Have Your Say

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 22/05/2007 (7063 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Re: Hey buddy, can you spare a HUMMER? May 18.

Zachary Ty Bryan did not play Brad on Tool Time. He played Brad on Home Improvement. Tool Time, of course, was the show-within-a-show.

KRIS SHAW

Winnipeg

Remarks disturbing

As an aboriginal person, I find the recent remarks by our aboriginal leaders disturbing. It seems that after a few small steps forward we tend to take giant steps back.

My concern is what we are projecting to our young people. We, in a sense, are telling them to disregard authority. I find nothing wrong with telling them to stand up for their rights but we are telling them that it’s all right to break the law because we are fed up. No wonder reserves are in anarchy when our supposed leaders resort to thug tactics.

I’m appalled that our leaders have run out of ways to find a workable solution and now resort to threats. I’m fed up as well with the lack of response from the government but this is no way to get a resolution.

I feel that our leaders need to represent us better. When they lose hope, that reflects down the line and the next generation stalls and it keeps perpetuating.

I hope and pray that cooler heads prevail.

DARREN WASACASE

Winnipeg

NHL should copy soccer

The English football (soccer) season recently finished. Three teams will be relegated from the Premiership (highest division) to the Championship (next highest) and three teams will be promoted from the Championship to the Premiership. The same thing goes on at the top and bottom of various lower level divisions. Needless to say, the excitement and/or disappointment that these moves create is huge.

There is a lesson here for hockey in North America. This is the kind of relationship that should exist between the NHL and the AHL. Each year, two or three teams should move up and a similar number should move down. This is the real way to get NHL hockey back in Winnipeg, by playing your way back into the league.

LEE SMITH

Winnipeg

Chinese student helped

Re: Sick student far from home, May 12.

Thank you for your article on Shuo Hao’s precarious situation. The article is good. But I want to point out to you that the Winnipeg Chinese community has been acting for at least three months to help this student. There have been many events for this purpose within the community. For example, the Manitoba Chinese Tribune, the Winnipeg Chinese Cultural Center and the University of Manitoba Chinese Students and Scholars’ Association launched a donation campaign in March. For this they opened a one-month, short-term emergency donation account with Royal Bank called the Shuo Hao — SOS. Through this account (which expired on April 21) our Winnipeg Chinese people have donated nearly $30,000 for the student. I am one of the donors. There are similar campaigns and activities for helping Shuo in Toronto and in Vancouver as well. Countless people have dedicated their time and money to help Shuo. So Gary Liu’s statement in your article asserting that the student has nobody to help him is untrue.

YONG ZHANG

Winnipeg

What if accused was man?

Re: Mistrial declared in triplet case, May 16.

Let us imagine for just one second that Michelle Camire’s male partner was the one who had been on trial in the death of baby Michael Helgason. Mistrial? Hung jury?

The message sent by this mistrial should be cause for reflection.

FRANK AUSTIN

Winnipeg

Raw milk cheese a risk

Re: Fresh-air frustration, May 5.

The call by Bartley Kives to have more raw milk cheese made in Manitoba inappropriately minimized food safety risks associated with these products. We both agree, however, that the odour, flavour, density and character of these products is appealing, and products properly prepared have a place in the markets of the world — but not when produced by folks who are unaware or can’t assure the safety of their products. The safety issue is that, if present, the bacterial pathogens salmonella and listeria will survive the approved 60-day aging period at slightly above 5 C. Pasteurization eliminates these organisms from raw milk but does not protect improperly handled cheese from subsequent contamination by these pathogens. Raw milk cheese production and sale are permitted in both Canada and the U.S., provided these products, as well as those imported, comply with production and microbiological standards. To comply, raw milk for use in these cheeses is carefully produced and handled. Thus, imported French unpasteurized cheese of good quality should be marketable in both Canada and the U.S.

Yes, about a quarter of French cheese production is from raw milk and outbreaks of foodborne illnesses from this source occur, but the frequency is not large. However, production of these types of products by unskilled, untrained, artisinal producers where raw milk of uncertain quality is used, is a recipe for a food safety disaster.

RICK HOLLEY

Department of Food Science

University of Manitoba

Revolution started in city

Re: Paying bills online green thing to do, May 5.

Thanks to David Christianson for bringing to our attention the enormous savings in paper and reduction in greenhouse gases that will result if we all pay our bills online. Still further savings will accrue as we start receiving our bills online.

What wasn’t mentioned was that this whole revolution started right here in Winnipeg. In 1985, the very first fully automated telephone bill payments in North America, and probably the world, were made by employees of Comcheq to Manitoba Hydro and Manitoba Telephone System using a service provided by a Winnipeg company now call TelPay. It now processes annually in excess of 20 million payments valued at more than $12 billion to thousands of companies and individuals across Canada. Advances in the field have continued since that beginning, led almost invariably by TelPay.

The three people who developed the hardware and software to create the system were Gerry Bayer, Howard Loewen and Ray Senez. Barely out of high school when they started the project, they still live in Winnipeg where they continue to create products and services for Canadians and the world for their respective employers: TelPay, Micropilot and Telenium.

W. H. (BILL) LOEWEN

Chairman

TelPay Inc.

Winnipeg