Amazing performance
Dear Editor:
An open letter to the Norwell District Secondary School students and staff connected to the Disney’ Beauty and the Beast production.
I am sending sincere congratulations and appreciation for the amazing performance.
Everything from set design, scene changes to costuming and choreography showed a connection to detail you might expect in a professional production.
I have not even touched upon the wonderful talent that graced the stage at Norwell, from the students in the ensemble, to those playing lead roles.
The obvious hours of work, combined with amazing talent, made this performance unforgettable. I sincerely hope you are all as proud of yourselves, as your community is of you.
Iris Richardson,
Minto
‘Depleting farmland’
Dear Editor:
There is a saying: “if you have eaten today, thank a farmer.”
We have always protected farmland and our ability to grow food for our communities. Always.
The new proposals by the Ontario government are a threat to this very basic human need, our ability to grow food, and to raise animals for our food source.
I know we need housing, I get it. But depleting our farmland is not a viable answer.
The Ontario government needs to consult with our municipal governments and our farm groups; they will have the proper guidance on how to best proceed.
We need to be responsible for ourselves. Has COVID taught us nothing? Showing us how quickly our world can change.
We need to have land to grow our food. This truly is so basic.
If three, one-acre lots were severed from each farm in our surrounding area, we would lose 27,478 acres of fertile ground that grows everything from lettuce to grain to soy beans.
This could mean you would possibly have 82,000 homes locally on prime agriculture land – land that will no longer provide food for us and to raise our animals.
Once the province embarks on such a scary and dangerous direction, it can not be reversed. Think about it. This action can not be reversed.
The province has granted themselves powers that have never existed, to bypass working with council and local agriculture groups.
This is bad legislation and needs to be revisited.
Brenda Chamberlain,
Elora
Mind boggling
Dear Editor:
Farmers are up in arms about the development of prime farmland, and so should they and all of us.
However, it seems to me that no matter what the Conservatives do to screw rural people, they continue to vote Conservative.
Boggles the mind, doesn’t it?
Debbie Berg,
Acton
Mailbox changes
Dear Editor:
I would like to better understand why we are spending our tax dollars on new mailboxes while the existing ones function completely to what seems to be everyone’s satisfaction.
I’ve been led to believe that our prime minister is in support of reducing deforestation and in support of action on climate change. Would less letters, bills and advertisements be included in this program and e-billing and advertisement through electronic media be part of this equation?
Mining bauxite and producing aluminum using massive amounts of power?
If so, why do we need new mailboxes, and a cost that I would be very interested to know, while the current mailboxes seem to be operating quite fine while they sit there quietly, don’t bother anyone, and don’t require any food or drink?
However, after reading the document that was included with my new very smart looking polished keys, I now see the reasoning.
Selling points included with the keys:
– wide individual compartments (to accommodate the larger letters, magazines and advertisements using more pulp versus electronic media which they themselves encourage for any federal payments such as taxes, pensions, etc.);
– heavy-duty locks (I can’t count on one hand ever seeing a mailbox broken into, or a mailbox at someone’s house not locked ever being broken into. I heard it’s a federal offence and serious jail time is involved?);
– large parcel compartments (the majority of parcels are sent to peoples homes through Amazon);
– high-grade aluminum construction (that one almost got me, but I understand now since the old ones were falling apart?);
– outgoing mail slot (perhaps could have transferred the old to the new mailboxes and saved the 5-inch opening. You know how much aluminum production that would have saved?);
– designed for superior security and safety (I think we covered that one); and
– a sturdy base (I should have waited to the end so I could get the whole story).
Now I get it!
Brian Mackay,
Fergus
Reefer madness?
Dear Editor:
At one point in history, the ruling authority made cannabis illegal. Up until recently, it remained illegal. The dangers and health risks are still as relevant today as they were when it was declared illegal.
Unfortunately for us un-evolved humans, those dangers and risks continue to be detrimental to persons using, those whom come in contact with those using, and those attempting to assist those seeking treatment in health care facilities.
Sure, our law enforcement are not having to arrest and convict in our courts violators now that it’s legal to a degree, but people really don’t want this problem in their communities or backyards.
Of course, those whom don’t want to do the time come out and cry to politicians that they need it legal and readily available. No one wants to have cravings and no “fix”.
Believe me. You don’t want to stop using cannabis and experience the withdrawals in today’s overburdened health care system. Although the “hell on Earth” symptoms are gradually eased when you eventually receive treatment, the dividends are “what dreams are made of.”
So, Centre Wellington council, the answer to retail cannabis is “still no.” The research has been done for years. Just accept it as the reality and not fake news! Certainly there is money to be made, but it shouldn’t come at the expense of peoples health and safety.
Karl Demmans,
Mount Forest
We need inquiry now
Dear Editor:
The NDP are not serving Canadians properly by not forcing the Liberals to have a full Inquiry into Chinese interference in Canada and the Chinese police stations.
The excuse is the NDP policy on daycare and dental plans, but we need our country under good government to have daycare and dental plans even function. We need to let the leader of the NDP know we are not happy with his inaction.
The Liberal government could be brought down and forced out with the NDP support and Jagmeet Singh is not doing this. I see this as not standing up for all Canadians and our freedoms. The coalition between the NDP and Liberals is damaging to our nation.
I think it is time that more emphasis was placed on educating our youth and nation on socialism and communism.
I listened to a 38-year-old woman who is running for leadership in Guatemala. She knows what it is like to like in a socialist country and have it turn to full control quickly. As a matter of fact, because she is 38 and not 40 years old, they are trying to eliminate her from running in the election. She is very brave.
Many of our young people have no idea what happened to the Jewish people, how their homes were taken over, everything they had, and they were forced into concentration camps and thousands murdered under a communism regime.
We have freedom in our land today but we won’t tomorrow if we don’t stand together and value what we have and help one another provincially as a nation.
We need to let NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh know we are not satisfied with his weak response to a big attack on our democracy and freedom. We need an inquiry into the Chinese interference now.
Carolann Krusky,
Fergus
‘Stop this madness’
Dear Editor:
Ontario Premier Doug Ford and his wealthy supporters have been pushing hard to profit from our supposedly-public health care system, just as Mike Harris did the last time the PCs were in power in Ontario.
Their goal is take their profit from money that should be going into patient care, not into shareholders’ dividends. Harris himself profits handsomely from his directorships on for-profit long-term care homes.
When emergency room wait times stretch to 10 to 20 hours for attention from a doctor, as happens frequently at Guelph General Hospital, it hurts everyone: the patient, the family and the medical staff.
Mr. Ford and his party have reduced our public health system’s ability to function to the point where it has broken down so badly that they think they can invite their wealthy investors in to feed off the carcass with impunity.
Our hospital CEOs, with the support of our heroic medical staff and ordinary people, must push back against this dismantling of our public system.
Our hospitals should be funded for re-tooling too, in order to provide the “efficiencies” that Ford is saying privatization will give us. Unfortunately, the taxpayers funds that could do that will end up in the hands of wealthy private investors.
Stop this madness before it is too late to save the patient, our public health care system.
Joan Hug-Valeriote,
Guelph
‘Unconscionable’
Dear Editor:
As someone living with a disability and two children, I find it unconscionable that the Ontario government has decided to put profit above the health needs and care of the population.
One decision after the next, Premier Doug Ford and the Conservatives have blatantly put profit and greed over the needs of the citizens of Ontario. The Greenbelt, our public education, long-term care facilities, our seniors, Ontario Place, The Science Centre … his decisions have been nefarious and all will have lasting implications.
And now his actions toward our public health care with Bill 60 and his attitude toward frontline staff like nurses will have irreparable consequences. The most vulnerable in our society will once again be the target for these decisions.
We cannot trust one word out of Ford’s mouth. Promises made, promises broken. He has inundated the province with so many bad decisions, people have felt bombarded and lost.
I will fight this decision with everything I have. My life will depend on it.
Julie McCann,
Guelph
Profit over patients
Dear Editor:
During COVID, for-profit long-term care homes had far more deaths than did public homes.
For-profit health care providers prioritize profit over patient care. This is why we must not allow the Ontario government to privatize any more of our health care system.
Therefore, I’m calling on the CEO of Guelph General Hospital to publicly speak out against Doug Ford’s privatization plans and call for him to reinvest in our public health care system.
Garry Hunter,
Guelph
‘Appalling’ conditions
Dear Editor:
RE: Cemetery condition, June 1.
I would like to add my thoughts to the letter from Libby Darroch about the condition of Belsyde Cemetery in Fergus.
Last summer I walked through the cemetery. The condition was appalling. Along the fence there are dug-up graves, holes into them and the head stones all over the place, fallen down or a hole pushed it to the side. This is the fence that backs unto the houses along Union Street. The holes are from animals because you can see the piles of earth from their digging.
I wrote a letter to Centre Wellington asking for them to tidy the whole cemetery as it needs work. I hope Libby’s letter works.
Lucy Dyment,
Fergus
Flag ‘procedure’
Dear Editor:
I was out for a walk recently and noticed an additional flag on the flag pole in front of Arthur Public School.
Our flag is our national symbol and must be flown on a flag pole by itself. No other flag can be flown on the same pole.
As a government institution, I would expect that proper procedure regarding the flag would be adhered to (www.canada.ca/en/canadian-heritage/services/flag-canada-etiquette/flying-rules.html).
I have absolutely no issue with the flag you are currently flying below our country’s great flag. You need to put up a separate pole.
Please give our flag the respect it deserves. A lot of great men and women sacrificed their lives for this country.
Brent McKee,
Arthur
*Editor’s note: “The National Flag of Canada etiquette” webpage of the federal government specifically states: “The rules applied by the federal government are in no way mandatory for individuals or organizations; they may serve as guidelines for all persons who wish to display the national flag of Canada and other flags in Canada.”
Ford ‘must be stopped’
Dear Editor:
An open letter to Wellington-Halton Hills MPP Ted Arnott.
I have always believed you to be a good, intelligent man. But Doug Ford is your leader and he must be stopped. He cannot allow farmland acreage to be severed into four lots with houses on each one so that the best farmland in Ontario is used as private parkland for the few who could afford food at any cost because if you can afford to live on an estate lot, which these are; you are not bothered by the cost of food.
And food costs will definitely rise higher and higher if we have begun to build estate homes on acreages where food should be grown, because there will be a shortage of food, especially for the poor.
Please try and stop this insanity.
Christy Doraty,
Fergus