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Classified (Eff-Tribune York Region Media Group community newspapers The Sun-Tribune, published every Thursday and Saturday, is a division of the Metroland Media Group Ltd.. a whollyowned subsidiary of Torstar Corporation. Metroland is comprised of 100 community pubiicafions across Ontario. The York Region Newspaper Group also includes The liberal, sewing Richmond Hill and Thomhill, Vaughan Citizen,The Era-Banner (Newmarket/Aurora), Markham Economist The Sun-Tribune welcomes your let- ters. All submissions must be less than 400 words and mum include a daytime telephone number. name and address The Sun-Tribune reserves the right to publlsh or not publish and to edit for clar- iry and space. Letters to the Editor, The Sun-Tribune 6290 Maln St StoufMllo, on L“ IS? Sun, Georgina Advocate, York Region Business Tunes, Nonh of the City. yorkregionmm and York Region Printing. mbanuilleé’yrmg.com Fax: cnorman®yrmg4com dandrews®yrmgcom DISTRIBUTION Circulation Supervisor Carolyn Norman Enrmnm Editor lim Mason jmasonéoyrmgrom ADVERTISING Retail Manager Mike Banm’lle Manager Da wna Andrews DISTRIBUTION 905-640-2612 PRODUCI'ION Manager Sheny Day jmason.yrmg.com 905-640-2612 nu 905-640-8778 ADVERTISING 905-640-2612 fled: 1-800-743-3353 n: 905-640-8778 INTERACHVE MEDIA Marketing Advertising lETTERS POLICY sday®yrmg.com EDITORL n ~ t could never happen here. That was Prime Minister Ste- phen Harper’s assurance in the wake of the massive oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. which he referred to as “an environ- mental .catastrophe unlike anything we've seen in quite a long time". The company behind the spill off the United States Gulf Coast, British Petro- leum, has three licences to drill for oil in the Beaufort Sea in Canada’s Arctic. BP and other companies have asked our federal government to relax envi- ronmental regulations around Arctic drilling. And BC. is still pushing to get the federal government to lift a morato- rium on drilling off the West Coast. There’s also a plan in the works by Enbridge to build a pipeline to carry oil from the tar sands to the BC coast, where it will be put on oil tankers for ocean shipping. . Questions have also been raised about the safety of an oflshore well Chevron has started drilling off the coast of Newfoundland. [twill be deeper than the one in the Gulf of Mexico. We've been assured many times that the technology is safe, but the Gulf disaster shows no technology is fool- proof. Can we really afford the risk? U.S. Presidth 'Barack Obama has halted plans for further oil drilling in Why should we back pharmacists in fight? Re: Back our pharmacists in fight with province, letter to the editor by Diane Ward, May 22. Provincial and federal guidelines specify generic drugs are to be identical to brand name drugs. Howev- er, the word identical is very much a legal interpretation and is not literal. A life-threatening experi- ence (in my family) occurred because a pharmacist decided to replace a brand name pre- scription with a generic withâ€" out formally advising us. It was realized after three months of weight and mem- ory loss, along with seizures, that the brand name was arbi- trarily replaced by a generic drug. The druggist claimed unless the doctor’s prescrip- tion indicates “no replace- ment", he is within his rights LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Galfail spill has many lessons for Canada to switch to generics. It took a month to return to normal once the brand name was re- introduced. We should consider the following before pushing the Ontario government to recon- sider eliminating rebates: 0 W111 pharmâ€"acists be ada- mant to push generics without the rebates? °Why do doctors prescribe brand names rather than generics? r 7 0 How did pharmacists stay in business before generics and rebates were introduced? Why did doctors and phar- macists give advice on drug implications before generics were introduced? Be careful what you ask for because the next thing will be to support pharmacists writâ€" ing prescriptions. Of course, it won’t have anything to do with money but the free advice on what's right for the patient. GARY SIMONDS WHITCHURCH-STOUFFVILLE David Suzuki with Faisal Moolaw the Gulf until an investigation is com- pleted (although, according to the Center for Biological Diversity, the US. has approved 27 other ofishore drilling projects since the spill) and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has imple- mented a similar moratorium on drill- ing ofi that state’s coast. Canada, however, has no plans to halt East Coast or Arctic drilling and the BC government continues to push for drilling off the West Coast. When a disaster of this magnitude occurs, we should stop to re-examine the state of our own programs that might have similar risks so we can find ways to avoid banning our oceans and coastal communities. B.C.‘s coast, which is known world- wide for its rich biodiversity and vibrant PUBLISHER Ian Proudfoot tourism industry, is particularly vulner- able to the impacts of an qil spill: _ A spill would be carried quickly by the nutrientâ€"rich currents, possibly washing up on the mainland, Vancouver island and Haida Gwaii coasts. A spill or leak could threaten orcas, salmon, birds and many other plant and animal species, as well as devastating our fishing and tour- ism industries. Is this the price we’re willing to pay for a polluting and diminishing source of energy? Oil {nay seem inexpensive compared to some forms of energy, but if you factpg in the costs of these Ba] andâ€" potential disasters, not to mention the everyday pollution, it’s not such a bargain. One surprising response to the spill comes from proponents of the Alberta tar sands who see the Gulf disaster as boon. A cartoon in the Edmonton loumal pictured US. President Obama standing in the Gulf with oil on his hands, saying. “On second thought, the Alberta oilsands ain't so bad. The tar sands have been linked to ecological, social and medical problems. including toxic water pollution and excesâ€" sive gneenhouse gas emissions - and none of that is altered by the Gulf spill. The disastroils conseduences of ocean oil spills may be more immedi- 6290 Main St. Stouflviue, 0N. MA 167 ww.yomregon.com iTribune ater apparent, but land-based drilling can also cause environmental damage. Borro- m CHIEF Debora Kelly Leaks, spills, blow-outs, fires and explo- sions are more common than many people A more thoughtful response to the spill would be to recognize the huge risks associated with the kind of energy weuseand thewaywegetit. Clearly, the negative costs of tar sands and deep ocean resources should point to the need to work toward a carbon- free energy future. The problems are only going to get worse as we reach peak oil, when the most accessible sources of. oil are all but gone and we must rely even more on the dirtier and harder-to-reach supplies in the deep ocean or tar sands. We can't stop using fossil fuels imme- diately, but we should see this latest disaster as an opportunity to look at the costs of our energy use and where we should go from here. Clearly we must wean ourselves from oil and gas as we make the transition to cleaner sources of energy. If we were wise, we would go more slowly with the resources we do have â€" in the tar sands, for example - and use the revenues to fund research and development of clean energy. Busmass Mum Robert Lazurko Dunc-ma. Omens Barry Black Léhm more at unuwdavidsuzukiorg. Damon, REGIONAL Puonucrs, Cmsmm, Tomv’s How Debra Weller Dilacmn, Alumnus, DIMON Nicole Fletcher