Letters, Feb. 17

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This article was published 17/02/2024 (943 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Touched by premier’s compassion

Wab Kinew’s kind and very human public comments of care and concern for King Charles’ recent cancer diagnosis touched me deeply. In spite of the colonial history connection to the Royal Family, Premier Kinew chose to see the King as a human being with worried friends and family, like we all have when a serious health diagnosis is made.

Thank you, Premier Kinew, for making it about a human being, instead of making it political. That, and your honesty and transparency so far in the short time you’ve been in office, give me hope that Manitoban’s made the right choice.

Noreen Janzen

Winnipeg

Leave hospitals out of it

Re: Outraged at PM’s comments (Letters, Feb. 16)

I gather it was simply coincidence that a hospital with Jewish roots became the chosen target of pro-Palestinian protests and that in no way ought anyone infer the notion that antisemitism had anything to do with it. Anyone with a cursory understanding of Canadian history, will appreciate the fact that religious organizations have long been involved with the delivery of health care in this country.

One need look no further than our own province, to recognize the affiliations which still stand as culturally significant contributing factors towards the establishment of a comprehensive health care system to the benefit of all.

The protests in Toronto were most certainly symbolic and who’s kidding who here in suggesting otherwise? To further imply these protests were but a minor inconvenience as compared to the situation in Gaza, misses the point entirely.

This isn’t Gaza and Mount Sinai isn’t just another hospital. Just as the anti-vaccine crowd sought to disrupt the operations of our own General Hospital, resulting in needless confusion and stress among those seeking treatment, utilizing health care facilities to score political points is what one might term scraping the bottom of the barrel.

Dan Donahue

Winnipeg

No need for so much pickup

Re: City considers using sewer revenue to pay for garbage pickup (Feb. 15)

My comment to Jeff Browaty is that 25 per cent of Winnipeg homes do not need to have their garbage or recycling carts emptied on a weekly basis.

Perhaps he needs to go for a walk and check out how little material is really in most of the carts and then encourage us to go on a two-week cycle. The hydraulic lift and dump mechanisms on the back of the trucks do not know if the cart is empty or full, but the cycle time is the same so the overall cost savings is in the reduced number of dump cycles and reduced trips to the landfill in each shift.

Most importantly, the sewer and water tax revenue keeps working for the important upgrades that are needed to help clean up Lake Winnipeg. Also taxes do not have to increase.

Reg Evans

Winnipeg

Thinking of the children

Re: Disappearing childhood: expendable children (Think tank, Feb. 14)

Reading the passionately eloquent op-ed of Dr. John Wiens was a truly heartrending experience for all the reasons that should matter for any principled adult.

As we absorb the convoluted political defences offered by misguided allies of various wars currently occupying worldwide attention, it can be far too easy to forget that innocent young human beings will never know what their lives could have been, because of narcissistic and immoral despots.

We read statistics in the thousands that describe the casualties of war — we must never forget those are thousands of human beings.

Thanks to the Free Press for continuing to balance objective coverage of current political warfare travesties with content that speaks to our hearts and souls.

Linda Chernenkoff

Winnipeg

I was moved to tears by John Wiens’ op-ed.

There are hundreds of thousands of traumatized, terrified children in places like Sudan, Yemen, and Gaza who daily are witnessing family members and friends killed in front of them.

These children often go to bed hungry (if they are fortunate enough to have a bed). They are not receiving an education or skills training of any kind. What will happen to these uneducated, untrained, rage-filled children when they grow up?

They will become the next generation of terrorists. Any leader who thinks terrorism can be obliterated by killing large numbers of ordinary citizens is naive indeed.

Canadians must implore our government to tread with care in giving tacit approval or financial aid to any nation that inflicts so much damage on our vulnerable children.

Ruth Lee

Winnipeg

Art has special value

Re: Funding needed elsewhere (Letters, Feb. 15)

It’s good to know that letter writer Gary Billson thinks “public art is nice.” And he may also not be completely wrong in suggesting that “a temporary halt to public art” may be in order; with the emphasis on “temporary,” and if “public art” is taken to mean public sculpture. Yes, there have always been many demands on public expenditures.

That said, he goes seriously off the rails with a passive-aggressive sideswipe at art in general, and by extension, the culture that defines who we are and aspire to be. He falls into the old trap of thinking that art is of more value and interest to “the rich” than to “the rest of us.”

The trap here is to take seriously what wealth and privilege have so often signalled to working people, that art and culture isn’t for us, that we should know and accept our place as hewers of wood and and drawers of water, toilers in their fields, factories, and nurseries.

In fact, it’s art and culture that can give us, as working people, the language to demand and struggle for equality and dignity.

And let’s also not forget that artists are working people too, just trying to get by. So yes, give us bread but give us roses too, and swimming pools for the kids.

Sig Laser

Winnipeg

Minister on right track

Re: On bumpy but beneficial road to address climate change (Feb. 15)

Thank you, Dan Lett, for the article commending Environment Minister Steve Guilbeault for refusing to fund new road infrastructure.

It gives me hope that the federal government is discontinuing funding that would enlarge the road network. The only new roads we need are ones to isolated Indigenous communities that no longer have reliable winter roads because of our warming planet.

As we face more and more climate disasters, we need to spend our money not on new or wider roads but on projects that will make us more resilient and will help to lower our carbon footprint. We need to invest in clean energy and more trees and regenerative farming. Let’s get our carbon pollution under control.

The “carbon tax” that so many are complaining about, could be spent on jobs in the clean energy sector, on subsidizing local geo-thermal grids, and electrifying public transit. The measly amount that is taxed (and returned to Manitobans by direct deposit) could amount to something substantial if we were to harness it for the common good.

Mere decades from now, our children and grandchildren will be facing food insecurity. That is the peril of climate change. Droughts, floods and heat affect agriculture. If we think food is expensive now, just wait until there is food rationing and we face food shortages.

I am grateful that the federal government is considering the future. Now they just have to stop subsidizing the fossil fuel industry.

Lynda Trono

Winnipeg