Letters, Sept. 15

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 15/09/2022 (1358 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Diagnosing province’s priorities

Re: Political staff, non-union managers get pay bump (Sept. 13)

Quiet start to health minister’s travelling sofa tour (Sept. 13)

So, just to be clear: while Premier Heather Stefanson was busy handing out additional one per cent raises to her political appointees and Health Minister Audrey Gordon was busy strategizing her sofa-moving logistics, Health Sciences Centre doctors were saying on Sunday evening there were no beds available for patients to be seen and treated in emergency, a situation they said was unprecedented.

Got it. I just want to be certain as to our provincial government’s priorities.

Andrea Sanderson

Winnipeg

Paying workers to stay home

Re: Day of mourning, but no holiday, declared by province (Sept. 14)

Is the government essential? It’s great for the non-essential government workers to have a paid day off. The electorate has to remember that we are paying for them to sit at home.

When the topic of a provincial statuary day off on Sept. 30 to mark National Day for Truth and Reconciliation was discussed in the press, I wrote to MLA Reg Helwer about this. Nearly two weeks later, I still wait for a reply.

I feel the provincial government no longer cares about the electorate. When is the next provincial election?

Rob Bellmont

Winnipeg

Quite frankly, most of us don’t require government to decide which events in history ought to resonate within us and are worthy of extraordinary consideration. We the citizenry are most capable of determining such for ourselves, thank you.

That our government has proclaimed Sept. 19 as but a mere day of mourning is laughable at best and cynical at worst. In other words, it’s just another day, albeit with a caveat attached, but all in all, no big deal.

If Elizabeth II isn’t worthy of significant consideration, I dare ask: who is? Then again, when there are political points to be scored, all bets are off the table.

Dan Donahue

Winnipeg

When vandalism goes unpunished

Re: Manitobans sign book of condolences at legislature to honour Queen (Sept. 13)

Police didn’t help stop bike theft, cyclist says (Sept. 10)

On seeing the front-page photo of people signing the book of condolences at the legislature, I’m struck by the mixed messages we have conveyed regarding the monarchy.

On the one hand, we offer condolences, while on the other, we did absolutely nothing to stop the destruction — and horrible denigration — of statues of the late queen and her great-great grandmother.

Little wonder that property crime since then seems to have escalated dramatically. After all, if you can get away with something like destroying a statue, what’s a stolen bicycle or two?

Larry Roberts

Winnipeg

Water supply limited

Re: Should Canada help quench America’s thirst? (Sept. 8)

The article by Peter McKenna and replies from readers assume Canada has a surplus of fresh water that can or shouldn’t be shared. The discussion is moot, as Canada’s water surplus is illusory.

Canada receives 40 per cent less precipitation per unit area than the U.S. What Canada does have is a landscape containing a lot of water-tight basins that store water, i.e. lakes, some of which took centuries to fill.

Canada does have an abundant store of water, not an abundant supply. The questions McKenna raises are about a resource we don’t have and certainly are in no position to share.

Mike Stainton

Elie

Blacked-out windows unsightly

Re: Blank walls diminish pedestrian experience (Sept. 12)

Brent Bellamy’s column struck a chord with me. I, too, was struck with the absurdity of the blanked-out windows of cannabis shops.

Why don’t you see the same thing with liquor stores? We don’t want to entice children to drink, either!

I also think of situations such as the sidewalk in front of Portage Place where, on one side, you have traffic rushing by and, on the other side, you have a multi-story expanse of plain brick wall — a truly unpleasant walk down Portage Avenue.

When I was younger, the same stretch had dozens of interesting, street-level shops with windows you could look into and be seen by people in the shops. I would like, in the worst way, to see that return.

Michael Dowling

Winnipeg

Brent Bellamy raises the issue of blacked-out storefronts and the resulting effect of diminished visual interest on the pedestrian experience. This puts me in mind of a related issue, namely that of public art in Winnipeg and the destruction by building owners of murals and mosaics.

In 1972, tobacco company Benson & Hedges sponsored an “Artwalls” program that resulted in three local artists — Bill Lobchuk, Bruce Head and Winston Leathers — being selected to complete large wall murals. The best-known piece is that by Leathers, a mural on the upper southwest wall of the Walker Theatre at 364 Smith St. (a.k.a. the Burton Cummings Theatre, now owned by True North Entertainment and Sports.)

The Bruce Head mural apparently still exists, but is hidden by a wall. I am not aware of the details and location of the Bill Lobchuk work, if it still exists. Perhaps someone out there will know.

Some will also remember the George Swinton abstract mosaic on the south wall of Simpson Sears at Polo Park that was wantonly destroyed, and murals by Winnipeg artist Robert Bruce that suffered the same fate.

The various murals and mosaics of the time speak to a community of creative collaboration between local artists and architects, a practice that can only be encouraged to the currently active generation. And let’s not forget the necessary sensibility of building owners and developers to recognize the value added of visually interesting streetscapes.

Sig Laser

Winnipeg

Stop finger of blame

Re: Lighting way to healing in wake of mass tragedy (Opinion, Sept 9)

Niigaan Sinclair’s column focused on the background of the two young Indigenous men linked to multiple homicides, portraying them as “a product of Canada’s history of the mistreatment of Indigenous people.”

While I sympathize with their tragic and sadly not-uncommon background, I couldn’t help but think of the tragic and heartbreaking stories of my own ancestors and that of many other Canadians who came from all corners of the globe.

They had lived through tragedies and horrors we can hardly imagine. Yet they came to Canada, usually with nothing but the clothing on their backs, rebuilt their lives from scratch (with no government help or social programs of any kind) and went on to become productive and contributing members of their communities.

Perhaps Niigaan could take a larger world view and realize the Indigenous people are not the only people on earth who have suffered heartbreaking trauma, and it serves no productive purpose to keep pointing the finger of blame at everyone else.

Ellen Wilson

Winnipeg

Why U.S. flag was lowered

Re: Why lower U.S. flag? (Letters, Sept. 14)

Letter writer Robert Collings seems to see the lowering of the U.S. flag at a Winnipeg hotel as some kind of affront or disrespect. The most likely reason it was lowered is that the Canadian flag was lowered in respect for the death of the Queen, and since no other nation’s flag should fly higher than the Canadian flag on Canadian soil, the U.S. flag had to be lowered as well.

James Wingert

Winnipeg