Letters, June 19, 2026

Social media ban undercuts parents

So the current government of Canada thinks it can parent our children better than we can.

I completely disagree with banning social media for children under the age of 16. My late wife and I raised two kids who are currently 22 and 20. They had cell phones and tablets since they were nine or 10, and not once was there an incident of someone who was trying to manipulate them or bully them. We made it clear to them that we would track their browsing on their phones/tablets, as all parents should.

Our government should be worried about dealing with countries who allow child labour and who allow sexual-orientation discrimination, and leave the parenting to parents.

Alfred Sansregret

Winnipeg

Shell games at city hall?

Re: “No water-main money for soccer” (Letters, June 18)

This letter caught my attention as I missed the proposed budget change with the city on June 12 (City mulls $600K for soccer facility upgrade if it gets pro women’s team).

On that day, I was rather overwhelmed (‘swamped,’ shall we say) with all the water crises going on in the city.

The city plans to ‘free up’ $600,00 from one budget area and move it to another budget line — from sewage to the water utility — thereby having money for a soccer facility. Huh?

City hall has $600,000 of flexible money they can just yank out and use elsewhere — and for something unrelated to sewer or water? What happened to the song and dance we got around having to raise taxes in order to pay for a sewage-facility upgrade? In my mind I see a bit of difference between monies to soccer versus monies needed for sewer infrastructure. In this mad chess game of money movement, what is not being covered by the water utilities budget since it now has to find $600,000?

Does this creative bookkeeping apply to taxpayers too? Could I ‘free up’ some of what I am paying for taxes and apply it to something else, like supporting super-low-income people who are struggling to pay their taxes (just as an example). I am sure I could find someone on low income who loves soccer, if that helps.

Val Kellberg

Winnipeg

Don’t forgo the franchise — vote

Re: Rocky road for re-election bid (June 17)

It’s entirely understandable that many Winnipeggers are very frustrated. Transit woes are at the very least inconvenient, street repair wreaks havoc with schedules and many families are struggling with flooded homes.

Understandable, yes. But not a valid reason to forgo voting in the October civic election.

Winnipeggers, like all Manitobans and Canadians, are extremely fortunate that we are able to vote — and that it is made easy to do so. So fortunate, in fact that sometimes we decide not to bother. Please don’t. Vote in October.

Lynn Silver

Winnipeg

Crash-bang-boom in West End

Re: Councillor renews push for safety measures at collision-prone West End corner (June 18)

I just read the article on accidents at this intersection. As a previous owner of Goodies Bake Shop, my office was at that very corner.

Early one December morning, I was awakened by a night baker who informed me that there had been another accident. I drove down to find a pick up truck entirely inside my office, and another ‘trying to get in’. No one was injured.

This was the most damage ever done to the property, but just an example of what happens there very frequently. The restoration company I used has been doing work at that corner, on that building, for decades because of accidents.

We had a meeting with our local councillor and had multiple conversations with the city about this corner problem. Nothing was ever done.

Leslie Scaletta

Winnipeg

Bank profits startle

Royal Bank and TD Bank just announced their last quarterly results. Royal Bank reported profits of $5.6 billion and TD Bank reported profits of $4.25 billion.

How much of these profits were earned on the backs of hard-working Canadians living cheque to cheque, forced to carry unpaid credit card balances and charged interest by the banks at a rate of 20 per cent-plus ?

Martin Fingold

Winnipeg

Tough tactics needed to fight drugs

Re: Mayor agrees to call meeting on drug crisis (June 18)

That was a nice re-election campaign move by Coun. Sherri Rollins (Fort Rouge-Fort Garry). Calling on more support to treat those inflicting harm on themselves and others by using narcotics does nothing to prevent further damage.

Removal of the products from the streets is the answer. The harshest penalties available to those who traffic at any level, transport or produce narcotics, along with policing resources available to round up the bad guys is what’s needed. Policing needs surveillance techniques to match the encrypted communications used today. That means accessing all forms of electronic communication.

I don’t really care if police view my communications. If it means the bad guys have no way of hiding their activities, I’ll give up a bit of privacy.

If you really want to solve this crisis you are going to have to step on some toes.

Bill Allan

Winnipeg

Canada should finish what it started

With the United States having drastically cut its international aid, the world is facing a growing vacuum in global health funding. The U.S. previously provided about 42 per cent of all global health assistance worldwide, and the resulting gap is putting decades of progress at risk for the world’s most vulnerable children.

Canada has stepped up before and must do so again. Canada’s recent $675 million pledge to Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, will help vaccinate at least 500 million children and prevent more than eight million deaths from 2026 to 2030. A child born in a Gavi-supported country today is already 70 per cent less likely to die from a vaccine-preventable disease before their fifth birthday than in 2000.

But a pledge alone is not enough when the global system is under strain. Canada should use its diplomatic influence to mobilize other donors to close the funding gap, protect children living in emergencies through access to quality education, and sustain its international assistance envelope at home. The federal government has a clear opportunity to show that international development is not a charity but a strategic investment in a safer, healthier world for everyone.

Siddarth Maddur Srinath

Winnipeg

An ostentatious omission

Re: Tradition gone (June 17)

In your June 17 edition a list of past NHL broadcasters was given. You left out the great Danny Gallivan? His cannonading comments gave us so many scintillating games bordering on the larcenous. His name should always be part of your editorial paraphernalia!

For me, he was the best at his job.

Jim Ferguson

Winnipeg