Letters, June 28

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 28/06/2023 (1011 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Time for change at Competition Bureau

Re: Limited competition costs consumers (Editorial, June 27)

I couldn’t agree more with this editorial piece in the June 27 edition of the Free Press.

Isn’t it time that our federal government changed the mandate of the Competition Bureau to allow, and to require, it to deal with major issues that effect the cost and quality of living of Canadians such as telecommunications, air travel, groceries and gas prices rather than the low-hanging fruit they have been focused on for the past five decades?

Lorne Weiss

Winnipeg

Myanmar situation not clean cut

Re: Honorary citizenship not a tool to be wielded (Think Tank, June 27)

Karmel Schreyer raises some points about honorary Canadian citizenship bestowed on certain foreign figures, but does not go into the times and the circumstances of the decision. Aung San Suu Kyi endured 20 years of house arrest in her struggle against military rule in Myanmar and gradually won the freedom of the people to conduct real elections. Millions were given hope of a better life.

But when her reforms became too liberal and required the military to become subservient to the political leadership, it rebelled and re-asserted its power at gunpoint. What was Aung San Suu Kyi to do? Go back into house arrest and die there? She chose to work within the limited role the military allowed her to have and seek what freedoms she could for her people. It looked like collaboration but it was an attempt at erosion of military control. So far it has not been enough, but she is powerless to change Myanmar’s current military government until it wants her to. To me she is still a heroic figure, worthy of her honours.

James Wingert

Winnipeg

Lowering standards bodes ill

Re: Manitoba on track to water down building codes: critics (June 26)

Carol Sanders’ article in the June 26 Free Press is an example of our government catering to a special interest business group to the detriment of the public.

In the long term, homes built to Tier 1 specifications will contribute significantly more to global warming than those built to higher specifications. They will also cost more to heat and be less comfortable in the winter heating season and summer cooling season. Most savvy home buyers consider operating costs and these homes once on the resale market will be less attractive.

The Conservatives want to keep the home builders happy, while contributing to global warming and allowing builders to sell us a pig in a poke.

Tom Pearson

Winnipeg

Our ever forward-thinking provincial government is at it again.

They want to lower the standards for building houses from Tier 2 or 3, that the housing builders commonly use right now. Gee, I wonder who was behind this grand idea?

We are being told to recycle, re-use, drive less, insulate our homes more, and now the tall foreheads at the legislature think it’s a good idea to build homes less efficient for our wonderfully cold Winnipeg winters.

Even the building trades think this is a sketchy idea. Everyday, it seems that the current provincial government throws out another “gem” of an idea that make many of us just shake our heads in total awe at the inanity of these elected officials.

David Taite

Winnipeg

Have equal resolve to search landfill

Re: Titan vs. landfill: painful tale of two search costs (June 26)

It was horrifying to think the five adventurers in the Titan submersible might be two miles down in the sea, in the darkest dark, with no escape, running out of oxygen. Searching to save them was vital. But we know now the submersible imploded almost immediately.

Supposedly at least tens of millions will be spent by four countries to find out why. I think the answer is simple. The reason is hubris. The Oceangate company spurned the knowledge and experience of experts who warned of danger and had advised third party testing and certification was needed. The Titan was not “classified by a maritime industry group that sets standards on such matters as hull construction.”

In his column Niigaan Sinclair states “some lives are clearly more important than others.” There is a report from the Landfill Search Feasibility Study Committee. That report cautions that not searching for the women “could send a message that disposing of victims in dumpsters is a good method for perpetrators and one that comes with impunity.”

This also is horrifying.

There is unquestioning intent to investigate the Titan disaster so it won’t happen again. Let the families of the millionaire tourists pay for that investigation, not taxpayers. There should equally be absolute determination to investigate the Prairie Green Landfill for the remains of at least two

Indigenous women. In comparison to the Titan, the cost of this is small. I add a wish that a memorial be set up for them and scholarships be established to carry on their names and make their families proud.

Brenda Trevenen

Winnipeg

Better regulation needed

Re: Thermea massage therapist arrested on sex assault charge (June 23)

It saddens me as a professional that I keep having to open up the paper and read, yet another story of accused sexual assault at the hands of a massage therapist.

What’s even more sad is that this will keep happening until we as professionals can have official regulation put into place. There is no such thing as “self regulation” from associations because it’s really not their business to do so. By definition, professional associations are there to represent and protect their members/professionals — hence my membership fees. The “proper” regulatory body is there to protect the public in respect to the involvement with the profession.

I put “proper” in quotation because ideally this regulator body is made up of non-biased members who have the profession’s best interests in mind as a whole — not just for certain members. If you are a vivacious reader of the Free Press you won’t have to go far for examples of regulatory bodies that are made up colleagues ultimately reviewing and passing judgment on their former classmates which has proven to do the opposite of protecting the public.

It’s completely irrelevant what association this therapist belongs to. The fact that there is no regulation stating that there has to be a formal complaint process to the regulatory professional board in conjunction with a police investigation so we are none the wiser and our hands are tied. Professions can self-regulate until they’re blue in the face — it’s doesn’t have the same flow of information and timelines nor the authorization of power to ultimately limit these people having access to more potential victims.

With the upcoming election I am hoping that one party will prioritize the list of 20-plus professions still waiting for regulation and maybe one will be wise enough to make it part of their campaign.

Pamela Gregoire, RMT

East St. Paul