Have your say

Confidence lost

Re: Katz 'just doesn't get it' in shell-company saga (Oct. 19). Mayor Sam Katz claims to have no business relationship with CAO Phil Sheegl, and no business at all beyond "the ones everyone else knows about."

How quickly he forgets it was only weeks ago that Winnipeg media uncovered a hidden business transaction with the CAO over a company he had kept from public disclosure. This was surely not a business holding that "everyone" was aware of.

With stories and defences seeming to change as often as the ownership of Duddy Enterprises, it is no wonder that Winnipeggers seem to have lost confidence in their mayor.

Katz should focus on his apparently profitable business holdings -- and resign as mayor, to be replaced by an individual who has public trust and shows signs of wanting the important job.

TOM RUBY

Winnipeg

Sam Katz reminds me so much of a younger me. When I was young, I would pretend to disappear by putting my hands over my eyes and shouting, "You can't see me."

Katz engages in similar self-deceiving pretence with his constant stream of indiscretions, the result of a truly immature judgment capability. His lack of embarrassment over his indiscretions is consistent with his impaired judgment. That he has not stepped out of public office is also consistent with his impaired judgment.

For those of us trying to bring capital to Manitoba to grow the economy, he is a serious impediment. Money managers judge a region's business leaders by the political leaders they tolerate.

Katz's lack of judgment is far beyond what any reasonable business leader should have to put up with. He has shown no ability to improve his judgment capacities. Since the man cannot change, it is time to change the man.

FREDERICK INNIS

Winnipeg

Competitive prices

There is a big hole right in the middle of your map accompanying your Oct. 17 story Closings eat at downtown. I do not know how you missed mentioning the Giant Tiger (a North West Company store) located at 345 Donald St. in your article.

They sell fresh fruit and vegetables, dairy, breads, frozen foods and some meats. Their prices for bread, eggs, cleaning products and paper products are often better than their competitors'.

Yes, Giant Tiger is not exclusively a grocery store, but they sell everything listed in the article that people said they would not be able to buy once Zellers and Extra Foods close, plus more. Because Giant Tiger is downtown, no taxi rides would be required and a Canadian company will be supported. How about that Canadian bacon, eh?

ELAINE STOBBE

Winnipeg

Whoever made the decision to close the Zellers in the basement of the Bay downtown has clearly never set foot in the building.

If they had, they would have noticed that the Zellers has more customers than any other department at the Bay.

GABRIEL HURLEY

Winnipeg

Unfortunate attitude

Re: Kinder, gentler test for colon cancer (Oct. 16). I am happy that Dr. Frank Plummer received a less invasive cancer-test procedure, as reported in the Free Press.

But I am unhappy to read Plummer's unfortunate quote regarding the possibility of having colostomy surgery. He admits, "I might not have done it. I would have just had them monitor it carefully."

The fact that a high-profile doctor reacts to the thought of a colostomy with such a negative view indicates that the almost 3,000 ostomates in Manitoba continue to be looked at as if they should be avoided. This just magnifies the stigma that ostomates face after having life-saving surgery.

What we need is a high-profile doctor, who has had his life saved by colostomy surgery, stand up and say to the world, "Because of my colostomy, I have been given a second chance at life."

Should Plummer need colostomy surgery in the future, I hope he would be that stand-up doctor.

LORRIE PISMENY

Winnipeg Ostomy Association

A generous decision

Kudos to the generous decision-makers at the University of Manitoba for making the former location of Southwood Golf and Country Club open to hikers, bikers and cross-country skiers. It is a great space to move in and to be in.

CHRIS WELLS

Winnipeg

Province is accountable

Re: Doctor's college worked (Oct. 18). I read with fascination that Theresa Oswald wanted to hold the College of Physicians and Surgeons accountable for taking too long to process the case against Dr. Randy Allan.

Moreover, she felt it was so abhorrent that she threatened to call the police. If anyone or anything in this province is to be held accountable for taking too long, it is the Selinger government for its egregious failure to resolve the excessive waiting times in hospitals and emergency rooms. That is a real crime.

GARY HOOK

Winnipeg

If a person suffering from chronic pain grows their own marijuana and gets caught, they can be subject to a minimum sentence. If a person trolls for hookers in their car and gets caught, they can loose their car and have to go to "john school."

But if you are a doctor and you prescribe addictive drugs (multiple times) in exchange for sex and bill the taxpayer, you can't practise medicine for 18 months and what you have done is not called a crime.

Can someone tell me how the government, doctors' review board and Justice Department don't see an injustice here?

TERESA WRIGHT

Winnipeg

Omitting a pronoun

Re: A telling pronoun (Letters, Oct. 18). It was the Winnipeg Free Press editors, not I, who omitted "her" from my Oct. 13 letter, Cleaning up the mess, about our next mayor. "His other first mandate," should have read, "His/her first mandate."

GORDON WARREN

Winnipeg

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition October 20, 2012 A16