Letters, March 30

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 30/03/2023 (1265 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Use your voice

Today, my mother and I were listening to CJOB and I heard a caller say that she “had no words” for the horror of yet another mass shooting in the United States.

Well, I have words and anyone else is welcome to use them. Write your MP and tell them to give this message to Canada’s primary trading partner:

The wealthiest country in the world must put in place actual gun-safety legislation and make health care, including mental-health care, freely available to its citizens. Otherwise, guns will continue to be the No. 1 cause of death of children and teenagers in the United States. This is unacceptable to Canadians.

Do not dishonour the children that have died by gun violence by saying you “have no words.”

You still have your life, you have words. Use them.

Koralee Nickarz

Vancouver

National perinatal strategy needed

Kiera O’Neil’s article Pregnant during the pandemic: Long-term effects and the importance of social support (March 15) highlighted the significant increase in symptoms of anxiety and depression in perinatal persons during the COVID-19 pandemic.

She reported that over 50 per cent of perinatal people disclosed substantial symptoms of depression, up from 14 per cent in the year before COVID-19. With such significant impacts on perinatal mental health, these alarming statistics expose the critical need for a national perinatal mental health strategy.

Perinatal mental health disorders (PMHD) are explained as distressing feelings that range in intensity from mild to severe during pregnancy and throughout the first year after birth. Accurately assessing for, diagnosing, and treating PMHD is essential, as suicide is the leading cause of death during the perinatal period.

Currently, provinces are responsible for determining their PMHD service offerings, policies and procedures, and the status of available care varies vastly depending on your region. There are no national regulations for service providers to have specific mental-health training, to follow universal screening guidelines, or to provide evidence-based treatment services.

Following the code of ethics composed by the Canadian Association of Social Workers, the recommendation for a national perinatal mental-health strategy satisfies value for the pursuit of social justice.

A national perinatal health strategy must mandate specific funding for PMHD, must address barriers to care in marginalized communities, and must provide guidelines for evidence-based screening and treatment for providers.

In addition to that, the national strategy must undergo periodic reviews to implement changes as needs and service gaps are identified.

Perinatal people take on the responsibility of birthing, nurturing and raising the citizens of our country. Providing a national perinatal mental health strategy ensures that society takes responsibility for the health and wellness of our future.

Kelsey Marsh

Greenwood, N.S..

Not in whose backyard?

Re: Crescentwood heritage district a go (March 25)

Bravo to those residents of the Crescentwood-Enderton Park area who supported the city’s designation of their historic homes and landscapes as Winnipeg’s second heritage conservation area. Protecting the heritage character of that district is an important part of maintaining the city’s unique historic personality.

Of course, there are always some who oppose such designations, bringing up the usual bugbears related to bogus issues of choice. In the case of lawyer Kevin Toyne, who represents the dissenters, rather than claiming a permit would be required to plant flowers (a statement he knows to be false), asks instead, “If someone… wants to plant flowers in their front yard, do they require a heritage permit or not?” — a misdirection intended to sow doubt.

To see the necessity of protecting the heritage character of areas such as Crescentwood, one only has to look at nearby Wellington Crescent, where beautiful, historic homes have been bulldozed and replaced by concrete piles of heartbreak.

Robert Coutts

Winnipeg

What hypocrisy by Winnipeg city council.

As a longtime resident in River Heights, I am now seeing many houses being demolished by developers subdividing lots and constructing ugly box-like structures, with less green space and fewer trees, that are totally out of character with the neighbourhood.

Many of these houses being demolished are 100 years old. This is happening in other neighbourhoods as well.

The city argues it is better for the city to promote greater density in older neighbourhoods by allowing these developments to go ahead. A number of us recently lost an appeal to the city appeals committee, which permitted such a development on our street.

To add insult to injury, the city is permitting the developer to build rentable secondary suites onto these houses, so there would now be four homes on a property that, for 100 years, had only one home.

Yet city council has now decided that the Crescentwood-Enderton Park area of the city should be designated a heritage conservation district to preserve the unique “garden-like setting” and historic homes in the area created more than a century ago. This in response to lobbying from some area residents.

Need I point out that many of the properties in this area would be well-suited to the development of multi-unit properties such as those going up in River Heights?

It is obvious the city council is less concerned about the impact of these developments in River Heights and other neighbourhoods than in Crescentwood.

Irwin Corobow

Winnipeg

Spirit of ’76

I read with interest the Free Press article about the conflagration that consumed the Fort Garry Court apartments (Then and Now, March 25).

As I recalled the event, the date cited in the article did not correspond with my memory. I found photographs of the former Strathcona Block/Fort Garry Court fire along with information about the building on the Manitoba Historical Society website. The MHS entry lists the date of the fire as Feb. 1, 1976, not 1970.

The Free Press account of the incident was published on Feb. 2, 1976. I am pleased my memory was accurate and that there will be more instalments in the Then and Now series.

For any curious readers, photographs of the Strathcona Block/Fort Garry Court building in its glory can be found on the Manitoba Historical Society website.

Donald Teel

Winnipeg

Don’t ‘feed’ the fish

Recently, I visited The Leaf and observed a sad change. The water pond that features koi was filled with coins tossed by visitors.

Koi can accidentally eat coins and the coins leach metals into the water that are unhealthy to koi.

I urge the Assiniboine Conservancy to use signs and volunteers to educate the public of this harmful practice. Perhaps they might build a creative water feature to act as a “wishing well” for coins.

It is irresponsible to allow this recent practice to continue. The Free Press has had many articles on The Leaf and I hope this letter will inform the public of unintentional harm to the koi.

Jan Kushnier

Winnipeg