undergoing surgery for a perforated ulcer, Bob flatlined on the operating table and was technically dead for six minutes.
Bob lived alone in an apartment on Wellesley Street. Bill and their sister, Susan Hynes, checked in on him several times a week. After Bob inexplicably tossed a lit cigarette down the garbage chute of his building, causing a fire, they realized they couldn’t provide the level of care he needed. He hated the first home they put him in too many old people, he said so they moved him to Guildwood, a long-term care facility in Scarborough. It seeme