Additional May 2007 Letters

Toronto, Ontario

A front-page feature in the February 9, 2007, edition of McMaster University’s student newspaper, the Silhouette, addressed the projected decline in university applicants once the “echo” generation is through high school. In the coming years, rather than solving this problem by lowering admission requirements, universities could kill two birds with one stone and institute policies and programs that support male enrolment. Actively recruiting males may be anathema today, but as the post-secondary education system becomes more polarized, the stigma of affirmative action will likely disappear. The question is how acute the problem will have to become before Canadians recognize the disservice being done to male students and to society as a whole.
Adam Cooper
Hamilton, Ontario

I found it amusing that on the last page of “Snail Males,” there is an advertisement for the University of Toronto that features only one identifiably male figure—dancing (exploring his feminine side, or just trying to get laid?). Meanwhile, all of those clearly pictured in the classroom are women.
Dave McIntyre
Toronto, Ontario

Blood Oath

I was stunned to find out that cord-blood collection has been commercialized in Canada (“Blood Simple,” March). Obviously, the fees associated with private storage preclude poorer people from being able to access this valuable resource, but there is another aspect of this issue that troubles me at least as much: the notion that we each need to look after ourselves and the devil take everyone else. This way of thinking is manifested in so many of the choices we make. Those of us who can afford it buy rrsps instead of fighting for fully vested pension plans; we buy better education for our children and let the public system decline; we engage in surgical tourism or side-step the waiting list by buying services from the private clinics that are undermining the public health care system.

I will today start lobbying my MP and the minister of health to order Canadian Blood Services to set up a national cord-blood deposit system.
John Olsen
Errington, British Columbia