Letters, Sept. 12

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 12/09/2023 (936 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Good on PM for India stance

Re: PM’s plane grounded in India by technical issues (Sept. 10)

Justin Trudeau doesn’t seem to have any luck when it comes to India.

First he goes with his family and tries to show respect for their culture by dressing in the local garb only to be roasted for years with their family picture. Now he stands up to India’s Prime Minister and the other G20 leaders because of their human rights records, interfering in our elections and taking a soft line on Ukraine. All very commendable points. His cold parting handshake was icing on the cake.

Then just as he storms out of the house after telling off the host, he gets into his car slams the door and it won’t start. Now he has to go back to the host and ask if he has jumper cables. Poor Justin.

Good for him though. He stood tall.

Tom P. Scott

Winnipeg

 

Tax credit of little use

Scott Johnston, PC candidate for Assiniboia announced that, if re-elected, the Stefanson government would defer property tax payments for Manitobans aged 65 and over, pay property tax to municipalities on our behalf and recoup the funds when our homes are sold. The program he says would be open to all Manitoba seniors, regardless of our income or means to pay taxes.

In the same announcement, a new $500 tax credit for seniors, to help cover the cost of mobility aids, such as wheelchairs, walkers, and improvements to our homes was also promised.

In view of the multitude of challenges facing Manitoba in general and seniors in particular the utter lack of financial logic, social fairness and responsible stewardship is frighteningly evident.

There is fiscal and social sense supporting seniors for whom the annual tax bill is a challenge. That certainly would apply to many of us. An application process based on need would ensure such a program’s integrity.

But, for Manitoba seniors in need of funds to cover the cost of current mobility aids a tax credit of $500 offered at the end of the year is of no value whatsoever. The funds are needed now.

Lynn Silver

Winnipeg

 

In need of clinical analysis

Re: Austerity hurts public education (Think Tank, Sept. 9)

I read Ee-Seul Yoon’s Sept. 9 Free Press column looking forward to having my concerns confirmed — a bad way to approach reading. Then I took a more clinical approach.

While the claim that funding is inadequate may be true, government and others point to national data that show per-student funding in Manitoba is among the highest in the country (e.g., Statistics Canada Table 37-10-0227-01). A case or claim for underfunding needs to show how we should consider education funding in Manitoba to be inadequate, rather than posing it as a given.

The basis of much of the column is the response of ‘100 educators and front line workers in the public education sector who responded to a survey as part of the Public Service in Tough Times: Working Under Austerity in Manitoba project.’ There seems to be a hard bias built into this project. Additionally, it appears to be a non-random sample of opinion to which educators eager to express concerns would be much more motivated to respond than would others. It can’t stand on its own as a premise for characterization and analysis.

The author makes what may be considered common-sense claims about the negative impact of larger class sizes. At a minimum, a reader should have evidence as to how class sizes have changed in Manitoba, if they have (else the point is moot, at least), and with what research says about class size and student outcomes (not as straightforward as one might think).

Education funding is serious and contentious. Our worst form of government except for all the others (a sentiment relayed by Churchill) ensures voters, not children, are the focus of government priorities, no matter the stripe. There is vital work to be done and a case to be made in the interest of equitable, accessible, effective and sustainable public education.

This is true especially in light of years of funding cuts (after accounting for inflation and enrollment) consistently, wrongly and knowingly portrayed by the PC government as increasing, even ‘historic.’ A clinical analysis of the premises contained in the column would be a welcome entry to debate on the issue.

Ken Clark

Winnipeg

 

No place for the state…

Re: Tory grassroots vote against surgical, pharmaceutical care for transgender kids (Sept. 9)

First off, as a human being, I find myself filled with disgust and shame knowing that I share a country with people who are so anti-freedom and have so little room in their hearts for anyone else who is different from them. And as much as Justin Trudeau has set himself apart from his father, Pierre Elliot’s words “There is no place for the state in the bedrooms of the nation.” once again need to be clearly stated by a truly progressive leader. Something Pierre Poilievre truly is not.

He wants to drag everyone he can back into the closet or drop his boot onto the back of the necks of anyone he identifies as a threat to his base because his base identifies them as a threat. That’s not leadership. That’s creating a closed loop of stoking the fires of fear and hatred to become their leader of everyone in it.

Clearly there is little to their understanding of the isolation members of the LGBTTQ+ communities feel. No one comes out as white to their parents with the fear they will not be accepted or lose their home and family. No one comes out as the religion they were raised with worrying they will be asked to leave. No one hides their true self to the point of hopelessness and suicide because they believe being who they are means risking being rejected by the people they love. And all of these steps federal and provincial governments have and want to take will result in the loss of living and life of people who only wish is to be accepted for their true selves.

On the other hand, we live in a country that provides everyone with the rights to speak their mind and do so with little fear of repercussion. And as much as it pains me to say, I would much rather live in a country which allows others to make me feel disgusted and ashamed of my fellow Canadians then a country were we don’t have these rights.

I just wish people understood that everyone else has these same rights. The way one family chooses to define theirs should not be seen as a threat to how someone else defines theirs. Just because people aren’t supporting someone’s position doesn’t mean they are wrong or woke or hate someone’s idea of families. It means what they feel is right for them, that they understand we have been asleep for far too long with our eyes closed to the struggles and suffering of others and that needs to change, and that there is no right or wrong kind of family… there are just families.

And there is no place for state at the dinner tables of the nation.

Brian Spencler

Winnipeg

 

Way to go, Bombers

Re: Collaros, Bombers show no mercy (Sept. 10)

It’s not often that the highlight reel for a football game is basically the game film of the entire first half.

Congratulations to the entire Bombers team.

Robert Pruden

Winnipeg