Letters, Aug. 8

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 08/08/2025 (236 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Patronizing response

“Settle into routines,” says Bjorn Radstrom, Winnipeg Transit’s manager of service development?

How insulting and patronizing.

You are inconveniencing so many and this is the comment to our complaints?

I’m so happy for those people who will shave five minutes off their transit day.

However, the stops on my street were taken away.

Now, I (and so many others) have to walk 15 minutes to the nearest stop and need one or two transfers where I didn’t need any for many of the places I frequent. I can hardly wait until winter and have to traverse the slippery sidewalks — in the dark. I guess the sidewalks are routine now too.

After years of complaints, why hasn’t something been done about this issue? I have some ideas.

This new transit plan was apparently based on other cities. Winnipeg is not like other cities.

For those who like the new system, enjoy your five minutes. For the rest, well, you know.

Gloria Kungl

Winnipeg

Better planning needed

Thank you for the Aug. 5 editorial Transit users can’t wait a year for system fixes, which exposes the city’s cavalier attitude about the negative impacts that new Transit routes have had on people’s lives.

Hoping that people will get used to the stone in their shoe is not the same as dealing with the stone.

I’d like to remind readers that negative impacts have also been experienced by residents living along the new bus routes.

For example, Arlington Street south of Portage Avenue and along the Wolseley Avenue greenway, which used to have a slow neighbourhood bus travelling two or three times an hour, has become a noisy bus thoroughfare with a bus barrelling north or south about every eight minutes.

Presentations to the city last year were treated with the same indifference by elected and unelected officials as the problems are now.

At the very, very least, enforce the 30 km/h speed limit for buses on residential streets and fix the roads properly so they can handle the load of 100 buses a day … before July 2026.

The fact that this preparation wasn’t done before the new system launched is another example of the city’s lack of planning and care.

Margerit Roger

Winnipeg

Talking nonsense

I was likely not the only one amused by the Free Press front page headline on Wednesday Aug. 6, Carney says he’ll talk to Trump ‘when it makes sense’.

Assuming that the pronoun ‘it’ refers to Trump, then it follows that they will never talk.

Terry Aseltine

Winnipeg

Deeper dive into violence

Further to John Wiens’ opinion piece (School violence has its roots in society, Aug. 6) addressing the issue of the roots of violence in schools, are the issues of the causes of violence and how they can be effectively addressed. I have my own understandings of psychological and habits of mind factors and also of how we respond to violence, at home, in schools and in the community at large. But more importantly, I believe it would be useful for the psychology and psychiatric communities to weigh in.

Simple punishment is not the answer.

Were parents, the general public and especially those who endure workplaces where violence occurs with frequency, and especially in schools, to be more informed of leading edge knowledge, effective practices could be taught and employed.

If integrated into the school day, children from an early age and on could become more aware of emotional landscapes and habits of mind leading to violence. So-called discipline policies could reflect deeper knowledge and practices.

Effective teaching and practices have indeed made their way into the public education system, but need to be expanded upon. Recognizing, thinking and talking about violence without consistent dedication to learning and practicing has not proven particularly effective.

Surely our psychology and psychiatry communities could engage more actively to assist in social improvement, as could the Department of Education.

Garrett Loeppky

Winnipeg

Follow the rules

In his recent op-ed piece, School violence has its roots in society (Aug. 6), Dr. John Wiens has connected the dots.

Yes, students who see violence normalized in their day-to-day lives often repeat those behaviours at school, and I agree, our society has lowered its standards in terms of what we are comfortable with exposing our children to by allowing more and more violence and anti-social behaviours into media.

However, blaming and shaming rarely results in effective change and politicians and society only react when there is a catastrophic event.

After 20-plus years of teaching, I have seen violence increase in schools, but I have also seen the response to violence in schools become less effective.

I believe this is primarily because administration, teachers, and staff are afraid of following protocols and completing Workplace Health and Safety reports and they give a multitude of excuses from not wanting to label a child to fear of retribution from parents, as reasons why they don’t report.

A child needs to be taught there are consequences (both positive and negative) for behaviours and choices. When violence occurs, reports need to be completed as a way to investigate the root causes, and then provide corrective solutions rather than wringing our hands and decrying that schools are not safe. Reporting tracks behaviours and attracts funding for solutions.

This supports the child and family, rather than allowing the behaviour to continue and putting students and staff in harm’s way.

The public school system needs to take responsibility for creating a culture of silence.

Sadly, I fear that until a catastrophic event occurs in our schools, everyone will continue to be ostriches. Reports will not be written, or if written, not considered appropriately or investigated. The policies and protocols exist, we — the public school civil servants — need to step up and start holding the system accountable.

Will this be messy? Absolutely. Will parents balk at being called in for meetings and asked to seek medical intervention and supports? Definitely. Will administrators balk at having their schools tagged as “violent” and outside of their control? You bet!

But until we start following policies and protocols that have been put in place, I don’t believe that we will see meaningful change that supports our children and will create the society Dr. Wiens is seeking.

Gailene Glanfield

Gillam

No big surprise

Re: Southern Health-Santé Sud has advised that area households are ignoring public health directives, May documents reveal, Aug. 5.

Well, there is no big surprise there. We saw the same demographics flaunting preventative measures during Covid and now with the measles outbreak.

Perhaps we need a policy were anyone (deliberately) not immunized and needs hospital care for preventable diseases is charged for the costs incurred for said services. Parents need to take responsibility for their (and others’) children’s well-being.

Many vaccines have been around for decades and are proven to be effective. The measles vaccine being one.

Time to stop listening to some of the garbage that is posted on social media by so called influencers that have no medical knowledge.

Karl Lang

Navin