Letters, May 7

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 07/05/2024 (876 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Pork pollution

There is a saying: “Some minds are like concrete…all mixed up and permanently set.”

This appears to be the case of the corporate supporters of industrial hog production in Manitoba, such as the Manitoba Pork Council and the recent campaign about their level of “environmental responsibility.” I ask you to consider that I have served a 30-year career in agriculture and watch industrialized ag production practiced where I live in Hanover, with its highest hogs per hectare in western Canada.

With the overconcentration of manure-producing hogs in these torture chambers, the overconcentration of manure applications on too few hectares, and no accountability for, or oversight of, their manure management plans, we are expected to applaud their “environmental efforts?” This fallacy of industrial hog production, being sustainable, even viable without subsidies, is simply hogwash!

As the Leader of the Green Party of Manitoba, I applaud the eight First Nations who are suing ($4 billion) the provincial government for allowing the current pollution levels in Lake Winnipeg and thank you for printing the excellent letter on that by Vicki Burns. Industrial hog production will pollute our waters, while denying doing it, for as long as we let it.

We have food production methods with real sustainability. Industrial livestock production has got to go!

Janine Gibson

Steinbach

Restrict notwithstanding clause

Re: Poilievre pledge a dangerous first step on perilous path to lost rights, freedoms (May 2)

I agree with Tom Brodbeck’s analysis on this 100 per cent. However, given the frequency with which some of the provinces are already using the notwithstanding clause, I suggest that we’re already on that dangerous path to lost rights.

When the notwithstanding clause was put in our Charter, it was thought it would be rarely used, and only as a last resort. Unfortunately, it has been used or threatened to be used 10 times in the past six years by New Brunswick, Quebec, Ontario, Saskatchewan, and Alberta.

And it is being used pre-emptively; not as a last resort. It isn’t being used to protect parliamentary supremacy, it is being used to cut the courts out of the process entirely. This is why we need our provincial government to put restrictions on the use of the notwithstanding clause.

We need a law that will ensure that it is only invoked after showing why it can be demonstrably justified to be used in a free and democratic society, that it’s only used after all court challenges have been resolved, and that it can only be adopted with a two-thirds majority of the legislature.

With the use of the notwithstanding clause becoming so common everywhere else, we need someone to stand up and say, we won’t do that here.

Chris Barsanti

Grosse Isle

Café closure sad to see

It was disheartening to read that the River and Osborne Starbucks was temporarily closing, and was doing so because of safety concerns for staff and customers.

As a longtime resident of Osborne Village, I have recently been a frequent witness to safety issues not only at Starbucks, but at the Liquor Commission, Shoppers Drug Mart and Safeway. This has included a shooting at Shoppers Drug Mart, altercations between shoplifters and security personnel, a woman high on drugs screaming and trying to disrobe in Safeway and various other attempts by individuals stealing goods.

Panhandlers are a fixture in the parking lot of these institutions and in some fashion need to be dealt with on virtually every visit to the area. Over the last several years safety and drug-related issues have drastically risen in the area and it has been reported by the Free Press that the increase in safety and crime has risen 100 per cent within the last year.

While we are exposed to regular updates about the increasing peril of living in the Village, there are few offered solutions to this growing problem. Having to show ID at the liquor store ameliorated theft, but did nothing to prevent violent customer behaviour.

I scratch my head when I read the debates in the letters to the editor of the Free Press concerning safety issues for pedestrians crossing the River and Osborne intersection. So far as I can tell the traffic lights work perfectly well and I see no need to change what obviously works. We have much more serious matters to contend with at River and Osborne and time spent addressing these issues would be more meaningful.

Mary-Jane Robinson

Winnipeg

Hurry up on bridge fixes

Our city and provincial governments have got to get off the pot, and take action on both the Arlington and Louise bridges.

We live in a city with three major waterways ending though it and bridges are traffic choke points when they need major repairs or replacement. Eight years ago there were specifics on the Louise Bridge and basically nothing done. The Arlington Bridge is closed indefinitely, after numerous studies and replacement discussions, they still can’t decide on what to do with it.

Do they want a collapse with possible deaths before they stop pushing it off into the future? Do they think the costs will get any less expensive? Stop the dithering, bite that bullet and repair or replace them now!

Every time they push it off, we get more congestion on other routes and bridges, which is probably making a deep strain and shortening their span of viability, too.

Linda Ross-Mansfield

Winnipeg

Don’t lump addicts, criminals together

Re: Frustrating situation (Letters, May 4)

I wanted to comment on Stewart Jacques’ letter to the editor regarding the closing of the Starbucks on Osborne.

First of all, I live in a condo on Roslyn Road and I am heartbroken about the closing. But I don’t think blaming it on “criminals and drug addicts” (which he lumps together) does anything to help the situation. I’m there almost every morning and I see the homeless people sitting in the square situated between the Liquor Mart and the Starbucks. I’m sure most, if not all, are drug addicts and/or suffering from mental health conditions (which doesn’t necessarily make them criminals).

I don’t know what the answer is. But blaming them for existing is certainly not it. I hope this government has more compassion for these people than the last one did. Wab Kinew seems to be going in the right direction. At least he says he’s committed to addressing the problem in a real way.

While the majority of the homeless population are harmless, the violent minority is keeping this city and province hostage by forcing businesses to close and neighbourhoods to go without. Osborne Village’s Starbucks is just one example.

Robbi Goltsman-Ferris

Winnipeg

Mentality issue

In terms of the Winnipeg Jets, this team is on brand. They have a family-first mentality stamped all over it. Not only is their model unique to the NHL, it is a rarity among most teams. The difference being most teams only care about winning without a cost-benefit approach.

If seeing the Jets use a family-first approach compared to how other teams function or view themselves. (It can only mean the Jets live and die with this model.) It’d also mean it’s what we’re stuck with. The stick-together model is nothing new but fewer teams implement it.

What this also means is that no matter the need for change is, we are living like caged birds. That’s what this all boils down to. We have pieced together a team using an outdated predictable formula. Predicated on the fact, that changes which may be obvious aren’t necessary.

It’s a self-defeatist mentality. It breeds a culture of futility. One which we as fans will witness the management stubbornly never learns from the way they were exposed in every facet of the game in its playoff series with Colorado. Conclusively, this season was a lost cause from the beginning if it meant the team got handled in the playoffs.

Marco Almeida

Winnipeg