‘We all need a hero’
Dear Editor:
RE: Consultation lacking, June 3.
In response to Walter Michalcewicz’s letter, I feel that he doesn’t have respect for the one of every six Canadians that are food insecure, which could be your neighbour going hungry! I’m assuming Michalcewicz has never gone hungry.
As far as his comment of the “little food pantry” being an “eyesore,” I think beauty is in the eye of the beholder and would like to hear other people’s take on that matter as I think the “little pantries” are quite cute.
As far as the critters go, I’ve yet to see a raccoon or mouse carrying a can opener and I’m sure they are made with animals in mind.
I believe it was out of respect and kindness that people are erecting these “little pantries”.
Also I have more faith in our youth to think they are going “to throw the contents into the street”. In consideration of all the “book pantries” around I haven’t seen any books being tossed around! And what kind of neighbours do you have that their children are so willfully destructive?
I would really love to hear others’ thoughts on this matter as I would like to obtain one for my front yard and do my part to help those less fortunate.
In closing, I have great admiration for Stacey Bird by taking initiative to help out her neighbours and others in need! We all need a hero right now.
Tina Buckton,
Elora
Past and present
Dear Editor:
Dr. Cindy Blackstock, a member of the Order of Canada, has pointed out that the discovery of the graves of 215 children at the Kamloops Indian Residential School is not just about the past, it must also be about the present.
The tragic loss of the 215 children is to be mourned; grief is an appropriate and necessary response. But the harming of Indigenous children is not only a part of Canada’s past, it is part of Canada’s present. About 165,000 Indigenous children in Canada are being systematically discriminated against by the Government of Canada.
The level of support provided to Indigenous children – in education, social services, health care, etc. – is less than that provided to non-Indigenous children. The reason for the difference is that the Indigenous children are Indigenous. Nineteen times over the last five years the Government of Canada has been ordered by various courts to fix this – and the government has either ignored the rulings or launched legal challenges against the rulings.
In this moment as Canada grieves the 215 children, we as a nation and as individuals should demand that the government provide support to Indigenous children equal to the support provided to non-Indigenous children. We, as Canadians, should expect nothing less of our government.
Peter Bush,
Fergus
Why so much hate?
Dear Editor:
In the space of a week, my heart has been torn by what I hear in the news. First came the news of 215 children buried in unmarked graves in Kamloops, BC. I cannot imagine what the families of these poor kids went through, never knowing what happened to their children.
Then, we have the vehicle attack on a Muslim family in London, Ontario, in what appears to be a hate motivated crime. Then a man was sentenced to eight years in prison for killing an Indigenous woman by throwing a trailer hitch at her. Eight years! For taking the life of an innocent woman.
It’s nothing new, we hear about all the protests over the senseless death of coloured people. About all the acts of terrorism across the world. About ethnic cleansing. So much hate!
I am not perfect, I have had my prejudices over the years, much like most everyone, regardless of race, gender or religious beliefs. Hearing these news brings many emotions in me that I can’t reconcile. I just don’t understand this level of contempt and disregard for human life. What brings this level of hate in someone?
I just don’t get it. Why do we hate so much?
Mario Ross,
Ariss
Lost Souls
Dear Editor:
215 little souls, dropped from this Earth,
Dragged from their mothers arms;
Scooped into the ground,
Covered, lost, forgotten, nameless, numbered;
Quantified years later, never qualified.
What was your destiny?
How would you have shone on this lovely planet?
How many could you have guided, taught, embraced, laughed with, loved?
How many could have been forever changed by your presence?
In the deepest blackness,
Which star are you in the night sky?
Earthly nightmare revealed;
Now you can dance in your own constellation,
Guiding mere mortals to grasp the lesson of darkness,
And lift the gift of kindness back again to Gaia.
Mary Grigsby-Lehmann,
Fergus
‘Wrong direction’
Dear Editor:
RE: Do something, June 3.
I was not surprised to read Gerry Walsh’s letter, in which he blames the harvesting of BC’s old growth forests on greed. Misinformation is abundant and lack of information stops us from understanding the big picture.
Actually, it is not greed, but the Green movement and its ideology demonizing coal, which by the way, greatly advanced our civilization to where we are today. Yes coal is dirty, however scrubbers have minimized its impact on pollution. So what has the EU done to address coal, they have embraced the word ‘renewable’. Trees have been designated as renewable. Yes, you can grow another tree but how quickly?
In Germany, coal plants are being converted to burn wood pellets which are dirtier than coal and not as efficient. BC has given approval to cutting down of old growth forest so the logs can be converted to wood pellets then shipped to the EU to satisfy their virtue signalling of saving our planet.
You have to wonder why Germany needs wood pellets to generate electricity. They got spooked by the Fukushima disaster and are closing down their clean “no emissions” nuclear reactors.
My suggestion would be to use up all of the world’s coal reserves before cutting down our trees. Scotland cut down 17 million trees in order to build wind turbines in their highlands. These turbines may have a 20-year life, then what?
The Green movement has many flaws. Cutting down old growth forest in BC and old growth oak forests in North Carolina to satisfy the EU’s need to be Green is lunacy. The ball is rolling in the wrong direction. I feel hopeless to stop it.
Peter Mandic,
Fergus
Paid parking perplexing
Dear Editor:
RE: Hospital, clinic separate, June 3.
I found it troubling that the only response from my letter (Cheap shot, May 27) was to be informed that Groves Memorial Community Hospital is not involved “in any way” with the Trailside Medical Clinic and its paid parking issue.
The lady who responded was technically right, of course, but it only served to highlight the total disconnect with reality that has happened here.
It is my opinion that the new Groves hospital is involved to some extent regarding the medical laboratory, simply by long standing association. The lab occupied the old ambulance garage on the old hospital ground for at least 28 years, that I know of and shared all available free parking.
It was apparently wrongly assumed that the new hospital would somehow accommodate a similar gesture and nobody really asked about it. Again, it was assumed that fair play and logic would prevail when people donated money to “the great cause”.
Can history suddenly cease to exist? Yes, we certainly know that two plus two equals four, but we are not numbers; we are people and don’t expect to get thrown under the bus like this by other people with very short memories. A similar situation exists regarding the doctors.
We have never paid for parking in Fergus and we also expected this to continue. Is the Trailside facility so poorly financed that paid parking was required to keep it open? If so, why did the lab and doctors move there? What was wrong with the old places they used to operate from that seemed to manage without paid parking? Seriously, what is going on here?
Malcolm McCulloch,
Fergus
‘Deeply concerned’
Dear Editor:
RE: Too many ‘buts’, May 27.
Reprimanding individuals who choose to decide for themselves before vaxxing up is a typical reaction of those who believe only what is reported in our mainstream media.
In regards to vaccinations, everyone should do their own due diligence to decide which is the healthiest course of action for themselves personally, and should not feel pressured.
If someone has done their research and decided that vaccination is their healthy choice, then very good, that is the right choice for them.
But no one has the right to convince or pressure someone else to do likewise. There is no need to be concerned about anyone else; everyone is capable of making their own health-related decisions.
Unbelievably, the City of Toronto held a vaccine clinic at Nathan Phillips Square on May 23, in which they lured children ages 12 and up to get their vaccine shot, with offers of free ice cream; and no parental consent required.
This conjures up an image of a beat up van parked on a side street offering candy to children. And Mayor John Tory is the one behind the wheel. Any parent should be disgusted and deeply concerned.
Geoff Hotson,
Mount Forest
*Editor’s note: Children have control over their own healthcare decisions under Ontario’s Health Care Consent Act. It is up to health care providers to ensure they obtain informed consent prior to immunization. Anyone concerned about vaccines should contact their physician.
Fossil fuels
Dear Editor:
RE: Gotta go green, June 3.
Ron Moore listed several reasons why he believes the era of burning fossil fuels is coming to a close. I can think of at least three reasons why he might be wrong.
1. The world’s biggest carbon emitter – China – has no intention of reducing its use of fossil fuels. In 2019, 58 per cent of the country’s total energy consumption came from coal, and it continues to build coal-fired power plants at a rate that outpaces the rest of the world combined. To my knowledge, the 3rd and 4th largest carbon emitters – India and the Russian Federation – are also not willing to sacrifice their economies in order to reduce carbon emissions.
2. President Joe Biden wants to replace carbon-emitting energy sources with so-called “clean” or “green” sources like wind and solar power, and replace gas-burning vehicles with electric vehicles. If he succeeds, it will soon become apparent that huge amounts of fossil fuels will continue to be required.
According to my reading sources, producing wind turbines and solar arrays, and the batteries needed to store electricity from them for use in electric vehicles or when the wind doesn’t blow and the sun doesn’t shine, requires mining, moving, and refining vast amounts of earth – far more than required to obtain the same amount of energy from coal, oil, and natural gas. A single electric car battery weighing 1,000 pounds requires extracting and processing some 500,000 pounds of materials.
3. If with the passage of time, Americans realize that the Earth has not self-destructed, they get fed up with the high costs of unreliable “green” energy, a failing economy, the eyesores of solar and wind farms covering ever more of the landscape, landfills filled with non-recyclable wind turbine blades that have killed thousands of birds, etc.; they might be ready to elect another Trump-like president who will show some common sense. With all his faults, Trump presided over a booming economy (before COVID-19) and turned the U.S. into a net petroleum exporter, while ironically reducing the country’s carbon emissions.
Henry Brunsveld,
Puslinch
*Editor’s note: The U.S.’s status as a net-petroleum exporter is widely attributed to the lifting of restrictions on oil exports, which occurred while Barack Obama was president.