Letters, Oct. 5

Fighting the good fight

Re: Transit, roads and city council’s priorities (Oct. 2)

Many thanks to Erna Buffie for once again speaking up for transit.

When will Winnipeg finally make the shift from a car-dependent culture to a greener and more efficient way?

I second her call for city council to work with (the Transportation and Land Use Coalition), get the information from those who actually use the system, and implement more of their suggestions.

The time for all of this was 50 years ago.

Pauline Johnson

Winnipeg

Now, pay them

Re: Dynacare workers ruled essential (Oct. 2)

Dynacare workers are an integral part of our health-care system and must not only be recognized as such but also treated accordingly.

It is very disappointing to read the hard workers at Dynacare are working at a significantly lower wage than those doing the same job in the public health-care sector.

I am shocked to read the Dynacare employees are not only being paid 20 to 50 per cent lower but expected to work constant overtime to ensure time sensitive tests are being performed. This tells me they are not staffed to meet the needs of the 5,600 patients they see daily.

I agree that this is a government problem. It is evident Dynacare workers are not being recognized for the essential work they perform in our health-care system.

Each time I visit a Dynacare, I notice that, despite the long lineup of patients waiting, the staff maintain an atmosphere of caring and professionalism.

Paying competitive wages will attract more lab staff, reduce costly overtime and ensure Manitobans secure health care.

Karen Zurba

Winnipeg

Stelco sale was unsound

Re: Stelco layoffs raise legal questions over job pledges in Cleveland-Cliffs takeover (Sept. 29)

In reading the article regarding the legality of the Stelco layoffs, I immediately had two observations.

First of all, when the agreement for the sale was approved by the federal government, the full agreement was never released to the public. We elect governments, so they theoretically work for us. To not fully disclose the terms of an agreement such as this is egregious.

We, the people, have the right to full disclosure in a business transaction of this nature. This did not happen and I am left wondering why.

Second, why do businesses always seem to have escape-hatch loopholes in transactions?

In this case the loophole will probably cause 500 job losses for real people and their families. In our economic system, one company buying another company is a business risk. It should not be able to just walk away from that risk and commitments.

Glenn S. Hansen

Winnipeg

Maybe ASI will need us

Re: AI, animals and us (Think Tank, Sept. 29)

I enjoy speculative articles in the paper, and Jordan Laidlaw’s opinion piece was an example.

Scientists have speculated that the reason we haven’t encountered other intelligent beings in the universe is because they hadn’t survived one or more “Great Filters”, which must be survived in order to achieve the ability to contact other advanced civilizations.

The danger of nuclear war is a prime example of a Great Filter that must be overcome. Perhaps another Great Filter would be surviving the creation of artificial superintelligences (ASI) which could replace and annihilate us.

One view is that such an intelligence would, after eliminating its creators, spend its time looking inward, consumed with thinking sublime thoughts, with no interest in exploring the cosmos.

Perhaps if we succeed in creating ASI, we would not be in immediate danger of being wiped out, as the present technological world is designed for humans and ASI would need us to keep the power on — its form of food.

Michael Dowling

Winnipeg

If a future artificial intelligence is going to learn its ethics from us, let it learn the bar people already use. Harvesting animals for nourishment is normal and sustainable. We can feed billions and still work to save the environment and wildlife.

Jordan Laidlaw treats his vegan ethics as if they were a public standard. They are not. More than 95 per cent of people have no interest in the vegan agenda.

Canada has a large, heavily regulated agricultural industry. Farmers and processors operate under inspection, animal-care codes and the law. The vast majority, including factory farms, stay inside those rules. That is the ethical bar Canadians actually accept — animals raised and harvested for nourishment, not for entertainment or gambling.

Eating animals is part of the cycle of life. We no longer skin and gut animals in the yard nor cook over an open fire. We live in single-family homes and glass towers and shop at Safeway. That does not make the meal less honest. It means the hard work is done by people who feed a city, under rules the rest of us are OK with.

Within my lifetime, famine was frequent. Now it is rare. Feeding people came first. That is the achievement to be proud of. The next job is better land use inside nature itself, animal and crop rotations that regenerate the soil and keep farming sustainable. That is farm work that feeds the world. If we are going to cut anything, cut the hyper-processed junk. Do not cut the nutrient-dense animal foods that actually nourish people.

Laidlaw is free to live as a vegan. He is not entitled to recast the majority’s ordinary nourishment as cruelty so the rest of us will feel guilty for what is on our plate. The Free Press should not treat a fringe diet as the moral default.

Earl L. Martin

Winnipeg

Gardener’s dream goes wrong

Re: Zoning fight not so sweet for perfumer (Sept. 29)

I read Gabrielle Piché’s story with some interest. The only two pieces of advice I can give anyone dealing with the planning and development department are: “Never expect common sense to get in the way of their right to exercise their authority,” and “never tell them what you really think of them.”

Years ago I had a carport extension added to our house. It was designed by a respected architect and built to specifications under permit. It complied in all aspects until we put a roof garden on it. The area planner from the city decreed that it must come down.

I attended his office with letters from all my neighbours supporting the roof garden and indicating that it enhanced their surroundings. The planner’s response was, “It doesn’t matter what they think. It matters what I think.”

My response was, “You sir, are an arrogant ass.”

You can guess how things went from there.

Tom Pearson

Victoria, B.C.

Trump misses naming boat

With his penchant for renaming things, Donald Trump the other day “cleverly thought” that AI should be renamed “super intelligence, SI”.

However, he missed the boat. In keeping with his naive attempt to rename the Gulf of Mexico and Lake Ontario, Trump could have proposed that AI stand for American Intelligence. The acronym (AI) would not change and the symbolism for the U.S.A. would be significant. The mid-term election results may prove or disprove American Intelligence.

Terry Aseltine

Winnipeg