Mr. Telegdi's marbles

Toronto Globe and Mail | May 18, 2001

Letters | Mr. Telegdi's marbles | Andrew Telegdi

Kitchener-Waterloo, Ont. -- I would like to assure Edward Greenspon (A Sorry Tale Of Two MPs -- May 12, 2001) that I have not lost my marbles. Contrary to what a misleading headline in our local newspaper said, which has now been repeated ad nauseam across the country, I do not believe that Canada is like Nazi Germany. Had I said it was, it would indeed be proper for Mr. Greenspon to assume I was marbleless.

What I told the reporter from the Kitchener-Waterloo Record, and what he accurately reported in his story, was that under existing legislation, it is politicians rather than courts who would make decisions on the revocation of a person's citizenship. That, I told the reporter, is what Hitler used to do, and what Stalin used to do, and has no place in a country that prides itself on its Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Canada is not Nazi Germany, nor is it the Soviet Union of Joseph Stalin. We operate under the rule of law, thank God, and my only concern is that the awesome power to remove a person's citizenship be held by independent jurists rather than by politicians, whose motivations may be suspect.

Andrew Telegdi MP