Letters, June 29

Drug situation requires complex solutions

Re: Police begin massive 10-day drug sweep (June 26)

While many residents understandably want safer streets and less visible drug use, the recent police operation in Winnipeg raises serious questions about whether enforcement alone can address a complex public health crisis.

Police officials state that the initiative is not aimed at people struggling with addiction, yet the operation appears to have overwhelmingly targeted those very individuals. Reports from front-line workers suggest that people were detained, searched and had harm-reduction supplies confiscated.

Even if these allegations are disputed, the fact that such concerns have emerged during a declared HIV public health emergency should prompt careful scrutiny.

The stated goal of reducing public drug consumption may offer a temporary appearance of order, but it does little to address the underlying causes of addiction, homelessness, poverty, trauma and inadequate access to treatment.

When people are pushed out of public view without being provided with stable housing, accessible detox services, long-term treatment options and mental health supports, the problem is merely displaced rather than solved.

Many Winnipeggers are frustrated by the impacts of open drug use in parks, bus shelters and commercial areas. Their concerns deserve to be taken seriously. However, public safety and public health should not be treated as competing priorities. Evidence from many jurisdictions suggests that punitive approaches alone rarely produce lasting reductions in addiction-related harms.

A successful response requires investment in treatment beds, supportive housing, outreach services, supervised consumption programs and harm-reduction initiatives alongside appropriate enforcement against trafficking and violent crime.

Confiscating supplies or detaining vulnerable individuals may satisfy public demands for visible action, but it risks deepening mistrust between marginalized communities and the institutions meant to serve them.

Winnipeg deserves safer streets. It also deserves policies that tackle addiction as a health issue rather than relying primarily on enforcement measures that may ultimately worsen the very problems they seek to solve.

Yog Rahi Gupta

Winnipeg

E-bike irony

Re: City needs electric vehicle roadmap (June 26)

I totally agree with Tom Brodbeck’s article on electric vehicles. There really should be some rules established for all of the personal electric vehicles we see everywhere. Without some rules in place, there could be some unfortunate accidents.

It also seems ironic that we will have police officers on e-bikes when we have no rules in place.

Linda Graham

Winnipeg

Destination downtown

Re: U of W delivers a lesson for downtown development (Opinion, June 24)

Jino Distasio’s piece on the University of Winnipeg’s urban success hits the nail on the head, but it leaves one wondering about our broader challenge.

As Winnipeg continues to sprawl rapidly outward, stretching infrastructure thin and draining vitality from our core, should we consider actively channelling our academic capital inward to stop this push?

We already know the blueprint works. Look at the incredible impact of RRC Polytech in the Exchange District. Other Canadian cities have used this exact approach to fight decline; I look at how Vancouver used Simon Fraser University to revitalize its core, or how Toronto built an urban economic engine around Toronto Metropolitan University and wonder what stops us from doing the same.

What if the University of Manitoba stepped up and moved a couple of its non-clinical faculties, such as architecture or law, from Fort Garry to the centre? To build a truly vibrant city, shouldn’t we consider using our post-secondary institutions as the anchor?

Louise Orr

Winnipeg

Scrambling for answers

Re: City crosses out scramble crossing (June 23)

“It was only moderately effective at this location because it was not used often enough. Pedestrian scrambles work best in places with much higher pedestrian traffic,” a city report notes.

Much higher pedestrian traffic — like Osborne and River, which is where local residents and the BIZ begged to have a scramble crossing trialled.

But, in the wisdom of the city, it was instead implemented where it could be guaranteed to offend fewer drivers, make no appreciable difference in safety and be concluded to be a failure.

Another made-in-Manitoba success: take a good idea that works everywhere else, implement it in the worst possible way, and conclude “that’ll never work here.”

Karla Braun

Winnipeg

Trump’s trade war isn’t over

On Feb. 1, 2025, the president of the United States signed an executive order that, in effect, declared a trade war with Canada and many other countries.

The president was open with his intent to inflict economic harm on Canada. There have been numerous changes in the narrative for the president’s action against Canada, but the reality is that his objective of inflicting economic hardship on Canada has been unwavering.

Many, if not most, Canadians responded by boycotting discretionary travel to the U.S. Many also began to take notice of countries of origin of products in our grocery stores, our liquor stores and other products in our shopping places.

Recent articles indicate that Canadian travel to the U.S. has increased over the past two or three months. But the war is not over, people.

I have spoken to people who have said, “That man will not dictate what I do and where I do it.” However, there are many, many other options for your discretionary travel dollars.

I get that many Canadians own places in the U.S. and many of you are required to travel to the U.S. for work purposes.

I do not begrudge anyone who has such an investment or who travel as a job requirement. Those realities existed prior to the declaration of economic war by the president of the United States.

However, travel dollars spent in the U.S. do not help your neighbours, whether next door or in the next province. Many Canadians are hurting and our economy is hurting and that ultimately affects all of us.

Canada has a lot to offer, as do Europe, Mexico, Japan, etc.

Expanding your horizons beyond the U.S. is a good defence against what we should fully expect to be another two-plus years of tyranny south of the world’s largest undefended border.

Douglas Cieszynski

Selkirk