Letters, Nov. 15

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 15/11/2023 (691 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Seven years not enough

Re: ‘To be without her is my nightmare’: victim-impact statements detail devastation of 2022 fatal drunk-driving crash (Nov. 7)

I was taken aback when I read about the prosecutors of Tyler Goodman seeking a seven-year sentence for the young man who was responsible for the death of Jordyn Reimer while driving recklessly and intoxicated in 2022.

So after the tragic death of their daughter, all the family can look to is a seven-year sentence?

What a slap in the face to the Reimer family. That their daughter’s life only accounts for such a sentence. For her loss of life at the tender age of 22. In my opinion, something like 14 to 20 years would only start to repay for this young irresponsible man’s decision to drink and drive and speed on that fateful night.

Let’s think more about the family who are left to grieve for the rest of their lives.

Harold Murdoch

Pilot Mound

Imbalanced justice

Re: Admitted 3D-printed gun-maker facing possible 12-year sentence (Nov. 13)

I read in the paper of a 19-year old man facing a possible 12-year sentence for the manufacturing and trafficking of handguns.

While I agree this is a crime worthy of the punishment, I also read on the same page that the Crown is recommending a seven-year sentence for a man who elected to drink and drive, drove a vehicle over 100 km/h in a 50 km/h zone, resulting in the untimely death of a young woman.

Where’s the justice when the manufacturing of handguns is considered more serious than the taking of a human life?

Doreen Mork

Winnipeg

Appalled by activist’s death

Re: Renowned Canadian-born Israeli peace activist, Vivian Silver, confirmed killed in Hamas attack (Nov. 14)

Today I feel compelled to share some of my thoughts and feelings publicly about a fellow Winnipegger. She was murdered in cold blood by Hamas. She was a peace activist who volunteered on a regular basis to take people living in Gaza into Israel for medical appointments. This was something that was commonly done by others on her kibbutz.

And how was she repaid? Murdered by the same people she was trying to save. Shame on all who are supporting this terrorist organization. Shame on everyone who is being manipulated by terrorist propaganda. Even the UN doesn’t dispute that Hamas is hiding beneath and among human shields.

I am appealing for everyone to get educated from reliable sources about the history of the Mideast conflict. I as a Jew genuinely feel tremendous sorrow for Gazans who are losing their lives during this war.

However I am doubtful that my sympathy and compassion is reciprocated because we see what happened to Vivian Silver.

Linda Zimmerman

Winnipeg

Don’t justify atrocities on either side

However one might feel about the atrocities committed by the Hamas terrorists in Israel on Oct. 7, we should not try to justify what Israel is doing in Gaza either. There is too little evidence of restraint in Israel’s response and no sense of proportionality.

Despite Israel’s claims to want to protect civilians, it clearly has not done it and it cannot simply blame Hamas for the deaths that have ensued. If Hamas has indeed located its control centres under places like the Al Shifa Hospital, Israel has a duty to refrain from causing such places to shut down.

There is a tragic similarity here between what Russian president Vladimir Putin is doing in Ukraine and what Israel is doing in Gaza. Putin has alienated much of the world in his campaign to batter the Ukrainians into submission, and Israel is attempting to batter the Palestinians into submission. But even if the entire Hamas network is destroyed, and every last Hamas terrorist who participated in the Oct. 7 atrocities is killed, the events in Gaza will raise a new generation of terrorists throughout the Middle East.

The alienation it is creating will endure for generations.

Wise influencers like Tom Friedman of the New York Times cautioned Israel against doing exactly what it has done. Their voices were not heeded.

We can be sure however that the violence we now see being acted upon Ukraine and in Gaza will never accomplish what it intends.

History should tell us that. And for me as a Christian, my faith also tells me that.

Harold Jantz

Winnipeg

‘Canary in the coal mine’

Re: Montreal Jewish school hit by gunshots again; Man arrested after allegedly inciting hate, antisemitism (Nov. 13)

On Sunday, Nov. 12, a Montreal Jewish school was hit by gunshots, one of two schools that were also targeted in overnight shootings just three days earlier.

And over this weekend a Mohammed Assadi of Ottawa was arrested after he was allegedly caught on video inciting hatred and expressing antisemitic views.

The sickening and cowardly outbreak of antisemitism is a result of the conflict between Hamas and Israel. Hamas has been designated a terrorist organization by Israel, the United States, European Union, Egypt and Japan. Its No. 1 export is hate. And its backup player in the Middle East is Hezbollah.

History tells us that antisemitism is the “canary in the coal mine.” After Jews are slaughtered, who will be Hamas’s next target? Christians, Hindus, Buddhists, or another infidel?

Barry Elkin

Winnipeg

Reason to leave

I am writing this note from my 89-year-old father’s bedside — in the hallway of Grace Hospital’s emergency ward where he has been since an ambulance transfer on Thursday. We are, as of this writing, on Day 6 of his emergency visit.

My dad is one of far too many to number here. The walls of emergency are literally lined with stretcher after stretcher. In some cases, patients have spent days in a reclining chair against a wall. Staff are creating new areas in emergency with handwritten lettering so they don’t lose patients. I’ve never seen anything like this.

The worst part is that the longer my dad lies on a stretcher, the more exacerbated his condition becomes, meaning more treatment later — if he doesn’t just give up the will to fight anymore. More treatment equals further strain on this already interminably strained system.

My father loves Winnipeg. His mantra was always “Love me, love my Winnipeg.” He spent years volunteering in this community, including his time as president of the Folk Arts Council of Manitoba and is well respected for that. And yet in the sunset of his years the thanks he gets is a stretcher in a hallway for six days… and counting.

We moved back to Winnipeg three years ago to help care for my aging parents. Based on what we’ve experienced in caring for two seniors in Winnipeg, we’ve made the decision that when my now-surviving parent no longer needs us, we will leave again to seek shelter in a province whose medical system will not fail us as we enter our senior years.

Gayle Charach

Winnipeg

Trump’s lawyers as bad as client

We now know that former president Donald Trump will weaponize the Justice Department and throw away the Constitution of the United States if he elected for a second term. He wants to be an autocrat like Putin or Hitler.

That being said, the attorneys representing Trump in his many court cases are just as soulless as him. They are enabling Trump to stall and maybe win his court cases keeping him out of prison.

I hope his defence attorneys realize that they are actually traitors like Trump himself, to the rule of law, democracy and to the Constitution of the United States. No true American should want to defend Trump in any matter.

Robert J. Moskal

Winnipeg