Letters, Sept. 5

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 05/09/2024 (429 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Listening, not hearing

The article in last week’s Free Press began with a doctor suing CancerCare Manitoba because he didn’t get what he was promised to come to Winnipeg (CancerCare Manitoba reneged on promises after recruiting doctor: lawsuit, Aug. 26)

The same article ended with the minister of Health announcing the opening of a new department helping health care newcomers to the city navigate getting settled in Winnipeg.

The Health Care Listening Committee is listening but not hearing.

If you check the Free Press archives, there are numerous articles about doctors leaving Manitoba because they didn’t get what they were promised to come here.

I have never read or heard of anyone leaving because they needed help getting settled.

Rochelle Litvack

Winnipeg

Where are they?

I am disappointed and angry that the NDP government has changed its position on reproductive freedom, including the right to free morning after pills.

This was a commitment made during the election which resulted in a huge increase in women voting NDP. They trusted that the NDP would live up to its commitments and now they feel betrayed.

Who pushed for this policy change?

Where are the women like Nahanni Fontaine who has spoken often and eloquently on the need for reproductive choice?

Where is Lisa Naylor who, for 17 years at a woman’s health clinic, would have seen the consequences for women and girls having to continue with pregnancies they did not want?

Where is Uzoma Asagwara who understands the need for more money in health care and will know this policy will cost more to the system if women seek an abortion or continue with a pregnancy they do not want?

Surely they raised their voices in caucus to oppose this policy change. Were women’s voices drowned out ? This is so disrespectful to people who worked so hard to elect strong and capable women.

This must change and we need the premier and the government to keep its promises to women and make the morning after pill free to those who need it.

Linda Taylor

Winnipeg

Holocaust education

Re: “Back to school worries,” Letters, Aug. 29

Regarding Shahina Siddiqui’s reference to her concerns about how Holocaust education will be implemented in our province: the Manitoba government has hired an educator who has won both the Prime Minister’s Award for Excellence in Teaching and the Governor General’s Award for Excellence in Teaching, which are indicative of his talents and accomplishments in teaching about the Holocaust.

The involvement of the Jewish Heritage Centre is based on this organization being the principal purveyor of education on the Holocaust and antisemitism to thousands of Manitoba students each year, led by an individual who was a university gold medalist in the Faculty of Education and who has been working for many years with scholars from around the globe on best practices in Holocaust education.

We are grateful to the minister of education for his support and understanding that Holocaust education fosters critical thinking and connects this watershed event to Canadian history and contemporary issues.

Holocaust education is recognized globally for its illustration of the roles of historical, social, religious, political and economic factors in the erosion and disintegration of democratic values and human rights.

We are disappointed to see the letter writer’s suggestion that anyone would use Holocaust education to indoctrinate and/or harm the intellectual and social development of Manitoba children. At the same time, we are saddened that Ms. Siddiqui has not acknowledged the suffering of our community and, in particular, of our children, as we experience an epidemic of antisemitism.

Jewish children have felt unsafe and excluded in many public schools and have faced frequent, pervasive and aggressive antisemitic incidents, including verbal and physical abuse.

Belle Jarniewski

Jewish Heritage Centre of Western Canada

Jeff Lieberman and Paula Parks

Jewish Federation of Winnipeg

Gustavo Zentner

Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs

Safe access

I read with interest Aaron Epp’s article on “Gone Too Soon,” the poppy installation at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights (Harm-reduction advocates hope poppy art installation can spark awareness for access to safer drug supply, Aug. 31.).

I was so pleased to see this happen at the museum — this is most certainly a human rights issue.

Many people living with addictions in Canada do not have access to scientifically proven health care (harm reduction) that can save their lives. That’s on top of their lack of access to treatment if they so choose, respect and dignity.

If this were the situation with cancer or other chronic illnesses, there would be a huge public outcry. I will bring this exhibit to the attention of my local and federal politicians. Thank you. (I am a former Winnipeger, born, raised and educated!)

Louise Hanvey

Ottawa

Meeting of minds

I note an interesting contrast in the Sept. 3 edition of the Free Press. While letter writer Chris Buors (“End drug prohibition”) seems to suggest that governments give up caring for people in need and hope for the impossible: pull themselves up by their own bootstraps.

At the other end, Jim Silver’s op-ed, Investing in us, is advocating a doubling of the adult basic education budget.

I am not sure that their arguments are that far apart. Buors ends his letter with the importance of “pride that is inherent in being an employed self-reliant person.” Silver points out that raising literacy levels (through public support) leads to “self-confidence and self esteem” which could aid in pulling “entire families out of poverty.”

Despite political differences, I believe that to be a human being is to care for others.

There are few who would argue its validity when it comes to one’s family circle. It is there that the care is at its most personal.

However, in the complex world we now inhabit, it’s more important than ever to think beyond the family and friends circle.

The question to be asked is the same: “What does …… need in order to thrive?”

Edwin Buettner

Winnipeg

Workplace health

I was happy to see our government well represented at the Labour Day events this past weekend (NDP candidate touts workers’ rights at Labour Day march, Sep. 2).

Foremost among workers’ rights is the right to a safe and healthy workplace.

Right now, COVID-19 is ripping through workplaces of all types and workers are falling ill — including some who will experience long-term or even permanent disability.

Yet, knowing this, our government has still not reintroduced workplace mask mandates (even in health-care settings!) or implemented legislation guaranteeing the right to work from home for all for whom remote work is feasible.

In fact, our officials are not even modelling Covid-safe behaviour during their public appearances — the lack of masking in the images from the march is striking.

Without protection for workers against a still-dangerous virus, what meaning does “workers’ rights” even have?

Where is the action to back up the talk?

Kristen Hardy

Winnipeg