Letters, July 18

Forecast. Plan. Commit.

Re: The next Duff’s Ditch must be medical (Think Tank, July 16)

Rafiq Andani’s op-ed caught my eye for obvious reasons. I’m a retired engineer, and I worked 12 hours a day for several weeks in 1997 as part of a huge team to keep our city dry. Dr. Andani is correct; absent Duff’s Ditch, Winnipeg would have been inundated then, and several times since. Right now, it’s our health-care system that is under water.

It didn’t have to be that way. Successive governments have underfunded or, in the case of Pallister and Stefanson, outright butchered this essential public service. Now we’re at the stage where we’re spending money for hospital stays rather than providing the care that the “grey tsunami” requires. People are dying in emergency rooms or at home because we don’t have the capacity to look after them.

I spent my career in the water industry, where plans are made based on 25-year forecasts and infrastructure is built before demand exists, not after water shortages occur. It’s not rocket science and if you “pay as you go” the costs are manageable. Training people so that the necessary skills are available when the need exists is also a pretty simple notion.

Premier Kinew, the time to start on the plan is now. Make the forecast; develop a plan; commit to the plan publicly, fund it and make it an item of debate during each and every election.

I disagree with Dr. Andani on one key point. The reward is not invisible. It may be taken for granted just as we take safe drinking water for granted; but just as with water, without adequate health care people will die.

Tom Pearson, Victoria, B.C.

A peaceful revolution?

Re: “Joe Zuken for mayor” (Letters, July 16)

I have never before been in favour of spoiling a ballot. Voting is a democratic right and civic responsibility, after all. Nevertheless, I can find nobody worth voting for amongst the mayoral candidates. Usually, I would grudgingly use harm-reduction principles to vote for the least odious. That method fails this time.

In encouraging a vote for Joe Zuken, I would like to ask people to think about the big things that need doing. Like what Joe Zuken did, fighting for hospitals, for housing and for a landlord-tenants board. Those were huge accomplishments.

Young women renting a small apartment for the first time, knowing the caretaker or landlord can’t just walk into the apartment any time without reason or due notice — this makes safety possible. And that’s only one example of many reasons to be grateful to Joe Zuken.

We ought also to remember a school trustee who thought about big changes: Mary Kardash. She is known for her fight for universal daycare, and she also championed women’s reproductive choice, Indigenous education, and the school breakfast programs so many children depend upon, decades before the universal lunch program was rolled out.

Since I have not yet heard from any school trustee candidates, I don’t know if we also need a “Vote for Mary Kardash for school trustee” campaign. But at the very least we need to ask candidates what their vision for equality and justice in the school system looks like. And remind them that elected trustees can create real change.

Don’t just vote for Joe Zuken — tell your mayoral candidates why you are voting for him. And remind your trustee candidates that the school board can be a place for a peaceful revolution!

Gloria Enns, Winnipeg

Balance and clarity

Re: Twelve metres of museum space (Think Tank, July 16)

Thank you to Judith Dueck for a realistic perspective on the Nakba exhibit at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights.

As she articulates, much of the criticism of this exhibit is based on “the assumption that telling one community’s story somehow diminishes another’s.”

Creating a full gallery containing a broad historical perspective of that era would have resulted in the story of Palestinian displacement being lost or greatly diminished. This small exhibit simply tells a Palestinian story that until now had been almost totally absent from the museum.

Furthermore, equating criticism of past and present actions of the Israeli military with antisemitism arguably confuses cause and effect. The overwrought criticism of this small, historically accurate exhibit amounts to a roar in response to a whisper.

Ron Menec, Winnipeg

The opinion piece on the Canadian Museum for Human Rights’ Palestine Uprooted: Nakba Past and Present exhibition was one of the most thoughtful, rational and well-written contributions to this debate that I have read.

Rather than inflaming emotions, it calmly distinguished between disagreement and misinformation. Critics have repeatedly claimed the exhibit contains false information, yet no evidence of fabricated artifacts, testimony or historical inaccuracies has been presented. Disagreeing with an exhibit’s perspective does not make it false. Museums should be guided by historical evidence and scholarship, not by the intensity of public pressure.

The article reminds us that listening to another community’s history does not diminish our own. That is precisely the role a human rights museum should play, and it expressed that principle with clarity, fairness and compassion.

Ildiko Gyarmati, Winnipeg

Own a piece of the bridge

Remember when they were tearing down the Eaton’s department store in downtown Winnipeg and sold bricks from the building to the public for $10?

I bought one. Quite the souvenir!

Now the Arlington Bridge is being torn down, hopefully small pieces or chunks of the bridge could be sold to the public not only as memorabilia, an artifact or a piece of history, but also to raise some money for the City of Winnipeg to help pay for its replacement.

Ron Moskal, Winnipeg

Vertical turbines are here

Re: “More wind, solar power options” (Letters, July 17)

Linda Ross-Mansfield’s letter is bang on, and I wanted to let her know there is a vertical turbine that was actually invented right here in Winkler, and it’s built with Canadian steel.

My business partner and I deploy it out of Swan Lake First Nation, where our company is Indigenous-owned. We pair it with solar and battery storage for northern and remote communities, where the power grid doesn’t reach or doesn’t hold up, and for infrastructure corridors like rail and telecom sites that need to keep running on their own. Manitoba wind is more than enough to run one, or a few, backyard or otherwise.

It’s good to see someone doing the homework on this. There’s more coming to Winnipeg than folks realize.

Craig Soldier

CEO, Soldier Energy Systems

Swan Lake First Nation