Letters, May 7

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 07/05/2022 (1358 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Hog deaths cruel

Re: About 2,000 pigs dead after storm causes power outages (May 5)

Cam Dahl, general manager of the Manitoba Pork Council, said it’s incredibly rare to have both primary and backup power fail. He called the event a “perfect storm” of conditions. “When something does happen, I think it’s incumbent on us to look back and say ‘what do we need to do differently?’”

Hydrogen sulfide (H2S) is similar to cyanide in toxicity. It is prevalent in factory hog barns and when the ventilation systems fail, the animals die. They cannot survive the fumes they inhale from the manure pits below them.

Is it any wonder rural residents worry and complain about this poison that is vented from the barns into the atmosphere? People near hog barns complain about headaches and breathing difficulties, to no avail. The government of Manitoba has categorized these factory death traps as farming.

This month’s death of 2,000 pigs isn’t a first-time situation. Through the years, there have been several thousand such hog deaths related to power outages and barn fires.

Dahl is right in saying the industry needs to look back and learn. It needs to raise animals differently. The current system is cruel and unacceptable.

John Fefchak

Virden

The account of 2,000 pigs dying did not mention the climate, although our pouring of tonnes of CO2 into the air likely helped the power loss. Likely we will face many more power outages, plus fires, droughts and floods as the Earth warms. But sequestering CO2 appears to be one of the best ways to reduce the warming of the planet, and fortunately nature knows how to do this and to continue such reduction as the climate cools.

A key to ensuring this sequestering of CO2 is for farmers and friends of Canadian forests to limit clear-cutting. We know that about 22 per cent of GHG emissions come from lack of an optimum use of soils and from cutting down the trees. But perhaps more than the 22 per cent of GHG emissions necessary to keep global warming under 2 degrees C above the pre-industrial level can come from agriculture and forest absorption rather than from expensive technology such as carbon capture and storage proposed by the fossil-fuel industry. Enhancing forests, wetlands, grasslands and cover crops might achieve the same end.

We don’t need to give billions to oil and gas industries in order to sequester CO2. We just need to learn better forest and agricultural management. Help us to save the pigs and other animals that may suffer from climate anomalies, and encourage nature to reduce global warming.

Barry Hammond

Winnipeg

Avoid mental-health labels

Re: Don’t play psychiatrist (Letters, May 5)

Columnist Dan Lett and letter writers Devon Hanel and Mike Maskell have expressed opinions on how others bandy about phraseology describing uncertified diagnostics and labeling triggers.

While it shocked me that Lett used a psychiatric diagnosis to describe a “toxic” person, it was really disconcerting that he inferred a narcissistic personality disorder was an insult.

Hanel’s letter highlighted how using terminology can negatively trigger a person who lives with a mental-health concern. Maskell suggested we should take a collective deep breath and quit worrying about “all the small triggers,” which was an ignorant statement.

I suggest Lett and Maskell take a walk together on the path of a person living with a personality disorder before they decide how to describe a “toxic” person or what is considered just a small trigger. Any mental-health concern can be a day-to-day struggle, and diagnostic labels can have a lasting negative effect.

I speak from lived experience as a mom whose son suffered with a personality disorder. The barbed words of society, diagnostic labeling and misplaced judgmental reactions created a very painful existence for him.

We definitely need to take a breath and think before we speak, or in this case write, using words that harm others.

Bonnie Bricker

Winnipeg

Sewage dump needs context

Re: Plant dumps massive volume of partially treated sewage into Red (May 4)

The story says a discharge from the North End sewage treatment plant between April 21 and 25 was the equivalent of 650 Olympic-sized swimming pools.

It would help readers get a better understanding of how serious a matter this is if the reporter would also tell us how much water is going down the river. This could be expressed in litres, Olympic-sized swimming pools or a percentage of water/sewage.

Anything to get a better understanding of the problem. The volume should be measured before entering Lake Winnipeg.

Richard Redekop

Winnipeg

Ukrainians deserve better

Re: Ukraine: Russia using ‘missile terrorism’ in wide attacks (May 4)

Shame on us! I cannot sufficiently express my disappointment with our government’s lack of action and support of Ukraine in comparison to other world governments.

The snail-like pace of emergency refugee measures is just not acceptable. Other countries have stepped up to the plate and have accepted many more refugees in much greater numbers already. Here in Canada, a very few, comparatively speaking, have started to trickle in.

Our Canadian government seems to suffer from some kind of bureaucratic constipation.

Marilynn Slobogian

Winnipeg

No vaccine, no travel

Re: Rolling Thunder seemed aimless (Letters, May 5)

In her suggestion that Freedom Fighters Canada take a flight to Ukraine to experience a true loss of freedom, letter writer Monica Smith conveniently forgets that the Freedom Fighters, and indeed all Canadians who chose not to get “the shot,” are still under medical apartheid and unable to fly anywhere, including Ukraine. While Ukrainians are free to leave their country, the Freedom Fighters are not.

Annemarie Wiebe

Morden

Editing government billboard

Re: Government billboard insulting (May 3)

Regarding the provincial government’s billboard statement “Budget 2022 is clearing the surgical and diagnostic backlog,” I suggest that in the interests of full disclosure, along with a needed reality check, the wording be changed to “Budget 2022 may be clearing the surgical and diagnostic backlog.”

Doug Brazeau

Winnipeg

Stop tipping restaurant servers

I’ve long wondered why we tip food and beverage servers. I know they probably get minimum wage, but a lot of people get minimum wage, such as people who work in retail.

Why do we not tip a store cashier or the person who looks for a certain shoe size for us? It’s because they are already getting paid for doing their job, albeit not well paid, but still they’re paid, and so are food and beverage servers.

This practice of tipping should stop. It already costs enough to eat at a restaurant before giving a tip. It should be up to the employer, not the customer, to pay the employees.

Ron Robert

Winnipeg

View from driver’s licence lineup

Re: Close to 10,000 seeking driver’s licence wait up to three months for road test at gridlocked MPI (May 6)

I’ve been waiting so long to book a road test that, by the time I get one, there won’t be any road, just rebar.

Ken Campbell

Winnipeg