From: Eugene Harasymiw
To: [email protected]
Sent: Friday, December 29, 2000 9:49 PM
Subject: Rick Salutin's article on victims and families

Dear Editor of Globe and Mail:

Rick Salutin's piece on victims and their families (Dec. 29, 2000) makes valid, and indeed, unassailable points when he decries the "danger of diminishing the experience or death of actual victims by transferring exactly the same attitude to their families," and that "victims themselves tend to vanish behind families who are implicitly given, in some way, an almost exclusive right to mourn." These observations lead Mr. Salutin to ask: "Where did this idea come from, that some people can be made whole by inflicting legal punishment on others?"

It is not difficult to imagine where the idea came from, and it is easier still to see where it has lead. Consider the persecution of select groups worldwide via politically motivated show trials grounded on bogus allegations of war criminality, and then ask yourself if you can say "politics".

Eugene Harasymiw, LL.B.
President
Alberta Ukrainian Self-Reliance League