Have your say

Premature call

I attended the vigil at the legislature to show my support for missing and murdered women and to express my sadness and frustration at the volume of unsolved cases. I agree completely, however, with the June 27 editorial, No time for rash judgment, that it is premature to malign the police.

The missing and murdered women were almost certainly targeted because they were socially marginalized and vulnerable. But there is no evidence to suggest to me that the police are continuing this abuse.

BROOKE PENNER

Winnipeg

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Should Shawn Lamb be found guilty, judges who repeatedly let him off without deterrent and fitting sentences should be charged with being accessories to murder.

Please publish his complete criminal record, including sentences and judges' names.

WILLIAM McCOWAN

Winnipeg

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The Manitoba chiefs are wanting something done about the number of missing aboriginal women. What they first need to do is have their own inquiry (at their own expense) and establish for themselves why this is happening.

If it is happening mainly to aboriginals, and in this case if the culprit is an aboriginal, then it is something they need to address on their own.

It is easy to always blame someone else and ask others to solve your problems, but the first step is to try to help yourselves.

DAVID N. YASKIW

Winnipeg

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I am bewildered as to why the aboriginal chiefs want an inquiry into the alarming number of aboriginal women who are missing or who were murdered, and their whereabouts or why their assailants have not been arrested.

Shouldn't the provincial and federal governments and the various law enforcement agencies be asking for an inquiry into how the chiefs, who are the leaders of their people and their culture, are allowing this to continue to happen, and not the other way around?

AL SANSREGRET

Winnipeg

Judicial frustrations

Re: Appeal for role in inquiry an insult to true victim (June 26). Lindor Reynolds suggests that Justice Lori Douglas's only mistake was to trust her husband. How on earth does she know that?

We have no idea of the level of complicity between Douglas and her husband. It has taken two years for the Douglas defence to come up with the idea that she is the victim. Should we have not heard about this from the start?

I have listened with frustration over the years with our judiciary convicting people with the proclamation "they should have known better." I have observed with great frustration as our judges grant parole or pardons, only to have criminals go out and reoffend, even in bizarre cases handing out bouquets of flowers instead of sound legal decisions.

It is about time that the mirror is being held up in front of their faces and they be judged with the same set of rules that they use. In short, in the words of our judiciary, Douglas should have known better. It is now time to be accountable.

GARY HOOK

Winnipeg

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There are no victims in this story; all are adults doing things they shouldn't have been doing. Alex Chapman went back to the trough after extorting $25,000 dollars from Jack King and Lori Douglas. He's no victim.

King betrays his wife and his profession, then the Law Society of Manitoba allows him to practice law here like nothing happened. He's no victim.

Douglas allowed herself to be photographed naked in positions that go far beyond a simple pose. This is something a teenager would do and regret for the rest of her life, but Douglas is no teenager; she was a lawyer and now a judge. She's no victim.

KIM SIGURDSON

Winnipeg

Make every effort

Re: Mall rescue called off, then ordered back on (June 26). The person who was or is alive and trapped in the rubble was trying to communicate to outside fellow human beings that he/she needs help. In mine rescue we called this method "Tommy knocker," and every effort to free this person should be used.

A state of emergency was declared and yet there was no sign of the Canadian military. When you are working on the surface (as opposed to underground), you have several entrances and there's no limit to the machinery that could be called in, all you have to do is be creative.

ORVILLE BECKING

Snow Lake

Cause of the crisis

Re: Moody's finds RBC wanting (Editorials, June 26). Central banks like the Bank of Canada, the U.S. Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank are at the root of the worldwide monetary crisis. Central banks have been at the root of every boom and bust cycle since their inception in the early 1900s.

All the money the central banks created from thin air to rescue retail banks is causing the inflation that consumers face today. More money chasing the same goods bids up prices.

But creating money from thin air does not produce wealth; it debases the value of all the currency that previously existed. It's the same old melt-lead-into-gold trick governments of the past tried when they needed money to spend on whatever boondoggles.

CHRIS BUORS

Winnipeg

Doing a disservice

The June 22 headline Highly connected Tory lawyer represents Magnotta seems to suggest that lawyer Luc Leclair being a Conservative supporter is somehow significant in a case that is already approaching sensationalism.

No matter which political party's name in inserted, the story actually might do a disservice to people who become involved in politics. I support any member of the legal profession who in turn supports any political candidate, or for that matter, any profession -- teachers, doctors, tradespeople.

Yes, it is ironic that a connected Tory is the defence of a case involving body parts mailed to Conservative headquarters, but nothing more -- and perhaps a little less ironic that I'd say so.

DENNIS TROCHIM

Manitoba Liberal Party

Hooray for Brown

Re: Struggling QBs should be yanked sooner (June 26). Hooray, Doug Brown, for saying what fans have been pleading for from the stands and from their sofas -- pull an under-performing quarterback sooner rather than later. Don't wait for the quarter or the half.

"Working through" a bad patch is good advice for life, not for a football game. Why do we have backup quarterbacks? Just for an injured starter?

Let the rattled QB cool off, survey the action from the sidelines and regroup.

SHEILA WELBERGEN

Winnipeg

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition June 28, 2012 A13