Letters, Feb. 16

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 16/02/2024 (959 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Job application

I would like to officially throw my hat in the ring to be the new CEO of Manitoba Hydro. In my first act I will implement a cost savings by cutting 80 per cent of my salary. No one needs six figures to live in Manitoba. And the rest of the board better learn to live on much less, too.

Next, I would suggest to my provincial political overlords they get on the same page as the federal government. Canada is banning the sale of new internal combustion vehicles in 2035. Right now, Manitoba Hydro can barely supply a few new housing developments and went from a large exporter to an importer when water levels are low. Climate change anyone?

That gives us only 11 years before every vehicle is drawing electricity from the grid. We best get started on figuring out where that power is coming from soon. Low rates don’t matter much when the grid goes down in January and there’s no heat, and you can’t drive anywhere either.

Keith Gordon

Winnipeg

Egypt’s response telling

Re: Egypt is threatening to void its decades-old peace treaty with Israel. What does that mean? (Feb. 11)

It means in part that the widespread antipathy in the Middle East (ME) to Jews is surfacing. Egypt is one of very few ME states to recognize Israel’s right to exist. Moreover, a PEW survey found that over 90 per cent of Muslims in six ME countries had highly unfavourable views of Jews (Jews, not Israelis or Zionists), likely representative of the 300 million or more citizens of Islamic states within striking distance of Israel.

Although not one of the countries surveyed, Egypt scores high on the Anti-Defamation League index of anti-semitism, as do other ME nations. For example, 68 per cent of Egyptian Muslims agreed that “Jews don’t care what happens to anyone but their own kind” and 81 per cent agreed that “People hate Jews because of the way Jews behave.” Talk about “blaming the victim!”

It is tempting to view Egypt’s reluctance to allow Palestinians to seek safety in Egypt as another reflection of anti-Jewish sentiment, which would allow Israel to eradicate Hamas without endangering civilians. But Egypt has perhaps legitimate concerns that Israel may restrict return of refugees.

More telling, however, is Egypt’s legitimate fear that opening the border would “invite” numerous terrorists into their country. Indeed Muslims worldwide are among the many victims of Islamist terrorism, as are Jews in Israel.

Sadly, withdrawal from a peace agreement is more likely to be interpreted wrongly as evidence that the Israeli attempt to defeat a terrorist organization just creates new enemies. That ignores the widespread animosity toward Jews among ME Muslims and the failure of most ME nations to acknowledge Israel’s right to exist, which only strengthens Hamas resolve to terrorize Jews no matter what the cost to Palestine and its people.

Jim Clark

Winnipeg

Outraged at PM’s comments

Re: Protest outside Mount Sinai Hospital ‘reprehensible’ show of antisemitism: Trudeau (Feb. 13)

Like most, I am concerned about the treatment of Palestinians and expressed frustration that Palestinians have been deliberately dehumanized to the extent that all the atrocities being perpetrated against them were being justified, rationalized and denied by world leaders.

However, I have come to realize that in the process of dehumanizing, demonizing, and othering Palestinian people by the so-called “civilized world” the West and its allies have exposed their own inhumanity.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s statement calls the peaceful pro-Palestinian rally in front of Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto “reprehensible.”

Really?

Hospitals have been bombed in Gaza, babies left to die in incubators, leaving injured men, women and children — suffering life-threatening injuries — with no care available. Israel is blocking medical aid from reaching Gaza, killing doctors, ambulance drivers, and Red Crescent personnel, Canadian doctors and medical students are penalized and ostracized for any expression of pro-Palestinian sentiment.

If we want to see humanity at its best, then let us look at the Palestinians in Gaza. They have outdone all of us “civilized” countries — with their compassion, caring, and integrity — honouring their faith traditions of resilience and teaching us with their shining example of humanity.

As if the killing of 30,000 civilians including women and children was not enough, Rafah is under attack — the last refuge for besieged Palestinians driven out of their homes. The Canadian priority is to condemn the protest in front of a “Jewish” hospital in Canada where no violence occurred, no windows were shattered, no ambulances bombed and none of the doctors or patients hurt, as police stood guard.

Prime minister, I have two questions for you; Why decry anti-semitism when a peaceful protest happens in front of a Canadian hospital and not Islamophobia and anti-Palestinian hate, when hospitals are bombed in Gaza? Why are you not moved to tears and shaken to your core as a father when the images of children in Gaza cross your desk and you offer no condemnation?

Finally, a request. Stop dividing Canadians across religious and ethnic lines. Hospitals do not have religious identities. They are places of healing and not a political football to be kicked one way or the other to score points.

Shahina Siddiqui

Winnipeg

Sewage problems

Re: Winnipeg’s sewage pipes ‘falling apart at the seams’ (Feb. 13)

In 2002, 2011, 2018, and 2024: spill, spill, untreated sewage due to lack of due diligence, spill — to list a few of the “big” ones. Is it ever going to end? It certainly has ended for the millions of fish, insects, crayfish, molluscs, amphibians and plankton killed by the lack of oxygen used up by this sewage.

I trust the federal fishery officers that were overseeing these works will lay appropriate charges and that restitution for these fish deaths and for habitat restoration will be paid.

I think I can speak for all fishers and pretty much anyone else who loves our waterways that we are done with hearing the same old lame explanations from Winnipeg Water and Waste and City of Winnipeg councillors. Stop sacrificing our waterways, our fish, our wildlife, our health and our well-being.

No more excuses. Fix it. Fix it now.

Duncan Wain, M.Sc.

RM of St. Clements

Hoping advice is heeded

Re: Misdiagnosing our infrastructure issues (Think Tank, Feb. 15)

Do I ever appreciate the author’s approach of background, facts, diagnosis, and remedy. In this case it shows that to depend on mostly traditional approaches to municipal growth to solve the financial and infrastructural issues associated with that same approach is as sensible as it sounds.

Hopefully having it spelled out so clearly shifts, even slightly, how the forces and powers at play influence municipal planning.

Ken Clark

Winnipeg