Have Your Say

No more malathion

As a relatively new Winnipegger, I am mostly grateful to be living here. This city is an exciting home thanks to its diversity, distinct history, artistic vitality, and natural beauty. The well-known Winnipeg inferiority complex seems unfounded to my newcomer's eyes.

At the same time, as a newcomer I am dismayed by Winnipeg's attachment to malathion fogging. To combat mosquitoes by putting a toxic chemical into the air we breathe seems obviously misguided. Especially when, like so far this summer, the mosquitoes are not even disease carriers. The idea of reducing advance notification and buffer zones, which give people some minimal control over their exposure to this toxin, seems obviously harmful.

Perhaps longtime residents here have been desensitized to how truly strange malathion fogging is. As we say in Yiddish, it's a shame what you can get used to. As a new Winnipegger, I want to say to longtime Winnipeggers: Please take another look at what is happening in our city!

JUSTIN JARON LEWIS

Winnipeg

Honour killings

Re: the issue of so-called honour killing. Ironically, all honour killings are, by definition, the most dishonourable thing that modern society can possibly inflict upon women. The age-old practice of stoning women to death must be called exactly what it is -- an extreme form of cruelty perpetrated against the female gender to keep them totally under the control of the male population of the communities in question.

The human race owes it to itself to eradicate this treating of women as if they were of lesser value than men. They are the ones who bring life to this very planet. Taking their lives in this heinous manner is the greatest disservice done to the human race itself.

The solution lies in not condemning the entire community or its faith for the practice of honour killings, but to design, implement and enforce strict international human rights laws to rid the world of subjugation of all females no matter where they live. Furthermore, all violators must be punished to the full extent of these international laws that must be enforced by the United Nations.

MIKE CHRISTIANSON

Winnipeg

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Not all cultures are equal but every culture has something to contribute. Honour killings, like female circumcision, are totally unacceptable. They are more prevalent in certain communities. They have to be rooted out. Violence against and suppression of women have been around since the dawn of time. What about date rape in Western culture? We can learn from each other's culture and be stronger for it.

Jesus said "First take the log out of your own eye and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye."

ERNESTO DIAS

Winnipeg

Pointlessly polite

I would like to thank the 311 operator that I spoke to the other day. Our city's new information service is courteous and helpful. My one criticism is that the operator was unable to connect me with the person I wished to yell at for deciding to charge homeowners $85 for replacement garbage bins that often get stolen or set on fire in West End Winnipeg.

FINNEUS VON SCHMETTERLING

Winnipeg

Bike scofflaws

In response to Jean Feliksiak's letter (Enforce the bylaw, July 21). There is not a bylaw against riding bicycles on the sidewalk, but a provincial law. Unfortunately, it is one that the Winnipeg Police Service refuses to enforce. I have lobbied my city councillor, Jenny Gerbasi, and various WPS management for two years now trying to get them to enforce this law to no avail.

After being hit twice by sidewalk cyclists, I simply stopped walking and now drive where I need to go. It is time the WPS started enforcing this section of the Highway Traffic Act as vigilantly as they have other more "popular" sections such as cellphone usage and skateboarders. A couple of years ago they had the manpower to station an officer on Corydon Avenue for a couple of days in front of the skateboard store to ticket skaters on the sidewalk. I guess they are easier to catch than cyclists, as they aren't going as fast.

SCOTT MINER

Winnipeg

So 19th century

Re: the lead editorial Buy-local policy is defeatist (July 21): I seem to recall that New Flyer arose from despair (if not even the ashes of bankruptcy) exactly because of heavy government involvement. More generally, your 19th-century description of a free and efficient market runs on many fronts counter to the experience of the last hundred years. Large-scale enterprise tends to be unwieldy and can only survive by using its market power to eliminate competition.

JESSE VORST

Winnipeg

New rules not needed

Christopher Fries, a health sociologist, wrote on July 17 that when patient safety takes a "systems-thinking" approach it switches the name, blame and shame from the individual to the health-care system. This is not the case. The systems-thinking approach is to question why it made sense for individuals to do what they did at the time of the event, and takes into consideration how they were supported, or not, by the system.

For example, does the health-care system provide adequate training for staff when new technologies/equipment are introduced to a clinical area? Is constant overtime seen as an acceptable way to staff a unit?

As far as the statement that medical professionals scapegoat the system, often it is the complete opposite. If anything, medical professionals blame themselves as if they work alone in the system. It is not uncommon for individuals to feel wholly responsible when an event occurs and ignore the fact that system pressures exist and come into play as an event unfolds and decisions are being made.

I must add that increasing the number of regulatory measures that govern individual behaviour as a way to improve safety remains questionable to me. In complex settings such as health care, there exists the unexpected, the emergency situation, where judgment is required. In the health-care setting, increasing regulations may impede the ability of workers to rely on their experience and judgment. There is the risk of using judgment and running into trouble, or following the rules and running into trouble, only to be penalized for an outcome that in hindsight is being said to be preventable.

Patient safety is a team sport and culture change, although stated to be naïve from a sociological perspective, is worth the effort. As stated in an email from a colleague the other day -- it's tough to turn a barge around.

BRENDA LORD

Winnipeg

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition July 27, 2010 A11