Letters, Jan. 2

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This article was published 02/01/2025 (448 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It’s all about safety

Re: The politics of traffic safety in Winnipeg (Think Tank, Dec. 30)

The Dec. 30 Free Press featured an op-ed by Curtis Pankratz who believes road safety has been “politicized.” This claim couldn’t be further from the truth.

In 2019, when the city gained authority to set speed limits, a group of citizens formed Safe Speeds Winnipeg (of which I am part). We urged the City of Winnipeg to lower the default speed limit to 30 km/h, based on evidence from organizations such as the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, the National Transportation Safety Board, The World Health Organization and a host of studies on safe speeds. So much for no science.

Manitoba recognized the importance of lower speed limits in 2011, adopting 30 km/h zones around schools. We believe this protection should extend to everyone, especially children on all the residential streets where they live and play, not just around the schools.

Cities worldwide have adopted or are adopting 30 km/h speed limits to improve safety and livability. In 2021, the United Nations General Assembly endorsed a 30 km/h speed limit in areas where people and motor vehicles interact, reinforcing what research consistently shows: slower speeds save lives.

The assertion that when “a speed limit is too low, drivers must focus attention on their speedometer” is nonsense. If drivers can drive 50 km/h without looking at the speedometer, they should be able to do the same at 30 km/h. I can state from experience that you can get used to it fairly easily. If I’m wrong, maybe Mr Pankratz can provide the science behind his claim.

If Mr. Pankratz read some of the peer-reviewed evidence, he would see that 30 km/h is a reasonable and evidence-based safe speed limit for Winnipeg’s residential streets. It’s about safety, not politics.

Dave Elmore

Winnipeg

Curtis Pankratz claims the case for lowering speed limits is emotion-based, but facts don’t care about feelings, and the facts say 30 km/h saves lives.

Research from the World Health Organization and countless studies shows that at 30 km/h, pedestrians have a 90 per cent chance of surviving a collision, compared to just 50 per cent at 50 km/h. Rob Jenner’s tragic death, and the 15 other pedestrians and cyclists killed on Winnipeg streets this year, have every right to be politicized. When lives are lost due to preventable conditions, it’s the responsibility of policymakers to act. Reduced speed limits, paired with protected bike lanes and traffic-calming infrastructure, are proven to prevent injuries and fatalities.

Arguments that lowering speed limits are unnecessary or distracting are weak. If a driver finds checking their speedometer difficult, they shouldn’t be behind the wheel. Driving is a privilege, not an entitlement, and our streets must prioritize people over convenience.

Dismissing these calls for action as “emotional” ignores the evidence and the lived reality of vulnerable road users. Ignoring the facts costs lives. Winnipeg can and must do better.

Rachael Alguire

Winnipeg

Tragic design choice

Re: 179 killed, two survive South Korean plane crash (Dec. 30)

The final cause of the Korean air tragedy was not the plane or the pilot. The belly landing was very successful, nearly perfect. The plane was moving fast but was not on fire and not experiencing very much damage from the ground.

But there is a cement wall near the end of the runway, an incomprehensible design choice. Whether or not the plane experienced a fault or had its engines fail due to bird strike, whether or not the pilot failed to lower the landing gear, it should not have ended in a sudden stop.

The wall was built to support electronic devices that help planes land, a normal thing. But there was no reason to mount them on a cement wall only tens of metres from the end of the runway, when they could have been placed into a flat cement pad just as well. The land beyond the wall is flat for some distance, ending in a body of water.

The crew and passengers could have survived.

Richard Lockhart

Winnipeg

Health-care travesty

Re: Long-term care means non-stop nickel-and-diming (Dec. 28)

Shawna Forester Smith, in her op-ed, adds to her observations on health care in Manitoba. She speaks for many when discussing the “nickel-and-diming” of patients and family. The lack of accountability in failing to meet standards of care per day owing to staff shortages is a travesty.

Those of us who have followed Shawna’s courageous journey are dismayed that the premier or health minister have not accepted her invitation to meet with her to discuss her perspectives on health care in Manitoba. Her intelligent, articulate writing leads me to believe that such a conversation would be constructive.

Jack King

St. Laurent

Ripple effects

Re: Former U.S. president led ‘with his humanity’ (Dec. 30); Finding poetry in the simple radish (Editorial, Dec. 30); What’s ahead in geopolitics in 2025 (Think Tank, Dec. 30)

Kudos to the Free Press for its editorial. It is an excellent foil to Kyle Hiebert’s op-ed. Coincidentally, this Free Press edition included the news of former U.S. president Jimmy Carter’s passing.

What does one do with such stark contrasts? The strong temptation is to focus entirely on how bad things are and to regard people such as Carter and the radish-loving folk as naive outliers who don’t live in the “real world”. Yet, there is also the choice to remain in the tension between the harsh reality “out there” and the power of what’s “inside” each of us. Carter’s obituary by James McCarten, reveals the shining light of one who has personified this difficult road less travelled.

The reality for most is that their obituaries will not make front-page news. Yet, part of us knows that each of our lives does create a ripple effect, small though it may appear to be. Carter’s life is rare in that in his time on earth, he created what seem to be both big and small ripples. Yet are those apparent “sizes” a reflection of their true importance? Is there really a difference between building a home for people in need and making decisions in the Oval Office? Is the answer not about the inner disposition of the person holding office or pounding a hammer?

Edwin Buettner

Winnipeg

Canadian humiliation

So far I have been somewhat impressed with Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum.

Unlike Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, she has not panicked and personally visited Donald Trump in Mar-a-Lago regarding the tariff threats. Nor has she sent a delegation also to Florida in a desperate attempt to seek forgiveness from the American bully.

How humiliating for Canadians.

No wonder Trump laughs when he says he intends to take control of Canada. We are halfway there already.

With Trudeau or possibly Pierre Poilievre, Canada would cave to U.S. demands in seconds with barely a whimper.

Al Yakimchuk

Winnipeg

Everyone has their role

Re: Youths charged in weekend machete attack (Dec. 30)

I am not faulting the police spokesperson for their below noted comments as I’m sure that they thought that they were politically correct and added a bit of a “feel good” ending to the otherwise brutal description of the attack. It read:

“It’s a combined effort between police, government, social entities, community entities that will help mitigate these types of incidences and arrests of young people.”

The police did their job. They gathered evidence, arrested these youths, and detained them. They are not responsible for the good or bad behaviour of these, or any other youths. The police’s success has been measured by their arrest. The failure of the other entities mentioned had been measured by the occurrence.

Stan Tataryn

Winnipeg