Letters, Feb. 3

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 03/02/2015 (3963 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

On water and human rights

Maybe Winnipeg’s boil-water advisory was a good thing (The essential liquid, Jan. 31).

We have been reminded that the excellent water supply we take for granted comes with an outrageous price — paid not by us, but by the Shoal Lake 40 First Nation.

Mayor Brian Bowman and Chief Erwin Redsky need to talk, and it needs to be with the understanding on the part of Winnipeggers that we owe Chief Redsky and his people big time.

I hope we may yet drink our tap water with a clear conscience.

Hartley Stinson

Winnipeg

 

No more business as usual

The person that wrote the editorial castigating Mayor Bowman for calling CentreVenture to task should be ashamed of themselves (Mayor Bowman and the moral majority, Editorial, Jan. 30).

CentreVenture and the Longboat Development Corporation are not business rookies. What they have done is wrong and wouldn’t even be acceptable as a rookie mistake.

To criticize the mayor because he called them to task is incredibly naive. According to the editorial writer, we might lose all the development at Carlton Street by asking for it to be done right, then suggests the mayor should just let this looseness continue.

Sure, then we can get plenty of development — like the police headquarters and fire halls.

Jim Flood

Winnipeg

 

‘Ghetto’ was not Poland’s

While Steven Leyden Cochrane correctly highlights the major themes of the exhibit The Face of the Ghetto, which documents the life and eventual destruction of the German-established ghetto in Lodz, also known as Litzmannstadt, the author’s references to “Poland’s Litzmannstadt Ghetto” and to “life in the Polish ghetto” call his understanding of the historical context of the exhibit into question (Facing the unthinkable, Jan. 29).

There were no “Polish ghettos” in occupied Polish territories. All of the ghettos in which Jewish populations were confined and ultimately destroyed were established and controlled by the occupying Nazi German forces.

Poland as a state ceased to exist in September 1939. The German Reich chose to annex vast territories, including the city of Lodz, which they renamed “Litzmannstadt.” The German ghetto of Litzmannstadt was created shortly after — a German-controlled prison-city with a German-appointed self-government comprised of Jewish inmates who chose to collaborate with German state authorities.

Calling this prison-city “Poland’s ghetto” is harmful, inaccurate and insulting. The museum’s exhibit clearly illustrates the Nazi origins and German Reich context of the Litzmannstadt ghetto. We invite the public to see this collection of documents and photographs taken by Litzmannstadt inmates and German authorities.

GraZyna Galezowski

President, Canadian Polish Congress, Manitoba branch

 

An intersection solution

I couldn’t agree more with letter-writer Dan Donahue that great cities have great city centres, and that reopening Portage and Main is key to recreating that kind of downtown here in Winnipeg (Vibrant city centre needed, Letters, Feb. 2).

The reintroduction of pedestrians to Portage and Main can be done with minimal disruption to vehicular traffic, and with minimal cost. The problem of pedestrian traffic and heavy left- and right-turning traffic has been painlessly addressed in other cities, including Toronto.

Into each sequence of lights at the intersection, insert a 30-second light where all vehicular traffic stops and pedestrians may cross the intersection in any direction — including diagonally. Vehicles and pedestrians would never occupy the roadway at the same time.

Dave Harron

Winnipeg

 

Sanders above city’s CAO job

I agree with letter-writer Georgina Jarema that David Sanders would be a very good candidate for the city’s CAO (Sanders for city’s CAO job, Letters, Jan. 30).

However, Sanders is over-qualified. The city set too low a bar for qualifications based on our last permanent-position CAO.

Gary McGimpsey

Winnipeg

 

Reserve conditions deserve outrage

Successive federal governments have had an easy ride in their neglect of reserves (Manitoba reserves the worst in Canada, Jan. 30).

The simple reason: insufficient outrage on the part of mainstream Canadians.

Lenore Berscheid

Winnipeg