Your letters: What war took away, Calgary gave back
I would like the city of Calgary to know what wonderful people live here — namely, the Blizzard football club.
Article content
When we arrived from Ukraine, I was worried about my son and his psychological state. Looking into his eyes, I saw sadness and sorrow. In Ukraine, he was involved in sports since five years old. The school and his football fields were destroyed by missiles. Childhood dreams were lost.
Article content
Article content
Article content
We are now in a foreign country where we had to start from scratch, with no relatives, acquaintances or friends. I decided to ask on Instagram about clubs and what a joy it was when we got invited to try out. My son made the team and he was very happy that day.
Article content
Article content
We didn't expect much; I just asked for him to go to training because we were not financially prepared. But the universe sent us incredibly kind people. They provided him with everything so he could train, travel and participate in competitions. They organized volunteering to raise money for him to go to Portugal with the team. My son could not go because we are not yet Canadian citizens and some documents are missing, but he is not upset.
Article content
He is just happy that he is part of this team, that he knows wonderful children, their parents, coaches, managers and everyone involved in this club.
Article content
Our son has acquired a football family in your city.
Article content
Article content
Natalia Minakova, Calgary
Article content
Article content
In 2018, Premier Danielle Smith castigated the B.C. government for not protecting its environment. She was speaking on air about selenium contamination in the Elk and Fording rivers, caused by coal mining.
Article content
Given this stance, what is the premier doing a few years later, cosying up to potential mining operations in the Crowsnest Pass? A project owned by a foreign-owned enterprise at that.
Article content
Smith clearly knows the dangers posed by excess selenium because, back then, she said, 'Health effects from overexposure to selenium include gastrointestinal disorders, nerve damage, liver cirrhosis and death in humans, while fish become deformed and unable to reproduce.' Selenium hasn't changed since 2018, even if Smith has.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Winnipeg Free Press
an hour ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Keeping Canada separate from our neighbour
Opinion The U.S. sneezes and Canada catches a cold. It's a common aphorism some use to describe our largely reactionary relationship with the superpower south of our border. It can be used to describe the nature of our traditionally parallel economic endeavours, which lead us to share their fate in the marketplace. Or how our symbiotic cultural dynamic leads us to adopt their trends. Or it can be used to describe how our political climate often follows their lead, just a few steps behind. So what about when America isn't just sneezing, but appears to be infested with a zombie fungal infection so dire it might lead one writer to craft atrocious wordplay like 'The Last of US?' The Canadian Press Prime Minister Mark Carney smiles as he gestures toward the opposition during question period in the House of Commons. It is long past debatable that U.S. Present Donald Trump will not be governing under any of the restraints he operated under in his first administration. The grown-ups in the room have been replaced by grovelling sycophants who spout juvenile lies to stroke his ego. Like when Pam Bondi recently congratulated Trump that his border policy had been so successful in stopping the flow of fentanyl that it had already saved 258 million lives. I hope nobody needs the math done for them to see how ludicrous that is. This Orwellian level of propaganda is occurring alongside a descent into martial law, where peaceful protest is met with the most brutal of crackdowns. International students are being advised to scrub their political writings from the public record because the administration is using any instances of political dissent as an excuse to strip them of their visas and deport them. And speaking of deportations, ICE has been doing things like busting up elementary school graduation ceremonies and abducting attendees for detainment, in many cases scooping up people who are not even eligible for deportation, simply as a tool for terror. And Dear Leader wanted a big military parade on his birthday. The United States has become the cartoonish caricature of a despotic state they have always accused North Korea of being. So what is Canada's response? Well, it's been a mixed bag. Thankfully Trump's direct assault of tariffs served as a wake-up call that we need to disentangle ourselves from our chaotic neighbours economically. And sure, we have put our elbows up and bought Canadian. But we aren't just doing it to score points in a trade war. I think for many of us, we are saying we see what is happening south of the border and we reject it — that this is a time for us to firmly stand separate from the U.S. But have our leaders heard us? Judging by the recent Bill C-2 put forward by the Mark Carney Liberals, it seems like they have taken the election results, which were a clear repudiation of contemporary right-wing politics, and somehow interpreted that as a mandate to govern like Stephen Harper 2.0. As the U.S. brutally cracks down on immigrants and refugees, Carney has decided to follow suit, introducing measures that will make it more difficult for even the most imperiled people seeking asylum. Like how a person will no longer be eligible to seek asylum if they even visited Canada in the past if it took place more than a year before their claim. Or how we will now be deporting people directly back to the very country they are fleeing from, even if their lives are in danger there, without offering them so much as a hearing. These are traditional policies of Western chauvinism and not how we invigorate a new Canadian era. Not that Carney appears interested in such a path anyway. Since his initial tough talk, he has seemed more interested in cosying back up to the president. But a word to the wise, Mr. Prime Minister. If you believe you can game out a mutually beneficial relationship of equals with Trump, you would be a fool. Wednesdays Columnist Jen Zoratti looks at what's next in arts, life and pop culture. A more local disappointment in this vein has been the recent pivot of Premier Wab Kinew and his warming to the idea of pipelines. Despite being another beneficiary of an electoral rejection of conservative politics, this is a frustrating, but historically unsurprising, pivot towards the right by a supposedly progressive leader. 'When the facts change … you change your opinion on something,' Kinew rationalized, referencing that we need to broaden our economic horizons due to the trade war with the U.S. But the facts haven't changed. Our failure to pivot away from fossil fuels continues to borrow on the quality of life in the future, as highlighted in every new report climatologists offer us. Yet we blissfully fail to meet even the barest of our emissions quotas. Trump sowing economic chaos cannot be used as an excuse to resort to the economic expediency of environmental degradation, which should be obvious as we cope with extreme conditions like those which have set our province ablaze this summer. Our leaders have confused reverting to the status quo for seeking stability. But that status quo is full of policies which strip human beings of their dignity and extract profit for shareholders at the cost of environmental security. People are sick enough of the status quo that they are ready to embrace extremes, such as those we see in the south. And it's time our politicians realize that if they won't lead us somewhere new, then that is ultimately where they will take us. Alex Passey is a Winnipeg author.
Canada Standard
3 hours ago
- Canada Standard
"More money in trade with India than there is with Pakistani proxy, propped up by China": Canadian journalist Daniel Bordman's on PM Modi's visit, Sikh extremism
Calgary [Canada], June 17 (ANI): Canadian journalist Daniel Bordman shed light on the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's to attend the 51st G7 Summit in Kananaskis, Alberta amid the complex dynamics between India and Canada, particularly regarding the Sikh extremist. Bordman described the visit as a 'significant' development with implications for domestic politics, trade, and the country's handling of extremism. Bordman said that the Khalistan movement is a significant obstacle in India-Canada relations. He asserted that Canada's leniency towards Sikh separatist groups operating in Canada, allegedly funded by Pakistan, is perceived as support for terrorism and balkanization by India. 'It is pretty significant for Canada because, for the last 10 years, Canadian politics has been defined externally by chaos and bad actors, and internally by buffoonery... Canadians are happy to have a Prime Minister who speaks in full sentences and counts to ten without his fingers...,' said Bordman. Bordman views this development as a positive step towards counter-radicalization in Canada. He criticisesed the current liberal government's approach, suggesting that economic interests should take precedence over supporting groups that undermine nation-states. 'The major sticking point that Canada and India had is the Khalistan movement and the support of outright terrorism and balkanisation in the country... No one wants India to go through internal separation again, but there is a push outside of India to undermine it, mostly funded by Pakistan. All the groups who want to destroy India are the same who want to destroy Israel and America -- they undermine the concept of a nation-state... Canada has become a hub of all these bad actors...,' said Bordman. Bordman views PM Modi's visit as a turning point in Canada's approach to the Khalistan issue. He said that by engaging with India, Canada is distancing itself from its previous permissive stance towards terrorists and separatists. 'By inviting PM Modi, it is a pretty hard shift for Mark Carney to distance the liberal brand from the permissive of terrorists and separatists... This is a good first step to counter-radicalisation... We are at the maximum Khalistani nonsense in Canada, with a liberal close inner circle in the cabinet, propped up by Jagmeet Singh's NDP... The biggest Khalistani power display is in Surrey right now... The Khalistani menace seems to be toned down because Mark Carney is an economist... There is more money in trade with India, a real country with billions of people, than there is with a Pakistani proxy, propped up by China, who run around and run drugs for the country... We have everything India needs, and India has a huge consumer base...,' added the Canadian journalist. Bordman highlighted the economic costs of not addressing the Khalistan issue, citing the potential harm to Canada's credibility and trade relationships with other countries, including India. He noted that India is a significant market with a huge consumer base, making it an attractive trade partner. Further elaborating on the implications of the visit, Bordman said, '... The crackdown on Khalistan and trade with India are linked. Canada's trade with every other country is linked to the same thing. Suppose you have a transnational criminal organisation in your ports and running logistics in your country, like the Khalistanis run drugs through the truck industry. In that case, it poses a real problem economically and trade-wise... If Canada wants to be a player on the world stage, we need to do something about Khalistan because these people are significantly harming Canada in the social fabric and also have a huge economic cost... Their involvement in our system will reduce our credibility in countries that want to trade with us...' PM Modi's visit to Canada comes after a period of friction between New Delhi and Ottawa, triggered by Canadian allegations that Indian agents were involved in the killing of NIA-designated terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar outside a gurdwara in Canada in 2023. India had strongly rejected the allegations. The diplomatic standoff escalated as both countries expelled senior diplomats in a tit-for-tat response. New Delhi has consistently voiced concerns about extremism and anti-India activities on Canadian soil and urged Canadian authorities to take concrete steps to curb such elements. This visit is part of PM Modi's three-nation official tour, which began with Cyprus and will conclude with Croatia. The G7 Summit, which PM Modi is set to attend on June 16-17, is an annual gathering of leaders from the United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Japan, Italy, Canada, and the European Union (EU). This marks PM Modi's sixth consecutive participation in the G7 Summit. (ANI)
Canada Standard
3 hours ago
- Canada Standard
Indian diaspora hails PM Modi's visit as beginning of a new chapter in Canada-India relations
Calgary [Canada], June 17 (ANI): Prime Minister Narendra Modi's brief visit to Canada has sparked excitement and optimism among the Indian diaspora in Calgary and Alberta, who hope the trip marks the beginning of a stronger partnership between India and Canada. Nidhi Lodha, a member of the Indian diaspora, shared her delight and said the community was thrilled about the visit. 'Indian diaspora in Calgary and Alberta is so happy that PM Narendra Modi is visiting us. The only caviar is that it is a last-minute short visit, so we could not organise a town hall where lots of people could meet him. His visit will start a new era of the Canada-India relationship and partnership, which will grow... With the change of government and stance in Ottawa, and the current reality that Canada needs to diversify economically, this relationship will improve...' Supporting her view, Sunny Sharma, a businessman and diaspora member, pointed to the broader global context of the visit. He said, '... PM Modi is coming here at the request of Mark Carney. In other words, the G7 needs India... Carney knows how to do business and not just politics...' Adding further perspective, Anil Mehrotra, another member of the diaspora, welcomed the invitation extended to the Indian Prime Minister despite recent tensions between the two countries. He said, '... I am very happy that he (PM Modi) is visiting Canada and our current Prime Minister had the courage, despite all the negative pressure on him, to invite Modi Ji. He has done a superb job in India, which is now the fourth-largest economy in the world. It would be a grave mistake for Canada not to have invited India. This visit will hopefully only strengthen the good relations we had, which have soured in the last 3-4 years...' Meanwhile, as world leaders gather in Alberta for the G7 Summit, the visit is also being viewed as a chance to reset diplomatic ties. Rishi Singh, Honorary Director of the Kendriya Likhari Sabha (North America), stressed the summit's importance in rekindling the Canada-India relationship. In an exclusive interview, Singh praised the Canadian leadership under Prime Minister Mark Carney for hosting the summit during the vibrant Canadian spring. 'All the G7 leaders will be present and will be discussing vital economic trends and other global issues that significantly impact the world scenario,' he said. He listed the prominent global figures attending this year's summit, including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, and South Korean President Lee Jae-myung. While the UAE President could not attend, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and World Bank President Ajay Banga are also participating. As a Canadian of South Asian heritage, Singh underscored that this summit provides a crucial opportunity for both countries to deepen cooperation. 'This G7 Summit gives both nations a platform to hold bilateral talks and create new thrusts towards diversifying supply chains -- an issue also highlighted by Prime Minister Carney,' he said. Calling for enhanced collaboration, Singh highlighted areas like technology transfer, innovation, agriculture, mobility of skilled workers, and investment. 'India, with its youthful demographic and rapidly growing economy, presents a major opportunity for Canada. In turn, Canada must share its technological advancements to build long-term relations that extend beyond current leaderships,' he said. Singh envisioned a strong future built on mutual economic strength and shared values. He described this desired bond as an 'ethical-economical friendship' that would benefit both nations. 'As we move into an era where resilient supply chains and collaborative innovation are key to global stability, Canada and India must come together not just as trade partners, but as allies with shared values and forward-looking visions,' Singh concluded. 'I sincerely welcome Prime Minister Modi to Canada and hope this summit serves as a turning point in Indo-Canadian relations.' The G7 Summit is expected to produce new initiatives focusing on economic cooperation, climate action, technological growth, and geopolitical stability, with India-Canada relations emerging as a central point of interest. (ANI)
