Mulroney's Candor Remains in Question

In the editorial "A View of Mulroney," June 10, the author writes, "Americans responded to Mulroney's candor." Candor can mean mere frankness, but it customarily denotes sincerity too. Canadians (including myself) learned early that sincerity was a quality sorely lacking in the prime minister, and many credit him with instigating the decline of the Canadian middle class.

At Mr. Mulroney's leave-taking, Canada is bitterly disappointed with and mistrustful of government. The General Services Tax has spawned an enormous black market in everything from cigarettes to roof repairs. The health- care system, once a model for the world, is deteriorating because the government has deliberately withdrawn funding.

Candor? Hardly. Rather arrogance and shortsightedness. Neil R. Hughes, Athens, Ga. Deforesting the Sierra Madre

Thank you for your worthy article "Indigenous People Press for Rights," June 9. In speaking up for the rights of indigenous people, the author touches upon an urgent need.

In the Sierra Madre of western Mexico at this moment 60,000 Tarahumara, 5,000 Guarijio, 2,000 Mt. Pima, 15,000 Northern Tepehuan, and 15,000 Southern Tepehuan people are losing their mountain habitat to unsustainable logging, pulping, mining, and inappropriate development that they neither asked for nor wanted.

It is essential that the unrecognized vital concerns of the indigenous people of the Sierra Madre be addressed and their rights respected. Anita Williams, Calexico, Calif.