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Controlling information

First they came for the statisticians, and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a statistician.

Then they came for the environmentalists, and I didn't speak out because I wasn't an environmentalist.

Then they came for the government scientists, and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a government scientist.

And now, how are we to understand our world?

The inescapable conclusion is that Stephen Harper does not want us to.

Not, at least, based on unvetted facts. While shedding highly qualified scientists, Harper is bulking up on media relations "professionals," building up his own version of the truth. We are to accept their slogan: Ignorance is strength.

I do not accept this slogan.

STEVEN ROBBINS

Winnipeg

I just finished watching a movie about aliens who attack Earth to strip it of its resources. How ironic that Hollywood needs to invent enemies to savage our home when our federal government is performing the task more than adequately.

The cancellation of the Experimental Lakes Area program is a wrong-headed decision that impacts our present and our future. Our top priority should be to protect our environment. The research done at the ELA is recognized beyond our boundaries as a groundbreaking attempt to do just that. If we can occupy Wall Street, surely we can rally our federal representatives to reconsider this folly.

LINDA SEXSMITH

Winnipeg

I agree with Harper making cuts in the government. It is easy to keep spending and making everybody happy. It is difficult to make the tough decisions to make cuts.

However, to shut down the freshwater research program doesn't make sense. This program doesn't cost a lot of money and it does a lot of good. It is simply money well spent.

RICHARD DIXON

Winnipeg

Mulcair's false rhetoric

Re: It's a 'disease,' the studies agree (May 24). Sorry, Frances Russell, but Canada is not suffering from Dutch disease.

For every study that agrees with this nonsense, there are studies that do not. I bet Thomas Mulcair doesn't believe this twaddle either, though he will use it in his gamble to grab power in a most despicable way.

Using a steady stream of anti-oilsands rhetoric, he will try to convince Ontario voters of the merit of his argument. Unfortunately for Mulcair, it has none.

Of course, a higher dollar is detrimental to the manufacturing sector. It always has been. But it's not the driving force behind Ontario's recent economic downturn. This has more to do with a decline in American buyers and an Asian market that is almost impossible to compete with.

Ontario's economic woes are wrapped up in Dalton McGuinty's mismanagement and incompetence. He has condemned the oilsands much the same way as Thomas Mulcair did.

But McGuinty is a provincial premier and can get away with such mendacity. A federal leader who is attempting to become the prime minister should have the sense not to alienate an entire region of the country in a game of political brinkmanship.

DON HERMISTON

Winnipeg

Patronizing attitude

I am disturbed by the tone presented in the May 19 letter of the day, Discrimination in reverse, from Amanda Sklepowich responding to your May 12 story College struggling to attract teachers.

It is patronizing to say, "A job should go to the best person for that job -- someone who is qualified to teach." In fact, the University College of the North in Thompson is actively recruiting aboriginal educators who have teaching degrees and therefore are fully qualified to teach the curriculum. This is not "discrimination," nor is it simply employment equity.

Justice Murray Sinclair, chairman of Canada's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, said that the removal of over 100,000 aboriginal children from their homes was an act of genocide; it is no wonder that aboriginal communities want aboriginal teachers and professors to teach their children.

Would Sklepowich call a private Catholic school "discriminatory" in its hiring practices because the school prefers to hire teachers who share the Catholic faith?

LAWRENCE SUTHERLAND

Winnipeg

Low-pressure problems

As a longtime cottage owner and taxpayer in the village of Dunnottar, I would like to comment on statements made by our mayor, Rick Gamble, in your May 19 article Dunnottar cottagers balk at sewage system.

Gamble is quoted as saying that the communities of Warren, Sanford, La Salle and Headingley have the low-pressure system and are happy with it. All of these communities consist of 100 per cent permanent residents. However, he fails to mention the nearby town of Winnipeg Beach, which also has the low-pressure system, along with many rumoured problems, and where, like Dunnottar, the majority of residents are seasonal. The problem is too few residents in the winter to push the water, causing potential freezing of pipes.

Gamble states that on-lot costs will be under $1,000 for most residents. Perhaps he should read the engineering report handed out at recent meetings. It states on-lot costs will be from $3,000 to $6,875.

These costs are only estimates, and we all know that estimates have only one way to go, and that is up.

CLIFF MOLLISON

Winnipeg

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition May 26, 2012 A18