Globe and Mail, letter to the editor, September 7, 2009

Why does Toronto’s island airport need to be named after a person? And if it does, why should it be named after one whose main claim to fame has been the large number of airmen he killed? (Airports At War – letters, Sept. 4)

The horrors of the fighting in the First and Second World Wars seem to be retold on a daily basis now in every form of media. These wars have been over for more than 90 and 60 years respectively and I would have thought that those of us who lived through and served in them would rather forget about them.

If a Canadian airport has to be renamed, name it after a person who saved lives rather than destroying them. Sir Nicholas Winton, the Nobel Peace Prize nominee who organized the rescue of hundreds of Jewish children from occupied Czechoslovakia, comes to mind. Among the children whose lives he saved was Canadian journalist and author Joe Schlesinger.

Ray Kathwaroon, Winnipeg