Letters, June 10

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 10/06/2023 (1090 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The need for a national inquiry

How is that that whenever important issues regarding the governing of our country come to light, there is an outcry for a national inquiry from members of Parliament not on side with the sitting government of the day?

I was always led to believe that the House of Commons was the place to address issues pertaining to the governing of our country.

So, along comes interference from a foreign country, in this case China, around the time of our previous federal election. I have a difficult time believing that this is something new in the 21st century. Only now we have social media, and things go viral.

As to David Johnston being chosen to oversee accusations put forth by members of Parliament, I couldn’t imagine, given his time of service to our country, anyone else could be a better choice to address the concern of foreign interference in Canadian governance. Mr. Johnston is allowing for public meetings to allow for Canadian citizens to question his findings. Just as it should be in a democracy.

But no, MPs from all the different parties sitting in the House want their voices to be heard by having a national inquiry. I say it all adds up to grandstanding! Hell, is that what this country has come to?

Harold Murdoch

Pilot Mound

Give a quick ring

At the recent Doors Open weekend, I was tickled to hear the ‘magistrate’ in the ‘trials’ at the former Vaughan Street jail enforce a 1896 bylaw aimed at reckless cycling. The ‘culprit’ was punished with a fine of $20 — a large sum then — or 14 days in the klinker for riding his bike at night on McGregor Street without a lantern to warn pedestrians of the hazard he posed.

That bylaw is no longer in effect, but there is — as may be a surprise to many pedestrians and cyclists alike — a bylaw forbidding cycling on sidewalks. Yes, as a cyclist myself, I know that Winnipeg needs more protected bike lanes, but putting pedestrians at risk of having their bodies squished and splattered across the sidewalk is not a good way of protesting the scarcity of bike lanes.

In the meantime, until the city is willing to enforce the existing bylaw, how about if we celebrate Bike Week by attaching bells to our bikes and using them? It is not yet illegal in Winnipeg to ride without a bicycle bell, but if you do so in Edmonton, Calgary or anywhere in Ontario, for instance, you face a fine.

Bicycle bells can be picked up at dollar stores. I buy them in quantity, and try my best to hand them out to cyclists who whizz past me on the sidewalk — but this is hard to do as they are in a heck of a hurry.

Jude Carlson

Winnipeg

Re: It’s time for new politics (Think Tank, June 8)

I couldn’t agree more with Willard Reaves that we must work together to solve our problems. We need citizen participation and involvement in dealing with our problems. We cannot leave solutions to 57 individuals whose skill set is seeking power and holding office. When all of us have input into, and impact on, legislation, better government will result.

In June 2021, the headline read “Disability benefit too important to leave to government”. Jayne Melville Whyte’s article about the government introducing a bill to design a Canada Disability Benefit says it is groundbreaking news and something to be celebrated, and now the hard work comes — making it happen. Persons with lived experiences should be at the table, working alongside the government at every stage to make sure it’s done in a way that helps those it is intended to. The popular mantra “Nothing about us without us” is not just about engagement; it’s about making the benefit the best it can be.

In 2017, the government announced, “Family law reforms will ‘reduce harm’, Tories say”. Then-justice minister Heather Stefanson said the current system can be highly adversarial and irreparably damaging for families. Stefanson announced the formation of an advisory committee of lawyers, judges, and community leaders who did not appear to have any experience in this area. Where was the representation from the social scientists and from those whose lives had been “harmed”? Fast forward and the end result — “While restricting this pilot project to Family Maintenance Act matters will significantly limit the scope of this initiative…”

Definitely not done in a way that helps those it is intended to.

Definitely not the best it can be.

Yes, Willard, we need citizen participation and involvement in dealing with our problems. The legislature should be accountable to the public who often have a better understanding of the issues than the politicians do. That is because the public has to actually live with and experience the current system.

Dolores Belot

Winnipeg

View from above

Astronauts typically express awe and even love for the beautiful Earth below while they’re in orbit. I wonder how they feel when seeing the immense consequential pollution from raging massive forest/brush fires, like the one currently consuming much of Quebec and fouling American air, basically due to human-caused global warming?

I also wonder: if a large portion of the planet’s most freely-polluting corporate CEOs, governing leaders and overconsuming/disposing individuals rocketed far enough above the Earth for a day’s (or more) orbit, while looking down, would it have a sufficiently profound effect on them to change their apparently unconditional political/financial support of Big Fossil Fuel?

Even as bone-dry-vegetation regions uncontrollably burn, mass addiction to fossil fuel products undoubtedly helps keep the average consumer quiet about the planet’s greatest polluter, lest they feel and/or be publicly deemed hypocritical. It must be convenient for big fossil fuel.

Frank Sterle Jr.

White Rock, B.C.

Time to soul-search

In an ideal world, children and pets would both have forever homes. But that’s not reality. On television, radio and newspapers, the majority of attention focuses on pets. It’s appalling that our culture doesn’t hear about the thousands of children who go through multiple foster homes, and then at age 18, are on their own; no support from the government, who believe they’ve done their part.

So whose fault is it that we live in a crime-ridden culture, which is progressively on a downward spiral? Many of the panhandlers are not lazy; they have no foundation, no resources to draw on, unlike most children who grow up protected, loved and encouraged, giving them the confidence to face the world.

Children who grow up feeling unwanted, insecure and inferior, usually suffer mental and emotional problems, resulting in ongoing problems.

When, as a society, are we going to make the lives of all children our priority? It takes a village to raise a child. Very true! So far we have failed miserably!

Maybe when we see a young person begging for help, we should search our souls and admit, “that could be me if I hadn’t had the support of a loving family.” We have to do better!

Irene Howard

Winnipeg