Letters, Oct. 4

Sepsis kills

Re: Cabinet minister returns, talks openly about health scare, Oct. 1

MLA Renee Cable and Free Press reporter Maggie Macintosh should be congratulated for outlining and highlighting the dangers associated with sepsis.

Sepsis kills 11 million people world wide every year. It is the number one cause of death for people who are in our ICUs. Of those ICU sepsis patients who survive, 50 per cent are dead after 5 years. And yet only one out of ten Canadians can provide an accurate definition of sepsis.

It is the proverbial elephant in the medical living room. Most people are like Ms. Cable, who said “she knew little” about sepsis before she got sick and almost died.

It is estimated that 80 per cent of sepsis cases are preventable.

By writing and talking about sepsis as Ms. Macintosh and Ms. Cable have done, we can change that reality and save lives.

Mac Horsburgh

Winnipeg

More options

I agree with columnist Stephen Borys (Nuit Blanche — The power of connection in the city, Oct. 2) that it was amazing to see 35 000 Winnipeggers embracing Nuit Blanche last Saturday.

Everyone should also know that there is a monthly “mini Nuit Blanche” in Winnipeg. I first came across the event by accident in Tucson many years ago and was surprised that it also happens in Winnipeg, even through our winters!

It is called; “First Fridays” and I would recommend highly that Winnipeggers check it out.

Sophia Munro

Winnipeg

Transit a better choice

I read with interest Scott Forbes’ op-ed on EV mandates (Why EV mandates are necessary, Sept. 25). I respect his position, which reflects a passion that something, anything, needs to be done now to address Canada’s woeful emissions.

I cannot, however, agree with his specific conclusions. Whether the EV mandate or the carbon tax, the weight of quantitative evidence shows these policies to be useless, both ineffective and unfair. Yet finding common ground is important.

Scott did not just voice opinions but quoted data from Finland. I examined the same sources, reaching a different conclusion, albeit one in the end I believe we likely could agree. The story of Finnish vehicle trends from 2023 to 2024 was not some EV love-in. Instead, new light-vehicle registrations plummeted by more than 15 per cent, with battery electric and plug-in hybrids showing deeper declines. The real story is that new bus registrations rose dramatically, up more than 125 per cent.

In Canada, transit suffered badly due to COVID, with ridership levels only this year finally recovering. Transit agencies, collectively, suffered fiscal losses of roughly $12 billion over the intervening period. It is no wonder overall service levels have declined most everywhere.

Despite brave talk and encouragement, Liberal governments have offered little tangible, near-term help. Investing more in transit across Canada could, like Finland, help reduce emissions, help address inequities, and achieve a solid net payback. This is something to think about for the upcoming federal budget.

Robert Parsons

Winnipeg

Fontaine’s comments

Hold on a minute!

The protest on Oct. 1st against Nahanni Fontaine was organized by Patrick Allard, a far-right independent, whom she defeated in the last election. Enough said.

Obby Khan accused her of not having empathy for Kirk who regularly spoke with sexist, xenophobic, transphobic and racist comments. It appears that Khan supports a MAGA spokesperson’s right to free speech but has no empathy for Fontaine’s right to free speech.

Another speaker at the protest said her comments “glorified and justified the public execution of Charlie Kirk”. This is a bit of a leap in logic, if you read her comments.

It appears that they found no empathy or words to condemn the vandalism and fires that Fontaine and Bernadette Smith have experienced at their constituency offices since, though they freely empathize with a MAGA spokesperson.

It is ironic that these three men are using their privilege of free speech to criticize her, but also demanding her removal from Cabinet for speaking freely.

I have not always agreed with Fontaine and, as Families Minister, she may have to consider thinking twice before speaking.

I empathize. I also speak out when I see a wrong being committed and sometimes that does get me in trouble.

Annette Lowe

Winnipeg

What a massive waste of energy for Obby Khan to table 450 emails, and eat up valuable debate time on the issue of Nahanni Fontaine’s response to the Charlie Kirk assassination.

Ironically, Kirk was hailed by his supporters as a “champion of free speech”, and in my estimation, all Nahanni did was repost — they weren’t even her own words — an accurate statement detailing the political activist’s views and ideology as an empathy-denying hatemonger of the highest order.

This was not justification for his murder, and Nahanni was not alone in the slightest by sharing those opinions on his life, and his life’s work. Instead, I feel it was a natural instinct to objectively detail Kirk’s life in a much more honest manner amidst a sea of hagiographic writings that poured out of media outlets, even from elite liberal circles (see Ezra Klein’s New York Times piece).

Some may find it harsh, offensive, and even ‘triggering’ that such statements were made in the immediate aftermath of such a horrific murder.

But this does not equate to justification and falls well under the standard of “free speech”. For the Khan PCs to make the assassination of an American right-wing extremist an official issue in the Legislative Assembly is the height of virtue signalling and also stinks of desperation.

Evan Marnoch

Winnipeg

I completely understand Premier Wab Kinew defending his minister, it’s what he’s expected to do.

But calling the peaceful demonstration outside the legislature by Manitobans “goofballs” was clearly not very tactful.

For a guy that profusely complains about the leader of our neighbouring country, he’s certainly is starting to sound a lot like him.

D. Liebrecht

West St. Paul

Ditching the dairies

Re: Bad neighbours – and maybe bad water, too, Oct. 2

I appreciate the Free Press weighing in on the planned mega-dairy projects south of the border, both of which have now been approved by the North Dakota government.

Not only could these massive operations be the final nail in the coffin of Lake Winnipeg, they will sentence 37,500 more cows to a life of utter (udder?) misery — including intensive confinement, multiple forced pregnancies, and swift separation from their babies, to name but a few routine abuses.

This is not the way we should be heading as a society increasingly concerned about animal welfare, not to mention climate change, to which animal agriculture contributes significantly.

It’s not too late to stop these mega-dairies; construction is estimated to take two years and the agribusiness behind the projects still requires permits from the North Dakota Department of Water Resources to supply the dairies with the hundreds of thousands of gallons per day of water they’ll need.

A lot can happen before these facilities become operational. Let’s make something happen.

Tracy Groenewegen

Winnipeg