Letters, April 23

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 23/04/2022 (1504 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Feeling kinship with Ukrainians

Re: From Odesa, by way of Pinawa, with love (April 19)

When I see pictures of Ukrainian refugees, mostly women and children, walking in the streets of Warsaw, it pauses me to think of my days in Warsaw on those same streets and neighborhoods and recall an earlier time when those streets lay in ruins and, under the rubble, countless lifeless bodies lay buried. Many Ukrainian cities today resemble Polish cities of a past era we hoped would never return to Europe.

In those days, two despots invaded Poland and devastated the country. One of those tyrants earlier murdered millions of Ukrainians in the Holodomor. The other tyrant continued his murderous rampage to Ukraine and the rest of the world.

Polish Ukrainian history is mixed, at times warring and other times friendly. Today, both countries share common values and have warm and cordial relations. I could not be more pleased with the military and humanitarian assistance the Poles are providing to the Ukrainian people. Such efforts make me proud of my Polish heritage and now, I believe, we are kin.

Les Sytkowski

Winnipeg

Keep park-pass contract local

Re: Manitoba pays $528K to U.S. firm for park pass system (April 21)

It bothers me that the Manitoba government would use an American company to sell park permits. They couldn’t find a Canadian company or, better yet, a Manitoba company, to sell permits? It would help to provide jobs here, which is good for the economy.

Leanne Hanuschuk

Winnipeg

Unearth suspected graves

Re: Just the beginning: 14 graves found at former residential school in Saskatchewan (April 14)

As any viewer of the British TV show Time Team could tell you, ground penetrating radar has a remarkably poor record of telling what is in any anomaly found in the ground. An excavator and two men with shovels under the direction of an archeologist could solve the mystery once and for all if there is any truth to the notion these are lost graves and, more importantly, how it was the death occurred, if the anomalies are indeed bodies.

Chris Buors

Winnipeg

Addiction is brain disease

Re: Tunnel vision entrenches drug danger (Editorial, April 19)

Nothing will change until the general public, and those in government positions, begin to look at addictions from a medical-model perspective. We need to start talking about addicted family members, loved ones, friends and neighbors as suffering from a substance-use disorder, rather than through our conditioned narrow and punitive lens of addict. It has been a long-known fact that addiction is a disease of the brain in which normal functioning gets hijacked by abnormal messaging.

No one chooses to have a substance-use disorder. However, through circumstances not in their control, those suffering from this potentially deadly disease find themselves caught between two worlds: that of being treated as a criminal by our justice system because of the negative behaviors that come with the disease, and that of seeking available help while trying to navigate a broken health-care system.

It’s time for a comprehensive approach to dealing with substance use disorder, and I don’t mean yet another study. Manitoba already has all the resources it needs to demonstrate an effective solution. We need co-ordination of the existing services with individual plans for system users at every stage of use to recovery.

This could set Manitoba at the forefront of service innovation. Healthy government solutions come from the top down. Is anyone listening?

Michael Kurek

Winnipeg

I think the question of whether Manitoba’s government should get involved in operating supervised drug injection sites should be answered during our province’s next election cycle. Make it an election issue. Democracy at work.

Cal Paul

Winnipeg

Keep perspective on potholes

Re: Pothole repairs last only hours (Letters, April 21)

As I read the paper this morning, I felt so profoundly grateful to be living in a place where, for many, the biggest worry is potholes.

Val Kellberg

Winnipeg

EV chargers needed

Re: Skyrocketing gas prices across Canada are fuelling increased interest in electric vehicles (April 19)

As Kelly Taylor’s article describes, the development and uptake of electric vehicles in North America is truly a positive development. However, there needs to be some criticism of the situation in Manitoba, where there is still slow progress in building our charging system. Manitoba is a laggard compared to some other provinces.

We have many chargers running and planned in the Winnipeg area, but there seems to be little push to build in the areas outside the city, where chargers are needed most. The eastern stretch of Highway 1, the Whiteshell and the Lake Winnipeg beaches would be ideal places for the rollout of the next charging stations. People go to these destinations in large numbers.

Brian Marks

Winnipeg

I am perplexed by three pieces of advice I hear frequently. First, consider buying an electric car. Second, install a backyard wind turbine or solar device. Third, don’t throw away food, since Canada wastes about half of the food provided.

Buying an electric vehicle is a great idea, but where are the charging stations located? How come we are not told how to contact the contractors who install wind turbines and solar panels? Also, food providers must tell cooks how to put food waste in soups, casseroles or other dishes.

If we are to prepare for global warming and to cease wasting food, we need access to fuller information on charging stations, wind turbines and solar panels, and recipes on how to utilize food waste.

Barry Hammond

Winnipeg

Glover would do better

Re: Premier must attend QP (Editorial, April 21)

Perhaps it would have been a better decision to award the controversial vote for PC party leader to Shelly Glover rather than the socially inept and ignorant Heather Stefanson.

Inappropriate discussions regarding her son’s hockey team, frequent absences at key events, plus total unawareness of severely ill patients being transferred to other provinces, does not endear her to the citizens of Manitoba.

She may be a career politician, but she is most certainly not a leader.

Knowing the type of caring, determined and no-nonsense person Glover is, I am sure we would not be barraged by such disappointing headlines.

Karen Zurba

Winnipeg

Goose poop mars green space

Re: Birders asked to remove feeders, baths due to Avian flu risk (April 20)

Much like ignoring the elephant in the room, we’re ignoring the goose in the room. The Canada goose defecates as much as every 10 minutes and deposits about a kilogram of waste daily. In many Winnipeg green spaces, people can’t avoid walking in it.

The potential risk for Avian flu from bird feeders pales in comparison. At the very least, we need to find a way to drastically reduce the Canada goose population to protect the poultry industry.

Susan Stevens

Winnipeg