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Winnipeg Free Press
9 hours ago
- Politics
- Winnipeg Free Press
Letters, June 9
Opinion Canada's role in climate change Re: Planning for the next fires — they're coming (Think Tank, June 5) Norman Brandson is certainly correct to blame climate change for the catastrophic wildfires in Manitoba, and to call for increased resources for adaptation. However, his claim that Canada's contributions to climate change are 'minimal' is misleading and counterproductive. Yes, Canada 'only' emits about 1.5 per cent of global emissions. However, it is the 10th highest polluter of any country in the world, and is one of the highest per-capita emitters as well — about three times the global average. Much of this is caused by the Alberta oilsands. But Manitoba is far from blameless: the province has sizable emissions from oil and gas-intensive agriculture, transportation, space heating, and waste. A new natural gas plant would only worsen this. There are many achievable climate solutions available to us today. However, the first step requires truthfully reckoning with Manitoba and Canada's own contributions to the crisis — including astronomical downstream emissions from rising fossil fuel exports — and building a serious plan to a zero-emissions future. James Wilt Winnipeg Legalize and tax drugs Re: 'Ending the war on drugs' (Letters, June 6) Jamie Bonner's response to Sel Burrows' op-ed on drugs is bang on. Jamie wasn't quite right in the stats that were given. Governments have been waging a war on drugs for over 125 years, not 40 years, spending billions of dollars every year on enforcement. Some Asian countries have the death penalty for drug trafficking and yet there are no shortage of dealers making billions of dollars worldwide. Legalize them all, tax them, and for likely a fraction of what is spent on enforcement, use that money to help treat addiction. Dealers are gone, thousands aren't dying from overdoses, scarce resources for the police become better utilized and the whole drug subculture disappears. There will always be drugs and drug users, it's totally naive to think that can be eliminated, so why not take the profits out of the hands of the scumbags and put it in the government's hands. Ken McLean Starbuck Renewing call to honour Fox Several years ago, I suggested we rename the Queen Elizabeth Way to the Terry Fox Way. Adding a monument/plaque on the bridge crossings would display his determination to walk across our country to raise money for cancer research. A monument would be especially fitting as he was born in Winnipeg. Richard Bérubé Winnipeg Zelenskyy's wit Re: Ukraine's drone attack on Russian warplanes was a serious blow to the Kremlin's strategic arsenal (June 2) You have to give Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy five stars for not telling the United States (and President Donald Trump ) in advance about Ukraine's planned, devastating attack and destruction of Russia's many strategic bombing airplanes deep inside Russia. In Trump's recent phone call to Putin, Trump emphasized that he did not know that the Ukraine was planning such an attack, thus keeping their friendship intact. Do you really think that if Trump knew in advance about this planned attack by the Ukraine that Trump would keep this secret from Putin, his friend? I think not. Zelenskyy is a very smart man. Robert J. Moskal Winnipeg Safe cycling There's lots of hype about Bike Safety Week Winnipeg, June 8-14. Promoting the fact that e-bikes are shrinking the city and providing the opportunity to ride further in less time, is daunting and certainly not promoting safety for pedestrians and riders. Slow down, use your bell or call out, and use the bike paths, please and thank you. Rennie Bodi Winnipeg Card trouble My husband and I recently received our new Manitoba Health Cards in the mail. The new cards cover only the individual named on the front. I have a condition that requires me to go to the emergency room approximately every six to 12 months. When my husband drives me to the ER, I don't take my wallet and it is usually among the last things I would think about. Previously, when asked for my health card my husband would give them his, which included myself. I called Manitoba Health and asked what should happen in this kind of situation where I don't have my individual health card. The solution given by Manitoba Health? Keep your purple card! I can't help but ask, why then do we have the new ones? Janice Jackson Winnipeg Take responsibility So far, 98 of Manitoba's 106 wildfires have been caused by people, government data show. Four occurred naturally, probably as a result of lightning, and another four are under investigation. How can humans be responsible for more than 90 per cent of the forest fires in Manitoba this year so far? Come on people, you are making climate change seem more of a friend to us than the actual threat it is. Year in and year out, you are causing these fires and costing the province billions of tax dollars in fighting and then rebuilding communities. Not good! Alfred Sansregret Winnipeg Ableism in health care Re: 'Measles response falls short' (Letters, June 2) As Kristen Hardy states, vaccine access is one aspect of a greater issue, which is lack of accessibility to services and systemic bias. Many of us have experienced the types of bias to which she refers. I would add ageism to then list. I want to focus on one type in particular. Many people do not realize how pervasive ableism is. Many have never even heard the term or know what it means. It is discrimination in the form of favouritism towards able-bodied people. And it is rampant in the health system. Attaching a sign and a logo to a regular-sized parking space is one example. Many people with mobility issues need more space to enter and exit a vehicle. A regular-sized parking space does not provide this. There is also the attitude that 'disability' is an all-or-nothing status. Many people have mobility issues that are not obvious to others. They believe that for a person to claim a disability, it must be visible. People might be able to walk but not for long distances. They might have conditions that affect the upper body and have difficulty entering buildings and room with heavy doors. This is notable with respect to washrooms designated as accessible. Accessibility means more than a bar on the wall and a sign on the door. It is very frustrating to be unable to access a washroom with a door that is too heavy to open for a person with upper body limitations. Assigning someone with a mobility aid such as a walker to an examination room that is too small for the person to get in with the mobility aid makes it inaccessible. Leading a person down a long corridor at a walking speed that is too fast for the person to follow is a form of ableism. Telling people who bring attention to these issues that 'we are doing the best we can' is a form of ableism. When you have three big examination rooms, repeatedly putting the person with a mobility aid in the one tiny room that they are unable to access is not the best you can do. A better response would be to say thank you and to bring this concern forward so that changes can be made. So, yes, systemic bias in its many forms limits accessibility to health care for far too many. And yes, this contributes to people being unable to get the services they need, vaccination being one such service. And yes, this contributes to a decline in health in our population. Perhaps our esteemed health minister can make addressing systemic bias a priority. I for one would be more than willing to take part in this process. Ariel Lee Winnipeg
The Independent
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Independent
The insult JD Vance jokingly used on interviewer who called him an ‘intellectual'
Vice President JD Vance jokingly called an interviewer an "a**hole" for referring to him as an "intellectual" during an event hosted by the American Compass think tank on Tuesday night. The interviewer, Oren Cass, founder of American Compass, noted Vance's past writings for National Review, where he opposed Donald Trump, before his public turnaround and endorsement by Trump. Cass praised Vance as someone who was "an intellectual first," leading to Vance's sarcastic outburst. Vance interrupted Cass's comments, feigning outrage and jokingly insulting Cass, which was met with cheers and applause from the audience. Cass acknowledged Vance's remark, admitting that he, too, had written for National Review.
Winnipeg Free Press
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Winnipeg Free Press
Getting your letter to the editor published
Opinion Hello, dear correspondent. We are so delighted to hear from you. Truly, we are. Within reason. File This is our semi-regular missive about the land of letters to the editor, and also about opinion pieces that appear on the Free Press Think Tank page. Feel free to cut this out and put it on your fridge, secured there safely for all eternity with a jaunty fridge magnet. Equally, feel free to recycle it without qualm or even bothering to read to the end. First, word length. The hardest part of writing a letter to the editor or a Think Tank piece is knowing how many words to use. For a letter to the editor, somewhere around 150 words is the true sweet spot. Get in, make your point, and get swiftly out. Your friends will be amazed — your enemies, both chastened and humbled. In a crass bastardization of Lewis Carroll's Jabberwocky, the vorpal blade will go snicker-snack, and with its head, you'll go galumphing back. For the Think Tank page, we can handle two pieces every day around 825 words, and one between 750 and 770, with ease. Go longer, especially really longer, and things get difficult. Reach 1,100 words of truly stellar prose, and we may eventually find a home for your work — but not until we find a piece that matches both your length and quality, so that we can reduce the page from three pieces to two. It might be a while. By the way, that includes the line at the end of your piece which we include to explain your experience, expertise, and why readers should respect your authority and accept your opinion. It might be something like this: 'Russell Wangersky is the comment editor of the Free Press and an insufferable prig.' Bear that line in mind as well when thinking about your word count. Some other basic rules apply to both letters and Think Tank pieces, however. If you give someone the literal equivalent of the side-eye — if you imply they are responsible for some ill, without either outright saying that they are and also providing the necessary proof — you are likely to be cast into the hideous pit of opinion darkness, never to emerge again, at least not right away on our pages. Reputation is important, both yours and whoever you're choosing to smite. This is not the Roman forum of the internet, where all weapons are fair game and you can both cast a net over your unwitting prey and then stab your tangled opponent repeatedly with your wordy trident, without facing so much as a raised shield. Accusing someone of something criminal or otherwise libel them? Not going to happen, at least, not if we spot it. Then, there's basic propriety. 'Cuck,' 'moron,' 'idiot' and 'slobbering fool' are not acceptable debate in print or on our website. You get the point. Threatening things like hanging for politicians — heck, threatening politicians, neighbours or random strangers — will find you so far down the naughty list that you'll be begging for coal in your stocking, just to prove you still exist to the rest of the world. Some last thoughts. No one is as funny as they think they are — even us. Humour is actually very hard. That is why true comedians are incredibly smart. You can swing for the humour fences if you choose to, but you may strike out. Pretend your mother is reading everything you send — and don't write anything that will make her give you that disappointed face. Weekday Evenings Today's must-read stories and a roundup of the day's headlines, delivered every evening. You know the one. And short and to the point will always be better. Did we mention how delighted we are to hear from you? We are. Truth is, slaving down here in the opinion mines, we couldn't do it without you.
Winnipeg Free Press
26-05-2025
- Winnipeg Free Press
Letters, May 26
Opinion Outdated services Re: When workers are only a tool for business (Think Tank, May 23). Alex Passey completely missed the requirement for a business to exist. When the product or service of a business (private or public business, including the postal service) is no longer needed, the buying public votes with their dollars. Letter delivery is rapidly decreasing (or has decreased) to the point the number of employees is no longer required on a daily basis. Parcel delivery is very competitive — both on service and price. The post office must change with the times or close completely. According to the opinion of Passey (an admitted post office union employee), the manufacturers of the horse drawn buggy used before the advent of the automobile should still be employing their people to manufacture a product that is no longer needed. Mick Bronstein Winnipeg On passivity Re: What could go wrong, did (Think Tank, May 22) Mac Horsburgh's Think Tank column about the criminal trial of five junior hockey players' on Canada's gold medal winning team outlines a hockey culture that must be changed — regardless of the outcome of the trial. The players allegedly sexually assaulted a woman after an event celebrating their victory. Some of their teammates were present at times but weren't charged. Apparently they were passive observers. Mr. Horsburgh asks what is the ethos of the hockey culture: 'Is it to do right or to maintain the code of silence?' The passive observers who don't testify or who 'can't remember' what happened have made their choice. Contrast their conduct with that of another Canadian. On April 29 at a Filipino street festival in Vancouver, a man drove his SUV through the crowd killing 11 people and injuring many more. Some in the crowd tried to attack the perpetrator. Dudley Green, a bus driver who happened to be there, intervened at great risk to himself and prevented adding another tragedy to the one that had just occurred. Green demonstrated courage in the face of the extreme (albeit understandable) anger of crowd members. Courage is characterized by bravery but most importantly, it arises from taking on a risk because of a concern for others. Mr. Green demonstrated concern for the well-being of the SUV driver. But he also demonstrated concern for crowd members who might otherwise have committed a crime they would likely regret later. Where was the courage of the passive observers in the hockey players' case? Where was their concern for the woman? Or for their teammates hoping to have an NHL career? They knew or ought to have known that what was happening could go very wrong and spoken up. Green said his mother's advice to him is that everybody has the ability to do the right thing at the right time. It's their choice whether or not to do it. Green made the right choice. He is a true hero and role model and his conduct should be celebrated. People like Green make Canada a better place. The passive observers who made the wrong choice will have to live with the shame and regret. Robert Pruden Winnipeg Don't go under the dome Re: Trump wants weapons in space (May 21) The US$175-billion Golden Dome; such projects always costs several times more, and, as Raygun Reagan found with his Strategic Defence Initiative/SDI/Star Wars program, don't work. A missile shield that we Canadians are supposed to pay to hide under too, with the only country that has threatened to invade us? What's wrong with this picture? U.S. President Donald Trump won't fund education, universal health care, research, infrastructure and protecting the environment that we all depend on. But he can squander trillions of dollars on tax cuts for the obscenely wealthy and the military and a permeable wall from the Pacific to the Gulf of America (sic and sick) and a Golden Dome, yet we who are not supposed to be buying American are suddenly able to afford the price of admission to this big top? Perhaps first and foremost, and for free, we should read Annie Jacobsen's Nuclear War: a Scenario and John Vaillant's Fire Weather from the public library before following a certifiable madman down this latest rabbit hole of his early morning ramblings. Will the International Criminal Court take on this latest threat to world peace? Or are we all as mad as he is? Andy Maxwell Winnipeg Weapons in space are likely to be used, humans always use the weapons they create. The U.S., Russia, China and India are known to have researched and even tested anti-satellite weapons. The consequence of a war in space would likely result in the Kessler syndrome becoming a fact. This prediction by Donald J. Kessler and Burton Cour-Palais, who first proposed it in 1978, would see so much space junk in orbit that future space exploration or even the launch of new satellites would be impossible. There are currently between 11,000 and 14,000 satellites in orbit. And many more are planned for the near future. If a cascade of debris starts, the collateral damage would result in an inexhaustible blanket of projectiles in near-Earth orbit. Humankind would be locked out of space for many generations to come. But this likelihood undoubtedly counts for little in the mind of an orange-faced politician. Hopefully it's just another of his unrealistic ideas. Richard Lockhart Winnipeg The more things change Re: 'No need for cruel approach' (Letters, May 21) In her letter to the editor, Danae Tonge mentioned fertility control as a method for dealing with animals the city considers pests. It reminded me that in 1988, while touring Paris as a student, a guide told me that the city regularly spreads birth-control-infused feed at high-traffic pigeon areas. One year later, walking into the University of Winnipeg, I saw a group of concerned people gathered around a pigeon flapping on the parking lot pavement in obvious pain and distress. I located a box, captured it, and called the humane society. When they picked up the pigeon, which would be euthanized, they said it had likely been poisoned by the city. Flash forward 36 years, and, while countless other cities now use long-available humane solutions, Winnipeg is firmly lodged in the Neanderthal phase of its evolution. It would appear that no one with any power at city hall in the intervening decades has had the courage and empathy to help our city evolve into humanity and exist in harmony with other animals. It's an embarrassment. Cheryl Moore Winnipeg Don't neglect potholes I sure hope city council doesn't think that all the city's pot holes are fixed because they are not. Wherever I drive in Winnipeg, I am still dodging and hitting pot holes. Just where are the city's pot hole-filling staff? When the weather is dry and hot and the pot holes are dry and not filled with water, city pot hole crews should be filling these holes in the pavement with a vengeance until they are all filled in. Robert J. Moskal Winnipeg
The Herald
21-05-2025
- Business
- The Herald
Diversification the way to go in a changing world
Change is inevitable — what matters is how we anticipate and respond to it. By planning for change, we can find opportunities for growth and evolution and build adaptability and resilience. It is common cause that the world is facing increasingly rapid change across a wide and complex span of issues. Most recently, global tariff wars and upheavals in economic and geopolitical relationships have been layered onto the impacts of climate change and technology advancement and automation on economies and societies. This all ripples into our local manufacturing- and exports-driven economy and its employment capacity, in turn affecting the tourism, hospitality, retail and services sectors. We have also long known that our local economy is over-reliant on the automotive industry, now facing unprecedented challenges due to the shift to new energy vehicles in key export markets and the impact of cheaper imports into the local market. Diversifying the local economy in the face of change is increasingly urgent, not only for retention of existing investments and employment, but also to attract new investments in future-orientated sectors which build on our existing strengths in manufacturing, technology and agro-processing, and create new jobs along a localised value chain. The NMB Business Chamber set up the Local Economy Reinvention Think Tank about two years ago to respond to that challenge, to look forward into a changing world and identify opportunities to build a diversified, sustainable manufacturing and exports hub for the continent. We brought together some of the Bay's leading innovative thinkers, challenging them to think out of the box on what the economy of the future could look like and map the path to adapting our current strengths into new areas of economic activity. Shifting to a low-carbon economy is a priority, while it is also critical that identified projects must be scalable and self-sustaining, able to stand up as viable business cases. It is also crucial not only to create new jobs but to grow a pool of 'future fit' skills in the metro. Think Tank workstreams are investigating local economic opportunities linked to the planned Hive Hydrogen green ammonia plant at Coega; and fuel cell technology and manufacturing, alternative mobility solutions and new energy vehicle technology, adaptation of manufacturing activities to reduce carbon footprints (and local development of the technology to do so). Several of these prospects have now moved from the brainstorming stage into technical scoping and feasibility assessments captured into 'white papers' outlining the strategic, operational and financial model of a specific project and its forecast economic and social impacts. We have taken a value chain approach that aims not only to diversify local manufacturing, but to stimulate up- and downstream linkages that support local participation by both small and large businesses at various points in the supply chain. For example, our white paper on a proposed industrial hemp project — based on this crop's existing viability in the Eastern Cape, but hampered by quality and consistency of supply — starts with integrating small-scale farming and commercial agriculture enterprises into a value chain of agro-processing, manufacturing and end-user supply. The project scope encompasses training and ongoing mentoring to enable farmers to meet quality and volume requirements of the agro-processors they will supply. This 'link' in the value chain is intended to empower rural communities around the Bay and create jobs in those areas. It also links into local opportunities for SMMEs to manufacture products and supply services to support the agricultural element. A further link is into the logistics, storage and transport of the raw product, then into a local agri-processing plant, and onward into supplying national and global hemp value chains to meet the demand for renewable and low-carbon materials in diverse sectors. The automotive manufacturing sector is a key target, for sound-deadening and insulation components from renewable sources. Further hemp value chains include manufacturing of biofuels, biodegradable plastics and textiles, hemp seed oils, biomass for energy generation, carbon credit trading and battery chemicals and components. Each of these holds potential for a local business or incoming investor to capitalise on the opportunity and enter the value chain at a point aligned to their existing business or to diversify their operations. Pre-feasibility assessments are also under way on local manufacturing and installation of solar geysers and small-scale hydrogen generation and storage for cleaner, greener residential energy, as well as a project for carbon dioxide capture and electrochemical conversion, to 'green' the industrial energy supply. The Think Tank will release these white papers into the public domain, detailing the feasibility and the logistics of implementing these concepts, for consideration by entrepreneurs, investors, green venture capitalists and government. The benefit is that we have done the groundwork, and we may have insights and information which others don't have, but we are not saying we are 100% correct. We want to stimulate thinking, provide a spark for bigger ideas and collaborations to evolve; for interested parties to take them up, run with them, expand on them and turn them into profitable enterprises. Watch this space. Kelvin Naidoo is m anufacturing and technical director of Auto-X and a cting president of the Nelson Mandela Bay Business Chamber. The Herald
