Letters, April 9

Opinion

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This article was published 08/04/2022 (895 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Teachers’ days off warranted

Re: Teachers don’t lack time off (Letter, April 8)

In response to letter writer Stewart Jacques, who notes teachers work “only” nine months of the year and are allotted 20 sick days per year and five extra days when quarantining.

First of all, teachers work 10 months of the year, in an official capacity, not nine. We get paid for 10, not 12. During those 10 months, we get three weeks off, two at Christmas and one for spring break. Three weeks of holidays is not unheard of in any profession.

Do people honestly believe we show up on Sept. 1 and just start teaching? Before each new school year, there are lesson plans, administrative work, parents to contact, and files to review. This is done on our “time off.”

We deal with an increasing number of students with mental-health issues, many related to the pandemic. We cover for the absences of other teachers, also owing to the current crisis. And now, in response to inclusive policy, lesson plans are multi-faceted as we can easily have five or more grades of learning levels in a single class.

Overnight camping trips with students, early morning extra-curricular coaching, evenings and weekends holding play rehearsals, working through every lunch hour to help students prepare for assessments, after-school homework support, correcting students’ work late into the evening, and virtual evening sessions to help students who struggle with homework are not part of our regular work day.

Do we need time off? Yes. Do we take it? Many don’t.

Until you have spent a day in the shoes of a teacher who puts the needs of their students above any down time to which they are entitled, you don’t know the first thing about their need for time off.

Denine Laberge

Winnipeg

Don’t reverse dog ban

Re: Both sides of the fence on pitbull ban (April 8)

A proponent for removing the dog breed ban recently said, “I’ve only been bitten by small dogs.”

We had a small, yappy sheltie. He was great with our family but was not good around strangers. Given the opportunity, and feeling threatened, he might have nipped at a stranger. If that had happened, the outcome could have been a scratch or a small bite that may have required a bandage.

He could not have mauled, mutilated or killed anyone. The banned breeds can and have.

Hold bad owners responsible, absolutely. But what good will that do for the victims and their families?

Ray Dirks

Winnipeg

Winnipeg city council has completely lost it. They’re discussing reversing the ban on dangerous dogs and possibly letting Winnipeggers keep backyard chickens.

Please. No chickens. No pit bulls.

Get the roads and back lanes fixed and get our money back on the Winnipeg Police Service building scam.

Duncan Pimlott

Winnipeg

Premier should attend, or quit

Re: Premier’s no-shows to question period decried (April 7)

For a premier to miss three question periods in the past month, it should be no different than someone not showing up to do their job. After so many absences you tend to get your walking papers.

Heather Stefanson has a responsibility to Manitobans to answer the hard questions whether she likes it or not, not disappear at her convenience. If she can’t stand the heat, she should forfeit her position.

Leah Durham

Winnipeg

Stop hiding COVID-19 data

Re: No plans for COVID restrictions amid rising transmission (April 7)

Dr. Brent Roussin can’t have it both ways. Either there are mandates protecting us from COVID-19, or we are on our own. And if we’re on our own, we need all the data he can give us to help us protect ourselves. We need up-to-date, detailed information to best assess what risks we can take.

It remains beyond me why he would think it makes sense to limit the amount of information we receive now. In what way would it be a negative to publish it?

John Whiteway

Winnipeg

I keep waiting for an editorial cartoon where both Premier Heather Stefanson and Health Minister Audrey Gordon are leaning forward with their heads firmly planted in the ground like a couple of ostriches, with Stefanson’s word bubble exclaiming: “See? I told you if we just stopped collecting pandemic data the number of cases would drop and COVID-19 would just go away!”

Brian Spencler

Winnipeg

Dr. Brent Roussin’s “less is more” approach to discussing the statistical data regarding COVID-19 data is nothing more than a cover-up of important information that Manitobans have a right to know in a timely manner. It does not allow Manitobans to make informed decisions in an effort to assess their personal risk factors.

Rita Tuokko

Winnipeg

Like Paul Samyn in his editor’s newsletter, I am also at the stage of not knowing and am more confused. Samyn’s comment “I don’t know” sums it up well. It runs through my head every time I go to the store, or for mail, or anywhere, for that matter. I find myself looking out the window of the car and thinking, “Do I go there? Do I not? I don’t know.”

Thank you to Samyn and his team for trying to give us information during this provincial approach of “ignorance is bliss.”

Berendina Stam

Winnipeg

Booming pork industry shameful

Re: Manitoba pork industry growing (April 7)

A growing pork industry translates into hundreds of thousands of sentient beings purposely bred into a life not worth living. They will be raised in a manner that is giving rise to antibiotic resistance and, potentially, the next pandemic. It means more manure, more methane and more fresh water wastage and pollution. Further land will be cleared to grow feed crops and the other species who live there will be denied their right to a home.

All this to produce a “food” that has all but disappeared from Canada’s Food Guide and, as “processed meat,” has been classified as a Group 1 carcinogen by the World Health Organization.

Debbie Wall

Winnipeg

Mocked for wearing mask

On Monday, I pulled into the parking lot of a strip mall in the Maples area, just trying to go about my day. As I was about to leave my vehicle, a man was entering his truck parked nearby and noticed me putting on my mask.

He stood laughing and pointing and then sat in his truck for several minutes holding up a homemade sign on which was printed “Take Your Mask Off, Donkey.” Another man entered the truck and then they sped away, still laughing.

Obviously, this individual felt emboldened and tough enough to try to ridicule a person old enough to be his mother and had no regard as to my circumstances, need or choice to wear a mask.

It is a troubling sign of the times when a person feels entitled to be intentionally unkind to anyone, including complete strangers, and has taken measures to be prepared to do so when the opportunity presents itself. Very sad, indeed.

Linda Bretecher

Winnipeg

Hockey nets stranded on melting Red

Within easy walking distance of my house, there are at least two hockey nets sitting on the melting ice of the Red River. The river ice is already too melted to walk out and retrieve these nets. Unless their owners have some kind of grappling hook and rope contraption to haul them in, they will likely end up at the bottom of the river.

This type of blatant river pollution sickens me. It’s marvellous to see Winnipeggers embrace winter and make their own rinks on the river behind their homes, but when you put a hockey net, or any other man-made object, on the river ice in winter, it behooves you to get it off before it’s too late.

Rob Swystun

Winnipeg