Have your say

No clear connection

The Free Press's coverage of proposals to remove the CP Rail yards appears to be discussing a cure for a situation with no clear connection stated as to how the CP facility has actually caused the social issues of Winnipeg's North End.

You are pushing for change, which will be costly to the province, the city and the railroad, not to mention that the closing of the facility will send well-paying jobs to other cities.

The yards have been described as "segregating the north side" from the rest of the city. The term segregation has an ugly connotation arising from racial practices in the U.S. years ago and appears to have been applied in this instance to show the CP installation in a distinctly negative tone.

The yards were not constructed 100 years ago intending to segregate one group of Winnipeggers from another. Rather, they were constructed to fill an economic need, and continue to fill that need to this day.

The presence of rail cars did not cause the demographics of the area surrounding the yards to deteriorate because they segregated two sections of the city. One could argue the Red River segregates the entire city into east and west down the middle. How about the Perimeter Highway segregating St. Norbert from Fort Richmond?

One should note that the area just south of the CP yards has a number of those same "social" issues. Thus, I would suggest that the Winnipeg Social Planning Council and allied "activists" (the Free Press's term) do some more homework and determine what the real causes of the North End issues may actually be before the city spends $1.5 million to study a solution that appears to be addressing only a scapegoat.

WILLIAM J. KELLER

Winnipeg

Twisting the facts

It is amazing how Dave Yallits (Exploiting immigrants, Letters, Aug. 1) could twist the actual facts. The Conservative government of John A. Macdonald promised the people of the West Coast a rail link with the rest of Canada to stop them from joining the United States.

For part of the rail line, the government issued a contract to an American, Andrew Onderdonk, who advised the government that he would have to employ some Chinese workers to complete the contract.

He brought in the majority of them from California, with only several thousand coming from China. It was Onderdonk who had the contract that hired the workers and set their pay scale: not the Conservatives.

The second ridiculous statement is that it is the Conservatives who are bringing in Chinese to work in the tar sands at a fraction of the pay Canadian workers get. To my knowledge, there is not an oil company run by the Conservative government working the tar sands. The company that hires these workers sets their pay scale.

WILLIAM D. POOLES

Winnipeg

Homeowners' role

Re: No mow bylaw, resident fumes (Aug. 3). Who dose this Rick Hykawy think he is? It's homeowners like him who make this city look bad. We all have to do our part, and how hard is it to make a couple quick passes down the boulevard?

As for his comment about what's next, shovelling snow in the winter, I won't go near that one. My blood is already boiling, because I can't stand homeowners who refuse to shovel snow in the winter.

ADAM STRAUMAN

Winnipeg

Good for Richard Hykawy for fighting the boulevard bylaw. Why have we allowed elected bodies to interfere so excessively in our private lives?

GLORIA JOHNSTON

Winnipeg

Convenient oversight

Re: PQ leader chimes in (Aug. 1). So I see another winner from the Parti Quebecois looks in the mirror and mistakes herself for Abraham Lincoln.

Pauline Marois, who equates Quebec's independence as a reflection of its athlete's success it the Olympics, conveniently forgets Canadian taxpayers largely fund those same athletes in the same disproportionate way Canadian transfer payments go to her province.

Alas, this once again proves that in the race to arrogance, stupidity and delusion, the Parti Quebecois surely owns the podium.

BRIAN MCWHIRTER

Winnipeg

A tenuous link

In the July 31 story Massive storm cuts a swath of destruction, Ronald Stewart suggests that global warming is causing more storms.

There are numerous studies, including one by Canadian scientist Madhav Khandekar, that show there is no link between warming and severe weather. Data from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration show that the frequency of weak tornadoes has increased slightly in the U.S. since the 1950s, but there has not been an increase in strong tornadoes.

The weak increase is likely linked to better reporting. Is Stewart suggesting that "huge dryness and huge wetness" will cause more storms?

One may want to check the U.S. data for July 2012. Until July 30, there have been only 17 tornadoes reported, by far the lowest number for any July.

GERALD MACHNEE

Lockport

Six hundred million people in India have no power because of an energy grid collapse, caused by a high demand for electricity in 40 C heat.

India does not have the capacity, from Earth's limited fossil fuels, to generate sufficient man-made energy to counteract the limitless energy generated by the sun, which is creating the heat.

I think Mother Nature is trying to tell us something, but we are too ignorant to grasp the irony, even when she smacks us with it.

DAN CHECCHINI

Winnipeg

Insulting headline

The headline on Gary Lawless's Aug. 2 column, NFL castoff puts charge into Bombers offence, is indeed unfortunate. It is an insult to Chad Simpson and to the entire CFL.

The headline is doubly inappropriate as Lawless admits from the outset that many NFL players have come to the CFL and have failed.

The NFL and the CFL are different leagues with different rules played in different countries. Success in one, as Lawless points out, does not guarantee success in the other.

The two leagues are like apples and oranges. No one thinks to disparage one type of fruit because it is not the other.

SPENCER SCHELL

Winnipeg

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition August 4, 2012 A15