Disgusted by letter’s comparison of genital mutilation to Nazi camps

Editor:

Last week’s letter commenting on the possibility that Kellie Leitch might be a leadership contender for the Conservative party was quite disgusting in drawing a comparison between efforts to stop the barbaric practice of female genital mutilation (FGM) and the Nazis death camp treatment of the Jews.

FGM is a brutal surgical procedure performed, usually without anesthetic in awful conditions, on approximately 100 million to 150 million girls and young women who belong to certain cultures in third world countries.

Many immigrants to Canada from those countries continue the ritual, thinking it is compatible with their rights as new Canadians.

FGM causes extraordinary pain, lifelong health consequences and often death from infection or blood loss.

Just check with doctors working in the emergency departments of Toronto hospitals where victims of botched FGM surgeries are brought for help. It is a practice universally condemned by the civilized world and Canada should be doing everything possible to ensure it is eradicated.

I suggest Mr. Byford should be congratulating Dr. Leitch on her efforts to prevent significant harm to young women in immigrant communities across Canada and he should apologize for the ill-conceived and very distasteful comparisons in his letter of last week.

Rowland Fleming,

Creemore.