Letters, Oct. 10

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 10/10/2024 (635 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

What have we learned?

Re: ‘No cure for the havoc he wreaked’, Oct. 8.

I just finished reading the heart-rending account of disgraced teacher Kelsey McKay.

In particular, the story of the abused young man who died by suicide due to repeated abuses by McKay was hard to fathom.

Now that McKay has been sentenced, what have we learned as a society?

First and foremost, the days of dropping off your child at an activity and hoping for the best are all but gone.

We need to be involved in every aspect of the experience. Try to attend practices, show up unannounced. Take notice of any irregularities. Listen to how the kids are spoken to. Allow your child to express any uneasy feelings they might have about the situation. Always take your child’s concerns seriously.

When in doubt, talk to other parents, administrators or superintendents. (Unfortunately, in this case, parents did inform school administrators what was going on.)

A child should not be texting or calling coaches. Group emails are acceptable when informing kids and parents of practice or game particulars.

Never should your child be hanging out with adults out in public or at their homes.

Some of these precautions seem obvious, but they seem to keep happening.

Lastly, as a parent, trust your gut.

If something feels off, it probably is.

Ken Campbell

Winnipeg

Theft and profit

With regards to William Hill’s letter about stolen goods and who is buying them (“Who’s buying stolen goods?” Oct. 8) — everyone is buying them!

Would you know if an item was stolen or not?

Here’s how it works: someone steals a rack full of clothes. They then post those same stolen items on Facebook Marketplace, Kijiji and other such websites.

These crooks aren’t stupid. They purposely don’t take the tags off to make it look like they just bought it but can’t return it because “they lost the receipt.”

Hence, you can’t even ask if they legally bought it, as they will give you the same line. So I ask again, how is one to tell if it’s really stolen or not?

The same (sort of) thing goes on when someone steals tools from a work truck. With lots of people needing the savings where they can get them, it’s no wonder people are buying “hot” goods.

Kadie Que

Cartier

Doing the right thing

Re: “Who’s buying stolen goods?” Letters to the Editor, Oct. 8.

William Hill writes, “Who is buying these stolen goods and what does it say about our society when people will buy obviously stolen or likely stolen property from desperate segments of society for their profit or gain?”

What about the people who are willing to pay cash for services or goods “without taxes,” so the seller may end up not declaring the income as taxable income and not include the GST and PST that should be collected?

The only way to stop both is to say no; “I want to pay the correct amount of sales taxes and I want you to declare and pay taxes on your income just like I do.”

This is the only way all of us pay our fair share of taxes. If everyone pays their fair share of taxes, then all of us will benefit with the government collecting taxes from everyone fairly and spending the tax revenue appropriately.

Anni Markmann

Ste Anne

More than numbers

I was saddened to read Jeffrey Marcus’s letter (“Agreeing and disagreeing,” Oct. 8) in which he cites what may be called “kill ratios” in regard to the current bloodshed in the Middle East.

It seems to me that thinking of armed conflict in terms of ratios of innocent people killed may well be the ultimate dehumanizing aspect of war. On the other hand, I was heartened to read the words of “War is terrible and sad. Every life is precious.”

In support of Mr. Marcus’s observations about the tragic nature of any war, I recently heard an interview with an Israeli nurse who wisely observed that when he is at work, there no differentiation of care based on “which side” the patient supports.

Why is it that the common humanity seen among the suffering cannot be brought to the table of peace negotiations?

As a thought experiment, think of the “natural” death of a loved one and how that death has affected family and friendship circles. I suspect that the “mourning ratio” would be much more than 1.5 to 1. What is a 0.5 person anyway?

Edwin Buettner

Winnipeg

Fixing what’s broken

When the federal committee studying foreign influence releases its report at the end of December, I am hoping that it will contain information on the Russian disinformation that floods our social media and influences our public media to portray our country as broken and disheartened.

The U.S. Department of Justice recently released a report on this phenomenon and the Canadian influencers associated with the media company Tenet, as the prime suspects.

It has come to my attention that Canadian social influencers are being offered large sums of money to skew their blogs and posts to portray a biased right-wing slant. Canada is broken, Axe the Tax, our only hope is to elect the CPC and they will magically fix all our problems, etc.

Politicized viewpoints are a right that we all cherish, but when people are financially rewarded to spread disinformation that tilts the decisions, I must stand up and say this is against our democratic principles.

Vote with a clear picture of what your party stands for, but not with misinformation being disseminating from the disingenuous, who are rewarded for their opinions.

John Thomas Tierney

Winnipeg

Compost and depots

I am writing in response to Dennis Bayomi’s letter “Foul plan,” Oct. 7.

I am surprised that a leader of the Green Party would not support the city’s expanding composting program.

The writer asks, “Who will be bothered to store kitchen scraps for days and transport them to designated depots?”

There are many people willing to do this and I am one of them. It’s not difficult at all and the compost depot is nearby, so I am able to drop them off without making a special trip.

This is no more trouble than putting items aside for recycling, which most Winnipeggers are taking part in already.

I know the city’s compost program is a success because in the spring, they have a free giveaway of their compost product and vehicles are literally lined up around the block for their turn to shovel up a share of this wonderful product.

Of course, backyard composting is also a good habit to get into and I have done it for years.

It is particularly suitable for garden waste, but it can be difficult to keep up with the amount of waste produced from the kitchen of a busy family, especially in the winter. Backyard composting is also not able to cope with things like bones and meat product waste, while the city program can.

However, at this time in my life I do not have a back yard.

Speaking for the many people that are not living in a house with a generous-sized back yard, I think that community composting gives all of us a chance to participate in composting.

Marjorie Hughes

Winnipeg