Letters, Jan. 8

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 08/01/2024 (640 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Cameras serve purpose year round

Re: “Opportunistic policy” (Letters, Jan. 5)

With respect, I disagree with David Wiebe’s opinion that traffic cameras are not needed in school zones during holidays.

School holidays are an exciting time for children. They are not attending school, but they are visiting neighbourhoods with which they are not familiar. They may be excited about gifts they are going to give or receive. They may be focussed on people they are going to visit.

They are not in the school day routine of checking both ways, for safety.

In my experience as a driver, traffic cameras are at least as valid during school holidays as at any other time of the year. Reducing speed for the required distance avoids tickets and protects our children. I don’t see a downside.

Lynn Silver

Winnipeg

In search of support

Re: City open to body cams for police after province offers funds in wake of shooting (Jan. 3)

Per the Manitoba Shared Health website: “This Centre of Excellence in crisis resolution ensures expert short term clinical treatment and support services are available through walk-in services, mobile services and scheduled appointment services, combined with planned linkage and referral to appropriate services and supports.”

The province should tell the public why personnel from this “Centre of Excellence” weren’t available to assist the police in defusing the situations that lead to the shootings. You can’t isolate the attending police officers from the system that sent them in alone to face armed men allegedly in mental distress.

Stan Tataryn

Winnipeg

Better use for money

I never realized how expensive body cameras would be, to supply 1,300 cameras for Winnipeg officers estimated at $7 million, while the annual operating cost, including digital video storage and staff, was pegged at about $4 million.

I would think the millions would be better spent on other needed services to reduce crime and violence. And then to find out that reports on officers applying force or using a weapon only happened in .33 per cent of encounters! Besides, the city does not have the financial resources to spend such monies. Could not a designated group of officers be used for potentially violent encounters who would be trained and retrained in de-escalation techniques and be supplied with body cameras? Could a pilot project be implemented to supply apps on police-issued smartphones, as in Altona, at a cost of $4,500 ($563 per officer)?

How about instead of hiring 100 mental health workers to accompany the police on non-violent calls, we hire many fewer crisis response workers, like Toronto has done? The Crisis Response Service, launched in March 2022, received 6,827 calls for service in its first year of operations that were transferred from 911 and 79 per cent were “successfully resolved” without police involvement. Furthermore, 95 per cent of the recipients of the service were satisfied or very satisfied with the service they received.

In its first year, the community crisis teams completed 2,936 post-crisis followups and connected 1,160 service users to needed supports. This would free up the police to do the work they are paid to do — to deal with the increasing crime and violence, even against complete strangers on our city streets, so prevalent in our city!

Kirsti Kuuskivi

Winnipeg

Praise for health staff

We read every day of the failings of our public single-pay health-care system, of the endless waiting lines, of people dying in hallways, and of the misery occasioned by the paper-pushers in the bureaucracy.

To counter these frustrations, I want to give a major bouquet to the Home Hemodialysis unit at Seven Oaks Hospital. My wife has been on home hemodialysis for over six years. We have had prompt, effective service and compassionate support from the doctors, nurses, techies and admin staff at the unit.

I cannot say enough wonderful things about the staff and the renal program at Seven Oaks; we are indeed grateful for everyone involved.

Mike Radcliffe

Winnipeg

Clear markings

A suggestion for the operators of the parking lots at The Forks. The handicapped spaces should be marked with signs.

The designation painted on the pavement is often hard to see until you’re parked and getting out of your car, especially now when the ground is covered in snow. Thanks.

Gladys Bellamy

Winnipeg

Classroom realities

Re: Let’s talk about children and education (Think Tank, Jan. 4)

I often read articles and quietly mumble to myself but decided to speak up in response to John R. Wiens’ article.

I read John’s points and sat shaking my head and wondered, when was the last time he spent time inside a Manitoba school? In this day and age we need to be careful of generalizing. John said that suspensions were given for two main reasons; to give respite to adults from some children’s actions and as a deterrent for absenteeism.

I am not sure where John dug up his information, but one thing I know is students are not suspended for missing school. If anything, post-COVID, schools are supporting students that are missing school and welcoming them with open arms when they come to school. The first point of giving adults respite, is also incorrect. John may have heard of an incident where this happened due to extreme aggressive behaviour of a student, but it is so far from what is actually happening. Schools do whatever they can to keep students in school!

There are cases where students get suspended for the safety of all. Let’s look at things from a different perspective; if you had an employee who made other employees feel unsafe, do you think the employer would just tell the threatened employees to relax and let the employee keep their job?

Please remember, schools are working hard to develop positive citizens and instil strong work ethics, as they mould the future work force.

Maeve Savage

Niverville

Consider the Manitoba context

John Wiens encourages a ‘public dialogue about the purposes of education’ to, among other things, address the needs of ‘children who are not currently being served well’. He also warns against making too much of ‘one-shot international tests (as a) measure of educational success’, with which I heartily agree.

Hopefully not making too much of it, raw data from PISA 2022, the Programme for International Student Assessment of students turning 16 in the calendar year of the spring 2022 administration, includes principals’ opinions as to whether “Teachers not meeting individual students’ needs” is a hinderance to learning.

For Manitoba, 22 per cent of students attend a school where the principal indicated that this was true ‘to some extent’ or ‘a lot’, as opposed to ‘a little’ or ‘not at all’. Interestingly, given the relative extent of Manitoba students’ socio-economic challenges, most provinces (six) have higher proportions affected by this concern. Also counter-intuitively, the proportion at ‘not at all’ for Manitoba of 21 per cent is notably higher than all other provinces (four per cent to 16 per cent).

Awareness of the possible distinction among Manitoba schools in this regard is a contextual element that could contribute to any continued wide-ranging reflection and dialogue.

Ken Clark

Winnipeg