Letters, Feb. 14

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This article was published 14/02/2024 (939 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

No change to spare

Re: Pay now — or pay more later (Think Tank, Feb. 13)

I have just read a quick bio on Chris Lorenc. It is commendable that he is and was on so many boards and chairs of many organizations. However, that he is involved in so many infrastructure groups is telling on his many Think Tank contributions.

I am tired of his continual diatribes on wanting more of your and my tax dollars to fix roads and highways. He forgets that the loose change in our pockets is now the difference between heat and food this winter. There is only so much blood from a stone that can be extracted. One has to wonder how much money he rakes in supporting these groups while he implores the governments to spend more money (our tax dollars) on roads.

Raymond Muller

Winnipeg

Get police involved on ice

Re: Immaturity on the ice (Letters, Feb. 13)

One hundred per cent agree with Gary Hook’s comments.

Maybe it is time for the police to get involved in severe incidents like the Morgan Reilly crosscheck.

Is it not workplace violence? Should something like this happen in any other workplace place, rather than a rink or field or diamond, the police would be called.

Hopefully something tragic does not have to happen to make this stupidity in professional sports stop.

Perhaps the authorities getting involved in incidents like this will save a life in the future.

Ron Robert

Winnipeg

Bell bullying government

I remember 30 or so years ago when the CRTC made a ruling forcing the telecommunication company MTS, a Crown corporation, to allow other companies to use the company’s infrastructure.

This would foster competition and lower prices.

MTS already had some of the lowest rates in the country. Fast forward 30 or so years and Bell finally got back what was “taken from them” in 1980 by the then-Conservative government and made into a Crown corporation. Bell has virtually no competition and the CRTC once again is forcing the big companies to allow smaller companies to use their infrastructure.

The federal government is presently giving Bell $40 million per year, a sum that Pierre Poilievre and Jagmeet Singh voted in, and now deny they did.

Their control of the market and profits isn’t enough. Bell is bullying the government so that it can get its way. The solution is as simple as this: cancel the $40 million and give them a smaller share of the $100 million of annual media funding set to come from Google.

In retrospect, I guess the CRTC wasn’t able to keep prices low and foster the competition it intended to. It’s impossible to do when the government allows mergers that concentrate industries to relatively few companies.

Gilles Nicolas

Winnipeg

Points for premier

I do not think that any Manitoba premier in recent memory, nor any other current premier, could have spoken as eloquently, with as much compassion and sincerity as Premier Wab Kinew did Monday, concerning the tragedy in Carman.

The strength that his spiritual tradition and Indigenous heritage give him benefits us all.

Jamie Oliviero

Lorette

Dismay at local news loss

Re: Bell ends some CTV newscasts, sells radio stations in media shakeup amid layoffs (Feb. 8)

I am writing to express my dismay at Bell Media’s sudden discontinuation of CTV local news at noon and most evening news broadcasts. Since retiring about six years ago, it has been my practice most weekdays to settle in front of the TV with my lunch to watch Channel 5 CTV News at Noon. I was totally taken aback a few days ago to find a game show instead.

Yes, I can read the news in the Winnipeg Free Press or on the CTV website, but having the CTV news readers and weather specialists come into my living room has been a welcome part of my day. And what about the jobs of these fine people?

I can’t believe I am the only Manitoban put out by this rash move on the part of Bell Media. I have seen this company behaving in greedy self-serving ways for a few years now, and I am ashamed to say that I have a few BCE shares bought for me by my grandfather when Bell was a fine upstanding company.

Perhaps the federal government should be investigating Bell, which appears to be lining its pockets at the expense of service to Canadians.

Ellen Karr

Winnipeg

The medium of radio is highly important, an essential service to many within our community and throughout the world.

The beginning and end of the First and Second World Wars was announced on radio. The citizens of Canada learned of their fighting men and women’s progress through the radio. All communication by the nation’s fighting forces were done by radio as well.

Announcements of humanity’s great achievements have been heard through the radio, such as man’s first step on the moon, the election of great leaders, the Great Depression, the formation of the United Nations, the civil rights movement, the end of the Cold War and even the birth of the internet.

Too many to mention, but all announced and discussed on our radio waves.

The medium of radio is especially important to our many local communities, a lifeline to what is going on, how and where community services are available and, most importantly, a venue where ordinary citizens can speak their minds, discuss issues that matter to them, and, through radio, help form their community.

Radio in Canada has been under attack for some time, where profiteering is more important than community values, democracy and community rights. Bell is selling off a good portion of its radio industry, laying off about 5,000 employees.

Various other financial interests will acquire many of these stations and substitute the present day operations and programs with special interest programming such as right-wing religious shows, various religious operations, special business ventures and talk shows voicing mostly right-wing opinions, pro-business and anti-labour, as it has done in the U.S.

Do you like to be able to phone in to a station and talk to a real person? Businesses such as Bell see such operations as expensive and a draw upon their profitability. A.I. has been replacing humanity with machines to determine what you like to hear or discuss. Machinery then presents to the local demographic approved programming, approved by a corporation with its own values, motivations and plans.

What happens when a coup or revolution happens? All media outlets are seized, especially all radio stations. Why? Because radio is symbolic (like most media) of the essential tools to form and maintain a democracy.

Stand up for your local radio stations, support them, even communally acquire them. Once the voice of democracy is silenced, the ability to choose who you wish to listen to, what music you wish to hear, will evaporate into historical oblivion.

Don’t believe me? Talk to someone who came from Russia, Nazi Germany, Latin America, India, China or any other nation ruled by force and tyrants.

Steven Kaszab

Bradford, Ont.