To the editor:

Up in British Columbia for a wedding anniversary get-away and always enjoy learning how our neighbors today north of the border see the world.

The Times Colonist in Victoria today featured articles about “pharmaceutical tourism” by U.S. residents seeking lower prices and the construction of the first sewage treatment plant in Victoria so the city will no longer be pumping raw sewage into the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the reduction rise in the unemployment rate in Canada from 5.7 percent to 5.5 percent 5.5 percent to 5.7 percent (3.8 percent in Victoria) and couldn’t help but be attracted to the letters to the editor and one in particular, “Listening to opposing views with respect” by a Marcin Jedynak of Saanich:

“Although we sometimes disagree with opposing points of view, banishing it is against our own Charter of Rights and Freedoms — you know, that little part about freedom of expression. With every issue there are two, often opposing views. Banning one because we do not like it is not a way to deal with the issue. We might actually learn something. If we go down this path and the media is swayed by higher power to censure views, then I suggest people who support this need to look back at history and realize that the exact same things were done in the 1930s under the Nazi regime, and more recently the iron fist of the Soviet bloc.”

Lots of fresh air up here in BC.

THOMAS R. GREEN

Bainbridge Island