Letters, Dec. 22

Opinion

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This article was published 21/12/2022 (691 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Poilievre blew it

So would-be prime minister Pierre Poilievre has a plan to win over all Canadians? I have a hard time understanding how he was the person conservatives believed would be the saviour of the Conservative party. When will someone who has his ear tell him he blew all chances of achieving the top job when he was seen siding with the “freedom convoy” in Ottawa?

He can spout any new plan he cares to, but Canadians will never forget his cosy relationship with the people who wanted to bring our democratic government down. All the Liberals need to do in any election is show the photos and videos of Poilievre siding with the “freedom convoy,” and that will kill any chance he will become the next prime minister.

Ken Butchart

Winnipeg

Re: A trip — and fall — down memory lane with Canada’s Conservative leader (Dec. 14)

Those of us who have closely followed the rise of the next wanna-be MAGA-style populist in Canada know Pierre Poilievre has continually deceived the Canadian public with his “expertise.” His scariest was his promotion (perhaps thinking he was now a celebrity) of cryptocurrencies as a hedge against inflation.

With Manitoban gas prices peaking around $2.08 per litre and even higher in other provinces aside from Alberta this past year, the single biggest contributor to inflation was gas prices, controlled by the oil and gas industry, which has recorded record profits — not the carbon tax, not government pandemic spending and not the Bank of Canada’s monetary policies!

His policies are not for the majority of Canadians, as he pretends. They are for the the higher-income minority of the population who can easily weather the bump in inflation, especially those with heavy investments in the fossil-fuel industry.

Gary McGimpsey

Winnipeg

WRHA acting the Grinch

Re: From hallway medicine to driveway medicine (Dec. 19)

What really troubles me about all of this is how the WRHA continues to try to justify this treatment of people in its care. No apology. No expression of concern about this practice. It just seems to be: “Yeah, well, we had no space, so we put them out in the cold and that is OK.”

Is this the new norm? Let’s hope that like the Grinch, the WRHA can make its heart grow bigger, or even get a heart to begin with.

Ariel Lee

Winnipeg

Men have role to play

Re: Indigenous-led solution? (Letters, Dec. 20)

Lorraine Helgason’s suggestion that an all-women group should be formed to keep Indigenous women safer is good — but insufficient. The real problem is the males who abuse them, treating them as disposable rather than valued people.

When kids are first learning about the world around them, one of the things they are doing is developing a mental model of how the world is supposed to work. If they see violence being used frequently to get what the perpetrator wants, they will think that is how you are supposed to act. This is the endless cycle that needs to be broken.

Men should teach boys that they are the protectors of vulnerable people — children, women, the elderly, disabled persons, new immigrants who are trying to get started. Those boys will grow up caring about others, and with a mental model that forbids them harming the innocent.

This means our schools, social workers, cultural and religious groups must encourage men to model the male protector idea. It will encourage selflessness in all things, to the benefit of their community.

James Wingert

Winnipeg

Police service needs overhaul

Re: “I have fear of everyone,” victim of accused serial sex attacker says (Dec. 15)

I’m very distressed to read of how these women’s lives were endangered, and of how life-altering the experience has been for them. And I’m equally distressed to learn these attacks occurred over a period of several weeks, yet there was no warnings to area businesses or to the public issued by the Winnipeg Police Service. Are we seeing a pattern of apathy from the police regarding crimes against women? This lack of action is certainly not an isolated incident, and I fear it won’t be the last.

With the WPS embroiled in controversy over its decision to not search for the remains of two women, victims of a possible serial killer, at a privately owned garbage dump, and how police told Jamie Painchaud in July to awaken an intruder she found sleeping on her sofa in the middle of the night, and also of their failure to notify citizens in August 2021 of a serial sex attacker along the Red River trail until after a fifth victim was assaulted, the WPS’s attitude toward women is clearly established: it does not take crimes against women seriously.

How can a woman possibly feel safe in our city? How can she feel safe taking a bus, or working alone, or even sleeping in her own home, knowing she may be the target of a sick and deranged mind? And worse, that the police are just as likely to ignore them. How can we grow as a city, as a society, if the police ignore the cries of half our citizens?

A major overhaul of the WPS is long overdue. It needs to happen now, and it needs to start with the removal of Chief of Police Danny Smyth. As head of the police service, the outlook and behaviour of his subordinates starts and ends with him.

Randy Clinch

Winnipeg

Addictions needs are ignored

Re: “Maybe Kayla will make a difference” (Dec. 9)

To Kayla Rae’s family, I offer my sincere condolences; to Kayla’s mother, my heart aches for her loss. I know this heartache, for I lost my son, also 27 years old when he died. He died as a result of drug use; he died alone. He was not found in a bus shelter; he was found in our basement.

The year he died was 2016. That summer, I started advocating for change in Adam’s name. Told his story! Many advocates spoke out tirelessly, trying to get our governments to listen to the needs, to co-ordinate efforts between the ministries of justice, education and health.

My first meeting after I lost my son was with Heather Stefanson, who was minister of justice at the time. Stefanson, at that time, knew nothing of the emerging drug crisis.

Here we are, seven years and 1,600-plus preventable deaths later, and we are still advocating for harm-reduction strategies to be put in place. We are still talking about deaths caused by toxic drugs, lack of resources and long wait lists to access proper treatment.

Please just stop and listen to the needs spoken by the people who know. Put money into what works, meet people who use drugs where they are, or we will keep finding them under blankets, and in basements.

Story after story published by families saying “All my child wanted was help for their addiction,” always a cry for care. Our government has been sent letters signed by more than 80 organizations outlining the harm-reduction strategies needed in this province and city, and yet the needs continue to be ignored. For families and those people who use drugs, they continue to feel the stigma and shame.

Maybe change can happen in the name of Kayla, and Adam, Alex, AJ, Aaron, Bruce, Blair, Cameron, Cassie, Destiny, Gabriel, Ian, Issac, Jeni, Jessie, John, Josh, Lisa, Mathew, Robin, Tyler , Stephanie, Wesley and hundreds more I could name. I wonder, had Kayla had access to a supervised consumption site, would the outcome have been different?

Christine Dobbs

Winnipeg