Have your say

She had a future

The Free Press is stating that my niece Lorna Blacksmith worked in the sex-trade industry. I want to set the record straight.

My niece was not a prostitute. Every time one of our aboriginal women goes missing, she is classified as someone who worked the streets. Every time the media make such a statement, it further perpetuates the stereotype of our women as less than human, expendable and of no value to society, while others blame them for the choices they may or may not have made.

My young niece's life was cut short at the hands of a monster. He took her choices away in a violent and inhuman manner.

Lorna was an amazing, upbeat, caring, healthy young woman. She had goals, ambitions, values and beliefs. She was an academic achiever in school; her goal in life was to become a successful, independent woman. She was a beautiful aboriginal woman with her whole future ahead of her.

Like any 18-year-old, she made mistakes, struggled, endured challenges, had weaknesses, made misjudgments; she was a teenager who needed guidance and direction.

You need to focus on the fact that she was a human being and deserved to be treated with dignity and respect.

MARGARET HART

Thompson

We're past that now

In 2004, when the Manitoba government announced the post-Labour Day start to the school year, Manitoba parents and business owners cheered. It was something many had wanted for years. Even the Winnipeg Free Press reported that the NDP had extended summer.

However, your June 25 editorial, Whittling the school year away, suggests that instructional time has suffered.

I thought we were long past the notion that "butts in chairs" was the only -- or even the preferred -- method of instruction. Experiential learning like the kind that occurs on field trips brings curriculum to life, and a few of the half-day trips your editorial cites are typical of the recognition provided for the super-engaged students who have devoted countless additional hours to community and peer service over the course of the school year.

Those who lament that we're not preparing kids for the "real world" shouldn't whine when we decide to use that "real world" in our instruction. Learning can and does take place during these out-of-class activities.

The June schedule looks the way it does for any number of reasons, but I'll give you two:

-- Exams need to be spaced far enough apart that they're realistically achievable. We're aware of no educational value in giving a 15-year-old kid an ulcer.

-- There's no point in having kids write exams unless we're going to mark them. Marking takes time and the marks are due in the office early enough in June that report cards, graduation requirements and accurate transcripts can all be generated.

PAUL OLSON

Manitoba Teachers' Society

Winnipeg

Harper's hypocrisy

Re: Health-benefit cut for refugees spurs lawsuit (June 23). If you Google the public-service health-care plan and go to schedule VI -- full employer-paid coverage -- you will see a long list of persons, including all members of the House of Commons, who are entitled to full employer-paid coverage of supplemental health-care benefits. This coverage, paid for by Canadian taxpayers, is not just for one year but for as long as the members of the plan are working for the government.

Therefore, it is a bit hypocritical for the Harper government to argue that "it's only treating refugees the same as Canadians who can't afford supplemental health benefits."

Can members of the House of Commons, or the rest of the groups listed on schedule VI, not afford to pay for their own supplemental health benefits?

Rather than trying to pit Canadians against refugees, I would suggest that the Harper government forgo its entitlement to fully paid supplemental health-care coverage and use a part of these savings to continue the current funding of the IFHP, which is a vital and wise investment in the future health of refugees whom the government approves and selects to come to Canada.

EVELYN FLETCHER

Winnipeg

No one would debate that governments around the world are in crisis. Cuts are necessary. But I am continually astounded by Prime Minister Stephen Harper's priorities and decisions.

I believe it is a compassionate nation that accepts refugees from war-torn countries. But as of June 30, they will be accepted as second-class citizens devoid of many medical services. This will save Canada $20 million over five years.

At the same time, the Harper government has designated $28 million to "celebrate" the War of 1812. I would much rather know that we are treating those on our soil with care and compassion than know I will receive specially embossed coinage in my change.

JANE STUEBING

Winnipeg

Incredibly disrespectful

Re: Send Europeans to Asia to learn how to work (June 23). I find it incredibly disrespectful how Fabrice Taylor makes a comparison between the work ethic of Europeans and Canadians and Asians.

Taylor seems to think things are better in Asia, of all places. Perhaps Taylor needs to forfeit his Canadian citizenship and go take up residence in there.

I guess the large cities and sophisticated societies that have been built up throughout western history do not qualify as examples of hard work in Taylor's eyes.

MARK QUIGLEY

Winnipeg

Indeed, it does

Not all of my students at university appreciated the precision I tried to impose on their prose, but I encountered the other day an important and amusing example of how sloppy grammar can go badly wrong.

An advertisement for an apartment rental included the line "no pet policy." Now, if the ad meant to say, "We have no policy regarding pets" (with the implication that they are accepted), all was well.

But I suspect that the intention was to state that they do not accept pets, for which the correct punctuation would include a hyphen: "no-pet policy."

And yet the world turns.

DON BAILEY

Winnipeg

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition June 27, 2012 A10