Letters, Jan. 9

Admirable virtues

Re: Burst pipes, sewage spills greet delegation (Jan. 8)

The sentiment from Pimicikamak Chief David Monias that the community’s resilience shouldn’t be mistaken for “acceptance of chronic neglect,” needs to be seriously contemplated. The resilience we see in Indigenous communities is a virtue to be admired; this same resilience is also a condemnation of settler society that benefits from the neglect and (to be less diplomatic than Monias) abuse continually facing Indigenous communities.

The resilience is condemnation because these are conditions created by a genocidal policy of relocation that forced communities to live in remote locations. This was done in the service of opening up cheap land for settler agriculture and urban development. It is the apartheid attitudes of the Indian Act that stripped communities of the same right to self-governance other municipalities enjoy. It is the modern bureaucracy that drown small, underfunded band governments in paper and administrative work.

We should admire and be ashamed in equal measure (at the very least) because, while neither you nor I perpetuate these abuses, these abuses have been carried out to benefit people like ourselves. I actively benefit from the sins of those maintaining colonial systems. When institutions act like situations like these are inevitable acts of God, it obscures that government policy creates the conditions that consigns some communities to regular hardships, but not others.

What work needs to be done to ensure that future generations of Canadians don’t valourize the resilience of Indigenous Peoples, but admire the myriad of other virtues Indigenous Peoples and communities display every day?

Kelsey Enns

Winnipeg

More housing now

Re: In Winnipeg, change has to come (Editorial, Jan. 7)

Thank you for your editorial on the proposed development at 1460 Corydon Ave.

I’ve lived nearby for more than 40 years and support this development. This area has what I believe makes for a vibrant community — stores, restaurants, entertainment, gyms and schools in easy walking or cycling distance, good transit service and a mix of young families and seniors.

What it lacks is sufficient housing options for those who wish to downsize without being forced from their community. I see this development as a good fit for that need, offering apartments with balconies, underground parking, a car share and a local bakery/breakfast business, on a relatively modest scale, on a major street.

It is also one small step in dealing with the issues of urban sprawl and housing affordability you noted in your editorial. There was ample publicity last spring on the zoning changes allowing increased density in established residential neighbourhoods, as well as opportunity to discuss those changes at the open houses the city held. This project should come as no surprise.

Valerie Mollison

Winnipeg

Your editorial says the four-storey proposed development on Corydon should go ahead and there should be many more developments like it to increase density in the city.

There is one very big problem with this: River Heights and the other older parts of the city have one sewer for sewage and runoff, not two separate sewers like newer parts of the city. Increased density in these areas will mean increased raw sewage spills into the rivers and ultimately into Lake Winnipeg.

The city already dumps far too much raw sewage into the waterways and developments like this will speed up the death of the rivers and Lake Winnipeg. The lack of respect for waterways is irresponsible, shameful and disgusting.

The sewers should be installed before these developments occur or the developments should be located where proper two-pipe sewers already exist.

Ray Hignell

Winnipeg

Cruel system

A friend with whom I converse daily buys a bus pass for the winter months, otherwise he rides his bike. After a cold December trying out the new routes, he is vowing to ride his bike next winter, in spite of his age and his health issues.

It’s just cruel how the new routes have impacted him and also his neighbour who rides the bus to work everyday. Standing at a bus stop with the wind blowing and the temperature -20 C or colder is no joke. Then the bus you’re waiting for doesn’t stop for you. Then you have to get off that bus and wait again for your transfer. For example, the McGregor bus going south does not take you to Main St., going north does not take you to Garden City, any destination requires a transfer.

Mayor Gillingham and city council would have been better off to have left transit alone, than do what has been done to it. Then they act so inconvenienced by having to fix it.

Marilyn Bird

Winnipeg

What Trump understands

So, most of the countries around the world — including Russia and China! — have condemned the actions of U.S. President Donald Trump and his administration for unilaterally swooping into Venezuela, kidnapping President Nicolás Maduro and his wife and bringing them to the United States, declaring that the United States was going to run Venezuela for the foreseeable future and also declaring that Venezuela’s natural resources, in particular, its oil, somehow belongs to the United States.

Not only has this U.S. administration not been chastened by these words, but the lack of consequences and action has only emboldened them to further proclaim that the presidents of Colombia, Mexico (both democratically elected) and Cuba are next, and that somehow the U.S. has the right to take over Greenland.

I contend that words alone from other countries will have zero effect on Trump and his barbarians. It is high time that democratic nations across the world sanction Trump and the U.S.

Bar the United States from participating in the Olympics, from the Australian Open and Wimbledon tennis tournaments and from major international golf tournaments.

Freeze monetary assets of Trump, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and FBI head Kash Patel, and all officials involved in the Venezuelan takeover.

Kick the United States out of the G7. Kick it out of the Five Eyes intelligence alliance, as the U.S. can no longer be relied on within the intelligence alliance. I have never understood why Russia is a permanent member of the UN Security Council — both Russia and the United States should be divested of that honour and responsibility.

Try to figure out a worldwide alternative to the U.S. dollar as accepted international currency.

The only thing Trump will understand is public humiliation and repudiation on a world scale, through actions and not merely words.

Sandy Rubinfeld

Winnipeg