Letters, March 3

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 03/03/2025 (400 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Health care we can take pride in

This letter is not coming from any one article, but from all the articles written on the state of our health care.

I want to make a few connections.

Right now we are shopping with “buy Canadian,” in mind. Seniors are squinting at labels, doing their best to stand up to bullying. At the same time, how many seniors are shopping for knees and hips in the U.S.? If you have the funds, it is evident that crossing the border is no issue, geographically or even patriotically.

When a person who is in constant pain, destroying their digestive system with painkillers, and often dealing with grief and loneliness, is told that they have a year to wait for help, the bottom drops out. Now they can add acute depression to their list of health concerns.

If we are going to be proud Canadians, then let us be proud of a health-care system that works! How many people give up before the transplant? How may just choose to stop holding on to life? This is not about a joint-replacement waiting list; this is a matter of being able to choose life over death.

It’s really not necessary to add how much of this is also about the growing gap between the rich and the middle-income earners. We do have a two-tiered health-care system. Let’s be honest. Some can buy relief, others can suffer, but for how long? One can only limp along while they have strength, mentally, physically and spiritually; after that time ethics, values and the will to go disappear.

Karen E. Toole

Winnipeg

Cutting consumption

Re: “Doing the simple things” (Letters, Feb. 28)

While I wholeheartedly agree with Ray Harris’s suggestion in his letter to the editor to donate used clothing instead of throwing it away, a much simpler way to help the planet is to buy fewer articles of clothing. It is true that there’s a huge opportunity to divert items from landfills by donating that clothing instead of throwing it away, since estimates indicate that around 75 per cent of used clothing is currently not being recycled by Canadians.

However, most of the clothing donated to thrift stores is not sold there. One CBC report states that 80 to 90 per cent of clothing donations end up shipped overseas to be recycled or resold. Ultimately, much of that clothing ends up in foreign landfills, or being incinerated, and the environment still suffers.

Buying less means fewer scarce resources used to produce clothing (often by child labourers), less fossil fuel consumed in transporting that clothing from producer to consumer (and then from recycler to disposer), and more money in your own pocket. We as a society will not consume our way to a healthier planet.

Darren Osadchuk

Winnipeg

Let’s be honest

Re: Discretion is the better part of valour with economic bully next door (Feb. 27)

Canadians have bonded based on our shared dislike of U.S. President Donald Trump. And there is much to dislike. But we haven’t asked ourselves the hard question: “Have we really been as good a friend to the U.S. as we say we are?”

Our past relationship with the U.S. has certainly worked to our advantage. Why else would we be so desperate to retain the status quo? But has it worked to America’s advantage? Apparently their leader doesn’t think so.

Trump asked Canada to honour its NATO funding commitment almost 10 years ago. The Liberals’ much-delayed response was to “work towards” doing so by 2032. They reneged on a commitment and provided false words of best intentions — all the while spending money on pet projects. For example, last fall Trudeau spent $6 billion on a temporary GST reduction and giving most working Canadians a $200 cheque. Why wasn’t that money put towards our NATO commitment? We left it to our American friends to pick up the slack. Again.

Trump was disrespectful to Canadians and our prime minister when he referred to Canada becoming the 51st state. But he has no intention of trying to annex Canada. As a country with a left-leaning “natural governing party” we would be much like Washington D.C., which has voted Democrat in every election since 1964. What Trump wants is a vassal state — a country that the U.S. can control rather than co-operate with.

We must resist that at all costs. And it will be costly. But we should start by being honest with ourselves.

Robert Pruden

Winnipeg

One project at a time

Mayor Scott Gillingham should finish one project before he funds another. The Chief Peguis Trail’s $755-million extension can wait until the north end sewage treatment plant upgrades — a.k.a. the white elephant — are complete, and not discharging raw sewage into the river and into Lake Winnipeg anymore.

He’s like the DIY home handyman with too many unfinished projects on the go.

Rennie Bodi

Winnipeg

Support not helping Gretzky

Re: Gretzky remains silent as wife Janet joins Trump, Orr in hockey legend’s defence (Feb. 27)

Do Janet Gretzky, Bobby Orr and even U.S. President Donald Trump really think they are helping Wayne Gretzky with their declarations of support? They are all infatuated with Trump, none less than Trump himself.

Trump’s declaration that he will make Gretzky a “free agent” just implies that Gretzky is in fact even more of a proxy now for Trump than we might have realized. True or not.

Michael Mulvey misses the point entirely. He makes it all about the financial impact on Gretzky and Gretzky’s brand. Gretzky was not representing himself, or his brand, at the 4 Nations Face-Off. He was representing his country, or as we now know, one of his countries.

He made it pretty clear at that faceoff which country he supports the most. Gretzky needs to get up the courage and address the nation that everyone else but him says he loves. Of course, even as a hockey player Gretzky never had to stand up for himself. Where is Marty McSorley or Dave Semenko when you need them, eh, Wayne?

Rob McConnell

Winnipeg

Accept kids’ uniqueness

From the perspective of retirement after a rewarding career in education, I find it interesting that certain controversies about reading continue to erupt. The latest buzzword seems to be about “evidence-based” strategies, which have a way of gravitating towards emphasizing the teaching of phonics (which sounds “go with” certain letters or letter clusters).

Lest I be counted as “anti-phonics”, I do know that learning sound-symbol relationships is one key aspect of learning to read and that the more important related questions are: “when?” and “how?”

I urge caution against the search for “the answer” to helping kids learn to read. It’s easy to forget that reading is a highly complex activity, the success of which is dependent on the unique interplay of “within the child” and “outside of the child” aspects. Because the vast majority of kids learn to read regardless of methodology, there arises a tendency to seek easy answers to what is a complex issue.

The challenge is always to accept kids with learning issues in their uniqueness and explore — for them and with them — not only what’s not working but also what is working. It does take time, patience and teaching flexibility to meet the needs arising from that uniqueness.

One must always be wary of materials and methods that promise easy solutions.

Edwin Buettner

Winnipeg