Letters, April 25

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 25/04/2023 (866 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Hope for better meeting next time

On March 15, as interim head of neurology services, I was summoned to a virtual meeting with an executive member of the Diagnostic and Surgical Recovery Task Force and his team. He stated that the purpose of the discussion was to determine how his commitee could assist in addressing the extensive waitlist in the provincial Multiple Sclerosis clinic at the Health Sciences Centre.

I asked what sort of help? He immediately responded by indicatng he was aware of U.S.-based private companies who could see patients on our waitlist. When I asked him to identify these companies he refused. I then indicated that his proposal wouldn’t work, because most MS patients needed complex team-based care and follow up that such a solution would not provide.

My objection was supported by a nurse member of his group.

I indicated that his cavalry was a little late, pointing out that my requests for clinic resources had been ignored for some two years until out of sheer desperation I had organized a national press conference (May 19, 2022) to inform the public that the MS clinic was about to collapse due to lack of personnel and resource approvals. Within two weeks of that event, all of the resources we had been pleading for were miraculously approved. Three additional MS specialists and three nurse practitioners have recently arrived or on the way to Winnipeg.

I indicated that barring misfortune, the clinic would be operating at full capacity by October and we could begin making progress on the wait list. I then directed the balance of the discussion to minor resource issues, which he indicated, his committee could address. As of this date no response has been forthcoming.

My unhappiness with the state of our health care system is no secret. There is a clear difference between engaging private companies in an accountable and appropriate fashion in areas where they might provide useful cost-effective service, versus turning the system into a pork barrel. What is lost here is the suffering and anxiety of patients and their families and the current plight of a dedicated doctor in the MS clinic who was hired to spend 75 per cent of her time for research and instead has been working 85 hours a week for two years to look after these patients as best she can.

The next time I’m summoned to a meeting I hope I’m meeting with someone with a bit of insight, who is informed and has at least the organizational skills of a kid with a three-house paper route.

Dr. Dan Roberts

Co-section Head, Neurology

Health Sciences Centre

Winnipeg

PM lacks credibility

The federal government has committed $13 billion dollars to subsidize Volkswagen’s new battery plant.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the factory would deliver an economic impact equal to the taxpayer support within five years. Yeah, right!

This is the same guy who bought Trans Mountain in 2018 for $4.5 billion to ensure the pipeline expansion project would be completed. Apparently, Kinder Morgan first estimated the project would cost $5.4 billion and then revised the estimate to $7.4 billion and then to $9.6 billion, just before taxpayers bought it.

Guess what! The cost has soared to $30.9 billion and the project is still incomplete, as well as four years behind schedule.

Perhaps helping to finance the battery plant is an excellent long-term investment. I don’t know. But I do know if Justin Trudeau could be hooked up to a “Credibility Meter” the reading would be zero or less.

Lloyd Atkins

Vernon, B.C.

Opening Portage and Main obvious move

Re: New vision for Portage and Main coming next week (April 22)

We regularly hear from our leaders that they want Winnipeg to be less dependent on cars and provide more options for pedestrians. If that is indeed the vision, opening Portage and Main would and should be part of that vision.

Visitors remain stunned at the inability to cross Portage and Main and it continues to cut the city in two. I suggest those opposed, do some travelling! Visit Paris (metro area population 11,142,000) which has many intersections pedestrian friendly much larger than Portage and Main — or Barcelona, where I recently crossed an 11-lane road in central Barcelona!

Coun. Browaty remains concerned opening Portage and Main to pedestrians would cause severe traffic problems. Perhaps he should take a few trips to other cities. It is unfortunate when our city leaders remain stuck in the “can’t be done here” syndrome.

Winnipegers tend to oppose change. I can list so many projects that people opposed that now give them pride (the bridge to St. Boniface is one… it even graces our postcards).

I beseech our leaders to follow the vision, be courageous and lead!

Heather Erhard

Winnipeg

Winnipeg transportation planner Jairo Viafara does not want Portage and Main open to pedestrians because of the possibility of “pedestrians who have been drinking and dancing” being struck by cars.

That’s a pretty flimsy justification for maintaining the significant accessibility, mobility, and equity issues associated with the status quo!

Discouraging walking does not make our streets safer — on the contrary. The more we prioritize the speed and convenience of vehicles, the more dangerous — and unlivable — our city becomes.

David Paton

Winnipeg

Thanks to Victoria staff

My mom passed away March 28, 2023 at Victoria General Hospital after a seven-day stay.

She had me promise that I would thank all the staff for their kind, compassionate and timely care while in Urgent Care and 5 South. With our current failing health-care system, it is reassuring to witness all the frontline staff (housekeeping, health care aides, nurses and the palliative physician) working together with gentle hands and loving hearts.

If she could sum up her life, it would be how grateful she was, not only while she was living but dying as well. Thank you VGH.

Dianne Boyce

Victoria Beach, Man.

Warhol’s depictions not endorsement

Re: New Reign (April 23)

I was sad to learn that the Winnipeg Art Gallery will be divesting itself of Andy Warhol’s “highly coveted” depictions of Queen Elizabeth, part of his Reigning Queens series.

While the depictions of Queen Elizabeth “can be interpreted as symbols of British colonialism”, the work of Andy Warhol was certainly not intended as such — in the same way that Warhol’s famous depiction of Chairman Mao was not an endorsement of communism, nor his likeness of Marilyn Munroe a celebration of her physical beauty.

On the contrary, the genius of Warhol’s work was to subvert the intended meaning of symbols in contemporary society and to repurpose them as consumable goods. It was to lay bare the power and influence of cultural icons, revealing them as empty signifiers.

We ascribe to cultural objects the meaning we collectively negotiate.

We just saw this happen when Canada announced it would break with a centuries-old tradition: King Charles would not hold the title in Canada of “defender of the faith.”

He is, until he is no longer…

From this perspective — and especially in the process of decolonizing art collections in Canada and elsewhere — Warhol’s provocative renderings of Queen Elizabeth seem to me eminently relevant, and especially so in the context of contemporary Canadian society.

As our relationship with ourselves and our country shifted with the publication of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s final report and the discovery of unmarked graves across the country, so too has our perception of our sovereign — and the monarchy — shifted.

Warhol was subversively challenging us through his art to think of Queen Elizabeth II as anything but the symbol of sovereignty, power, rectitude, to say nothing of “defender of the faith”.

I can only hope that another public gallery will acquire these thought-provoking works of art rather than have them adorn the walls of a wealthy collector.

Stephane Allard

Winnipeg