Letters, March 27

Airport’s concerns overblown

Re: City rules family’s pigeon aviary won’t fly after airport objects (March 25)

The decision regarding the family’s pigeons being kept responsibly on Strathcona Street is absolutely heartbreaking. The important part these pets play in a young person’s life surely outweighs a frankly far-fetched concern about airport safety.

I have lived in St. James for 30 years and the flight path for the east/west runway goes directly over my house. The planes do not ascend or descend directly close to Strathcona Street. They come in from the south east over the Assiniboine River and the Viscount Gort area/Madison Square when on that approach, and depart similarly. When the wind is a straight north, the flight path is further west over Assiniboine Park and Mount Royal Road.

It’s impossible for me to understand how a dozen beloved and well-cared for birds that are such an integral factor in this young fellow’s well-being are in any way a risk to flight safety. I sincerely hope that the family is able to somehow continue to benefit from their presence in their lives.

Pat Jackson

Winnipeg

Addiction problem

Re: Jury finds Instagram, YouTube liable in social media addiction trial (March 26)

An American jury held Meta and Alphabet liable in social media addiction and the harm that can result. This verdict should not come as a surprise but the far-reaching implications need to be considered.

Over 20 years ago it was an open secret that Blizzard, the developers of the World of Warcraft online game, employed psychologists precisely to help them make the gameplay loop more addictive. Modern mobile phone games have “gacha” mechanics, pushing youth to use real money to buy virtual tokens to take a spin on a one-armed bandit. The players that spend the most cash in these apps are called “whales” — casino slang for big spenders.

Driven by ad revenue, social media started tweaking platforms and algorithms to foster addiction; even worse they promoted content that pushes eating disorders in young girls or peddles a fantasy‐sports-to-sports-betting pipeline for young boys.

Government coffers have benefited from all this. It’s no coincidence that loosened regulations around sports betting occurred in the context of video game developers and social media platforms actively fostering the addict’s mindset in youth. Advertisements from provincial gaming commissions can, and do, glamourize problem gambler behaviour while simultaneously telling us to “game responsibly.”

Kelsey Enns

Winnipeg

Canadian justice

Re: Serious crimes and surprisingly short sentences (Editorial, March 25)

Your editorial suggests that the man being sentenced for the 2007 killing of Crystal Saunders will be spending the next 12 years in prison. Not quite. Short as that may seem in the circumstances, he will likely get credit for the time he spent in custody following his arrest. The 12 years will be reduced accordingly.

Regardless, if the killer receives the proposed 12-year sentence for manslaughter, it also means he will be eligible for full parole after four years and day parole several months before that.

Even then, if parole were to be denied, statutory release would automatically kick in at eight years, meaning the final four years of the sentence would be served in the community, not prison.

That’s justice, Canadian style.

Robert Marshall

Winnipeg

Unreliable, inaccessible bus

Re: Counterpoint: the new transit system is good (Think Tank, March 26)

“I know what to do kids! Let’s fly to Winnipeg and bus to the Human Rights Museum! It will be fun!” said no one ever.

Anyone who needs to go to The Forks upon arriving in Winnipeg can take a cab.

What we need is accessible and reliable bus service that takes seniors and low-income earners to work, to schools, to hospitals, to universities, to grocery stores, to the laundromat. This new system does none of that. For me, as a senior who attempts to go to the University of Winnipeg by bus, it means walking five blocks on extremely hazardous slippery sidewalks to a bus.

A bus used to be across the street from where I live. Without that five-block walk to the bus stop, there is no bus transportation to grocery stores, hospitals, or anywhere I go. A high school student in our area used to get a bus to go to school. No more. Walking to the bus stop, you are already half the way there if you have survived the ice on the way.

I don’t know where the counterpoint writer lives and, or if he actually takes a bus anywhere. I am skeptical.

Gloria Enns

Winnipeg

When ambiguity becomes dangerous

Canada is watching something unsettling unfold. Synagogues are being shot at. Community spaces are becoming flashpoints. Protest, fabrication, and violence are being folded together in public conversation as though they were morally equivalent. They are not. And the failure to say so clearly is no longer benign.

Humans are not wired for ambiguity under moral shock. When images of civilian suffering circulate without clear explanation of who is acting, who is responsible, and who is not, the mind fills the gap. It sorts the world into friend and foe. If agency is not named, it is inferred. Symbols become proxies. Buildings become targets. This is how misdirected violence takes root.

We are asking the public to hold two incompatible claims at once: “We are innocent,” and “We are actively involved.” When religious or community institutions host political advocacy, military promotion, or the sale of land taken under occupation, they are acting politically. When they insist on innocence without acknowledging that agency, they create confusion they do not control. Protest directed at political action is not the same as targeting identity — but when distinctions are blurred, people react badly.

The problem is compounded when remembrance is treated as exclusive. “Never Forget” was meant to be a moral discipline — a warning against collective punishment, dehumanisation, and the targeting of civilians. When it is invoked to shield present‑day actions from scrutiny, or applied selectively to one group’s suffering while others are rendered negotiable, it stops teaching restraint and starts breeding resentment. Other communities notice. They always have.

This is not an argument for silence. It is an argument for precision.

Violence against synagogues is criminal and must be condemned without qualification. Fabricated hate incidents must be named as such, because they corrode trust and inflame fear. Peaceful protest aimed at political advocacy must be recognized as civic action, not bigotry. These distinctions are not optional. They are protective.

Public education has a responsibility here. It must teach mechanism literacy alongside moral reasoning: who decides, who acts, who benefits, and who bears the consequences. Without that discipline, the human instinct to sort the world into friend and foe will continue to be exploited — and supremacist narratives, which thrive on confusion and grievance, will continue to gain ground.

Canada protects minorities and majorities the same way: by insisting on accuracy, proportion, and responsibility. Disagreement is not the danger. Ambiguity is. If we do not teach how to fight well — with clarity rather than proxies — people will keep fighting badly. And the consequences will not stay abstract.

Anne Thompson

Winnipeg