Have your say:

Snap it up, Ontario

So the Ontario government is looking for a new snappy slogan. Hey McGuinty, how about Spirited Energy?

JUNE SLOBODIAN

Winnipeg

Hard to donate

Last week, I went to give blood at an open clinic at the MTS Centre. The screening process showed my blood pressure, temperature and iron levels were great. I'm a rather healthy man in his early 50s. I then had to fill out a questionnaire regarding my lifestyle and habits. I'm a healthy, thrice married/divorced single, drug-free heterosexual man. Everything on the questionnaire was fine except for one thing: I was asked by the nurse if I knew the complete sexual background of every woman I had been intimately involved with in the last 12 months. I answered honestly, "no". I was turned down to give blood because of this! All of the women that I have known intimately are very hard-working, quality individuals. What am I supposed to do? Carry around an application form to have them fill out, with references, and then call those fellows and ask them -- what?

When I attempted to retrieve my application form that contained a fair bit of personal information about me, the nurse (or whatever she was) literally back-handed my arm, hard, away and snatched up the paperwork and sternly told me that it was their property and that I had no right to it! I was totally humiliated and furious over this.

Tim Jaskow

Winnipeg

Missed opportunity

Re: the Paralympic Games coverage or lack of is more like it! For the first time in Canadian history Canada is host to these games and Vanoc and CTV come to the conclusion no one is interested in watching the opening ceremonies live or even on the same day? Sixty thousand-plus did, as BC Place was sold out for the opening ceremonies. Could you say these athletes and those of us that would love to watch live events have been discriminated against?

MICHAEL THOMPSON

Winnipeg

Bible's authors human

I was appalled by the article by John Beckham Earthquake is not God's punishment (March 13). It claimed that catastrophic events such as the disintegration of the Challenger and Columbia are allowed by God to instruct the space program as to what they could and could not get away with. I assume he gleans this example of God's laissez-faire attitude governing this as well as other catastrophic events from his studies of the Bible. However, let me remind Beckham that the Bible was not divinely written; it is a man-authored collection of myths, allegories and stories, some of which were borrowed from the Egyptians centuries prior. It makes me wonder if Beckham were persistently taught that Alice in Wonderland was indeed a true story, would he believe it? Some just don't get it.

Ron Edwards

Winnipeg

Glaucoma symptoms

Re: No early symptoms of glaucoma: doctor (March 12). In my personal experience, headaches are a symptom of glaucoma. Unfortunately, most people pass a headache off as just that, a headache. I would urge anyone who suffers from recurring headaches to get their eye pressures checked every time they get their eyes checked. I would advise that Health Canada and provincial health authorities make eye pressure testing a part of yearly or bi-yearly eye exams especially for those over 40.

Optimum eye pressures are in the low teens. Mine when diagnosed were 2.5 times normal. I had two MRIs and two CAT scans and they turned up nothing, which didn't explain the axe between the eyes headache that wouldn't go away. I suffered with that for six weeks. I went to my optometrist, mentioned the headache. He checked my eye pressures and within weeks had me into a specialist. It took about a month for the eye drops to get my pressures down, not to normal, but low enough that the major headache gradually left.

Malcolm Ratcliffe

Winnipeg

Debate not hate

Although I have not formed much of an opinion about the Israeli/Palestinian situation, I do have a problem with the logic in Hannon Bell's letter (Threat to Israel, March 13) that because Israel is a Jewish state then "anything against is Israel is anti-Semitic." This is nonsense -- Israel is a state with internal and external policies. It is possible to discuss state policies without hating the people living in the state. I have opinions about American state policies, but it does not mean that I am anti-American.

Coming from a democratic state, Israeli policies must be open for debate, both by its own citizens and by citizens of other states. Shutting down debate by linking it with anti-Semitism does no one any good.

Ian Toal

Winnipeg

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Re: Shahina Siddiqui's letter Matas wrong on Israel (March 12). For quite some time now, a popular myth has been promulgated by Israel's enemies and has unfortunately been accepted as fact by the Canadian media. The myth is that of Israel as the "occupiers" of the Gaza Strip.

As Israel disengaged from Gaza, removing over 8,500 settlers and its combined armed forces in the summer of 2005, Siddiqui's claim doesn't have any merit. Although Israel does carry out military incursions to thwart and disrupt terror cells, this does not qualify as "occupation," nor does any other claim that because Israel controls the sea/air access to Gaza that it's an "occupier." The only non-Palestinian force in Gaza is the UN.

Instead of using inflammatory and erroneous rhetoric as this letter writer has done in her feeble and odious attempt to cast Israel as an "apartheid" state, let us all strive towards fact-based rational discourse in the hopes of procuring a peaceful resolution for all parties to the conflict.

Mike Fegelman

HonestReportingCanada

Toronto, Ont.

Hockey for kids

I was in Costco recently and I bought the special edition Sports Illustrated commemorating Team Canada's gold medal win in men's hockey. For me the most profound part was in the story about Sidney Crosby, our hero who scored the golden goal. It talks about how, at age 11, parents jeered him to the point of tears. How at age 14, parents would yell about breaking his neck, about how he was going to get killed come game time. It talked about how, at age 15, his parents actually shipped him out of the country, fearing for his safety. Even locally here in Winnipeg we hear stories of parents fighting in the stands at their kids' hockey games. Let's show them who this game really belongs to. But let's show some respect for the game and its young players first.

Jeff Uhl

Winnipeg

Return on faith funding

The benefit faith-based schools bring to the economy is substantial. Providence College provides an accredited Christian university education at cost to the taxpayer of less than half of that of a public university. As well our institution contributes to the economic health of the province, generating an estimated $19 million in economic activity. Providence attracts between 50 and 100 students annually to Manitoba. These are people who would otherwise not have come to experience our beautiful province. In many cases they have come to call Manitoba home! For these reasons I believe public funding for faith-based schools is a win-win situation for all involved. Provincial assistance for faith-based schools affirms the academic freedom of choice that is a high value in our education system.

Thank you, Manitoba! I would only ask that the province provide the same incremental increases to its funding of private schools as it does for public schools.

Roger Gingerich

Providence College and Seminary

Steinbach

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition March 17, 2010 A9