Letters, Jan. 13

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 13/01/2024 (973 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

First Nations need more access

Re: Project process inadequate (Think Tank, Jan. 10)

I am an elder who has guided Camp Morningstar since its inception. I have supported and advised our community as they bring to light the very divisive, colonial mining practices that destroy the spirit of Indigenous communities in the quest to participate in the mainstream economy.

I appreciate Dennis LeNeveu’s scientific perspective on the Wanipigow Silica Sand mine, but there is another side. We live out here because Treaties pushed us from our Hecla homeland so settlers could benefit. We were invaded by cottage developments that gave us no benefit. However, no one lives here to obscure the stars with industrial light; start a campfire with industrial noise disturbing the hoot of the owl; or go into the sweat lodge ceremony while trucks carrying carcinogenic silica sand barrel down a gravel road, metres away. Then there are threats to air and water which Mr. LeNeveu detailed.

There is nowhere for the members of the reserve to go if they want to live next to a mine. Cottagers can sell their properties at a loss. Reserve residents don’t have that right.

Other jurisdictions, like Ontario. have passed laws to prevent prospecting in populated areas. The government of Manitoba should conduct a land use map. Are we a sacred/recreational area or a mining area?

There are no procedures in the mining approval process to acknowledge the sacredness of the silica sand. In the Northwest Territories, Explor Silica relinquished its right to mine silica sand at Whitebeach when the elders identified it as sacred. The silica sand rights on the Eastern shore of Lake Winnipeg are an extension of the Black Island sacred site that Hollow Water First Nation Elders fought to have protected from logging and invasive tourism. The province responded by making it into a park.

We need free prior and informed consent. Start with free prior and informed conversations. Section 35 does not occur until too late in the process, if at all. The most recent designation of the Wanipigow Sand mine as minor meant there were no hearings for what amounted to a brand new mine.

The government needs to make sure First Nations have access to scientists and advisors to look at the adverse effects and deficits in the mine’s proposal before agreements are signed. Even former Minister Kevin Kline admitted he had no idea what the engineers were saying. Right now, the proponent or company communicates all information. The fox oversees the henhouse.

Hollow Water First Nation, Manigotogan, and Seymourville were offered trinkets and beads. When Canadian Premium Sand failed to make a go of the original frack sand mine, they returned with a new plan that took the bulk of the promised jobs and local improvements to Selkirk and left behind a community that quickly descended into an emotional tailspin brought on by increased rates of suicide and drug abuse. It has been five years. We will suffer all the devastation, with none of the benefits.

We need to acknowledge the system has failed Hollow Water First Nation.

Marcel Hardisty, elder

Wanipigow

U-turns bad idea for intersection

Re: Bad driving at root of problem (Letters, Jan. 10)

Concerning the intersection of the Trans-Canada Highway and Highway 16, Bill Potter of Morden hit the nail on the head. It’s not the intersection that’s dangerous, it’s the drivers that are the problem. I have been through that intersection numerous times while on the road during a career in sales and then after I retired, getting my Class 1 licence and driving a semi-trailer. I have never thought of that intersection of the highways being anything other than an intersection.

That idea of making U-turns there is preposterous. If that’s done people will be making turns in front of vehicles coming towards them at highway speed. Even if the TransCanada speed there is reduced how many people are not going to pay attention to the speed limit? If a cloverleaf was there instead of the crossing, it is now will not mean there will not be any more accidents.

Different considerations for that intersection are going to reduce accidents by different percentages, they say, but there is still going to be accidents, even of a serious nature.

George Morawski

Winnipeg

Mea culpa

Re: Missing the point of teaching math (Think Tank, Jan. 10)

With regards to the article I wrote, I would like to formally apologize to James Allum, former minister of education for a comment I believed I recalled him making some years ago which I termed “cringeworthy.”

I was unable to provide documentation that such a comment was said and memory being what it is, I apologize. James Allum was a valued member of the NDP and served both party and people honourably.

Neil Dempsey

Winnipeg

Reasons for delay

I have been wondering why the reconstruction of the highway interchange on the Trans-Canada at Highway 16, scheduled to start in 2021 has been delayed for so long. An article in the the Free Press on Jan. 11 sheds some light on the subject. If I read it correctly, it is objections from the Manitoba Trucking Association that has further delayed this development by probably many years!

Is there no consultation with user groups when projects as important as this one are being considered? As to the comment about the length of trailer units and the added driver inputs required when in a roundabout to maintain a correct position, the obvious answer is to make the circle as large as necessary to remove the objection. We do live in the prairie and most of these intersections have lots of available land adjacent to them!

Roundabouts are, no doubt, the safest and best cost-effective option and can be operational in a short time period.

We have been researching this issue for too long and people will die because of all of these fruitless delays. Time for some action.

David Tustin

Gimli

Demand specificity of leaders

Canadians should demand that politicians use precise language when discussing issues.

We allow politicians to use emotive language which is empty of any meaningful content. A politician will say: “Canada is a great nation,” yet what constitutes greatness for a nation? Military power, economic power, compassion for the needy?

These phrases are simply “hooray words” that lull us into feeling good about ourselves. If a politician says that she/he will fix the health-care system, what constitutes a “fix”? I suspect that if you asked 50 physicians this question, you would get 50 different answers.

We do ourselves a disservice by not demanding that politicians be very precise in their use of language. Emotive language is the refuge of the stupid and lazy.

Kurt Clyde

Winnipeg