Letters, Oct. 15

Poilievre’s off-putting performance

Re: Poilievre helps out at city food bank, slams Liberals on inflation (Oct. 13)

My first reaction was disgust when I read that Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre used Agape Table as the backdrop for his latest stunt and incessant blather.

Agape Table is a highly respected organization that has been providing support to the neediest in our city for decades. Aside from his usual pat phrases, what are his solutions to address the increasing need for food security? If I was his constituent, I’d be asking why he wasn’t in Battle River-Crowfoot Thanksgiving weekend.

Maureen Graf

Winnipeg

The cost of cheap food

Re: Following healthy food guidelines in Canada comes at a high cost, study finds (Oct. 12)

I just lost my son to colon cancer a little over a year ago, and he loved his junk foods and red meats. He got addicted to those foods, and I am sure there are others out there who eat it regularly, too. To save his young life, I fed him “clean,” but, fourth stage is a killer and only a few make it to five years. He died at age 40. (He was in the 11th percentile who last that many years)

When I shop at the grocery stores, you see aisle after aisle of ultra-processed foods. Its tempting and its usually a lot less to pay than eating healthy, However, if you want to follow the Canada food guides and keep you out of the cancer wards, you better be able to pay for your health. I am on my own now, and a senior and I can drop $200 dollars on good food in heartbeat. I stand in the aisles and wonder how do you young families with kids pay the high prices for meats, veggies, etc. when they really have skyrocketed. So, the government has to give us a incentive to eat healthy, and most of all reward us financially for not ending up in the hospital wards.

Watching my young son succumb to cancer is a story I do not want to see another person go through.

Please reward folks who make sensible choices, and reduce their intake of these tempting, cheap foods. So many think a bag of chips and a coke is a “square meal.”

Eleanor Dorst

La Salle

Stay in your lane

Re: ‘People are upset about bail’: Kinew refuses to back down on judge comments (Oct. 10)

In a democracy, the legislature makes the laws and the judiciary enforces the laws.

These branches of government are separate and independent of each other.

Judges (doing their job) are interpreting the law and following it. If politicians are not satisfied with the outcomes, their job is to change the law, not encourage judges to be more in line with public opinion.

Democracy moves slowly. Politicians must learn to stay in their own lane and do their own job.

Allan Jakilazek

Winnipeg

Both sides of the story

Re: Time for long overdue justice (Think Tank, Oct. 11); The case for restarting the Conawapa hydro project (Think Tank, Oct. 6)

Morris Beardy’s op-ed Time for long overdue justice, which was written in response to Jerry Storie’s The case for restarting the Conawapa hydro project, reminds us that “there are two sides to every Storie” (pun intended). Storie’s opinion piece unabashedly extols the benefits of Conawapa while ignoring some of the impacts. Chief Beardy reminds us that there are people who deserve to be heard if the project proceeds. He doesn’t say that the project should not proceed, he says that if it does go ahead, he expects that his people will be protected and benefit economically.

This is a very reasonable perspective and Chief Beardy should be commended for fulfilling his role as chief while engaging in a non confrontational manner.

If Conawapa is to get the green light, it must be after all environmental and socio-economic issues are considered, as well as a risk assessment and sensitivity analysis of the impact of climate change on the economics. The cost of wind and solar generation are plummeting, and the time may well come when these sources become Manitoba’s mainstay in dry years, with the water ponds upstream of generating stations filling the function of batteries. During the wet years, Manitoba Hydro can continue to do what it has always done; provide revenue to the benefit of all Manitobans.

Tom Pearson

Winnipeg

Homelessness battle needs funds

Re: Winnipeggers lose faith in homelessness battle (Sept. 25)

There are many factors to consider when discussing the homelessness in Winnipeg. As in all city planning issues, budget is usually the first consideration — how much can we spend to solve this problem?

For example, $20 million was the price tag to remove the cement barriers at Portage and Main. The city awarded Main Street Project $250,000 towards helping the homeless find homes, to the detriment of already existing and successful efforts of Street Links, a decision that actually reduced the effectiveness of getting people off the streets. With this type of disparity in funding solutions to city problems, is there any wonder that the citizens of Winnipeg are losing faith in our leaders’ plans?

Limited resources, compounded by trust issues, makes housing transitions even harder. Simply putting a roof over a person’s head is only the first step.

Who will follow through and support that person with the basic daily functions that will keep them off the street? The answer, and most economical solution, is peer support. People with lived experience, who are trained to develop communication, trust, and pathways needed to survive the traumatic changes from living on the streets to putting one’s life back together and maintaining an acceptable quality of life.

There are various reasons a person may find themselves homeless, drug addiction being the most fatal. Without safe consumption sites this is a war we have no ammunition for. The province promised one such site, but the quagmire of poor planning and bureaucratic delay has only resulted in more deaths.

By placing two or three sites near transition residence for people who were homeless, access to help is steps away, keeping the needles and crackpipes localized instead of around schools and community centres. Monitoring the process would be easier for specialists associated with the safe consumption sites. The current community services people are doing a remarkable job on a shoestring budget.

Consider how much more they could do if the funds were commiserate with the need.

The city will open the purse strings to find money to remove cement barriers, but not to help the vulnerable people live a better life. That is the perception they are putting forth.

Bonnie Bricker

Winnipeg

Defer CFL revisions for now

Re: CFL changes beyond tone deaf (Sept. 25)

A decidedly negative reaction continues to percolate among many CFL fans across Canada who oppose revisions to the rulebook abruptly announced by commissioner Stewart Johnston. So much for teamwork, as the adjustments were unveiled in top-down fashion without any consultation with players and coaches.

Free Press sports editor Grace Anne Paizen, in her recent column, was spot on in noting that players and fans never asked for changes that will erode the Canadian identity of our game. It’s time for Johnston to at least defer the revisions until he has consulted with all stakeholders.

Gord McNulty

Hamilton, Ont.