Have your say

Parking outside the box

Re: Parking rates that pay off (Editorials, July 9) and Over two hours at a city meter: $60 ticket (July 7). Whenever it seems that a problem continually needs fixing, perhaps we need to turn it over and look at it from the other side.

How about free parking? All the time and everywhere. That would put Winnipeg on the map and ahead of its time.

No one would have to waste time and gas moving his or her car every two hours. No one would waste land on surface lots or building parkades. (In fact, I daresay we would fast find more creative ways to develop spaces downtown.)

Parked cars do not use up gas, do not pollute, cannot hurt pedestrians or have accidents and do not make noise. Parked cars are environmentally friendly.

If the Winnipeg Parking Authority really wants to encourage people to carpool, use transit or ride a bike, they would change their focus and become the Winnipeg Driving Authority. They could ticket idling cars (polluting, wasting gas, bad for engines) and have tolls at intersections to charge drivers if they do not have passengers.

All the current parking-patrol ticket-writers could be shifted into these new roles, and more jobs would be created.

TIM BRANDT

Winnipeg

Held back by discipline

Re: Spanking has a place (Letters, July 9). I for one concur with Tracie Afifi's study results. I am in my 60s and was spanked as a child. I do suffer from depression and anxiety disorder and obsessive compulsive disorder. My first memory is fear and anxiety.

I, too, am a fine upstanding citizen, but I did not reach my potential or become the person I should have become mentally, emotionally or spiritually. I was held back by discipline, fear of discipline and fear of doing something wrong.

ELFRIEDA GUENTHER

Morden

Identifying the problem

Regarding letter writer Don Halligan's belief Canada should abolish political parties (Validating an argument, June 30), I remind you that when the Canadian colonies were first talking about confederation, political deadlock was one of the major frustrations.

There were so many independents and small parties all looking to further their own agendas that nothing got done. Major decisions could not be made, and the country as a whole could not move forward. Abolishing political parties is not the answer.

Instead, perhaps we need to look to ourselves and ask why we allow today's governmental outrages to go on. Who elected these people? We did. Perhaps, before we go to the polling station, we should do some homework and really understand who we will vote for and why.

KATHY SLOVINSKY

Winnipeg

There's a trend here

Re: Mountie probed over bondage, torture scenes (July 6). A little over two years ago we were reading about two teachers from Churchill High School simulating sex in front of students and other staff members. To the best of my knowledge, they were suspended but never disciplined and eventually resigned after the video went viral.

Shortly thereafter, headlines revealed that an associate chief justice of the Manitoba Court of Queen's Bench had posed for nude bondage photos, which were posted online for the world to view. She was temporarily relieved of duties as a sitting justice but remains employed in an administrative capacity while the Canadian Judicial Council reviews her case.

Currently we are reading about a corporal in the RCMP in Coquitlam, B.C., whose photos have been posted online depicting sexually explicit bondage and torture. He has been suspended, probably with pay, while a code-of-conduct investigation takes place.

These are just three recent examples of people in public office practising unacceptable behaviour with their superiors being aware of the situation and doing nothing until the incident becomes public. School teachers, judges, police officers and others who must have the public trust in order to perform their duties should be expeditiously removed from service once unacceptable moral behaviour is confirmed.

TERRY MEINDL

Teulon

Maybe he's engaged

Re: Team to study belugas' habits (July 9). A few years ago I was fortunate enough to be in Churchill when the whales were in the bay. I went out in a Zodiak and we matched our speed to beluga speed.

These wonderful critters swam alongside the boat and liked to be patted. I think the belugas are studying us. When I got back to Churchill, I had a tiny tag on my finger.

ROBERT FOSTER

Winnipeg

Arm's length is needed

Gordon Sinclair's July 7 column, Poor care caught on tape?, documents another example of how patients are not receiving quality care in Manitoba's health-care facilities. There needs to be a patient advocate office not affiliated with Manitoba Health.

The Protection for Persons in Care office, located at Manitoba Health and staffed by Manitoba Health employees, is obviously not the answer. The health minister has put on blinders and cannot see the forest for the trees.

If she could, she would acknowledge an arm's-length body is needed to randomly monitor health-care facilities. How would she feel if she were Anne Dash's granddaughter and witnessed the lack of care?

JACQUELINE JOSS

Winnipeg

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition July 11, 2012 A6