Safety delayed

The opinion piece Putting the cart before the planning horse” (Think Tank, March 18) is an excellent case study on the bumpy ride of a project designed to protect all citizens regardless of their modes of transport. Despite the best professional advice of Winnipeg’s public service, politicians have again put the proverbial stick in the spokes of the Wellington Crescent bike lane pilot project, sending it crashing to the curb.

Public calls for a safer Wellington date back about two decades, many referring to the city’s own policy documents and neighbourhood plans that cite a better walk/bike environment as a critical component of a vibrant Osborne Village. I frequently use Wellington by car, on foot and, until a transit bus driver imprudently changed lanes and nearly hit me, on my bike.

Ironically, the same day the above-mentioned op-ed appeared, a serious two-vehicle collision occurred at the intersection with Gertrude Avenue. This is where one of the pilot project’s key safety interventions, the closure of a dangerously angled slip lane, would have been in place had the project been implemented as planned last summer.

Your choice…

After reading your piece on March 10 (Two-thirds of Manitobans using AI, but a lot aren’t happy about it, survey reveals), I am a little confused.

Are people aware that use of ChatGPT and other generative AI to replace search engines is not (yet) mandatory?

In other words, if you are aware of how untrustworthy this technology is, how much damage it does to the environment, how it is sucking up all our resources and making RAM unaffordable, how it harms working people in the Global South and vulnerable people everywhere, and how it is being used by authoritarians to create a public that does not know how to think critically … you know, you can just stop using it.

Chaos in the Middle East

Once again the Middle East is descending into widespread violence. At these times, it is hard not to reflect on what might have been.

In 1953 the CIA orchestrated the overthrow of Mohammad Mossadegh, the elected Prime Minister of Iran. His efforts to exert control over the Iranian oil industry had angered a British oil company. Someone in Washington whispered “communist” and the rest was history.

Mossadegh went to prison. Iran ended up with the dictatorship of the pro-Western shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, for 26 years. He would be overthrown in 1979, but dictators are seldom defeated by Sunday school teachers. What emerged was just a more ruthless dictatorship.

Don’t pursue data centres

Re: Data centres and Manitoba: a cautionary tale (Feb. 27)

Joel Trenaman hit the nail on the head with this critique of AI data centres.

It’s still unclear how serious the proposal by Consensus Core and Jet.AI to build a gigantic data centre in the RM of Ritchot actually is; the latter is a penny stock company purporting to specialize in “private jet charter artificial intelligence” (and also happens to have two former senior pilots for the Israeli Air Force on its board). But they are certainly lobbying the provincial government heavily to try to make it happen.

Questionable adviceRe: City report recommends reducing residential speed limit to 40 km/h (Feb. 25)

Although I may agree that a reduced speed limit on side streets in residential neighborhoods to 40 km/h would be appropriate, I question Jino Distasio’s conclusion that the average speed driven on residential streets is 36 km/h telling us the speed limit is too high.

He is apparently an expert in urban studies, but he certainly isn’t an expert in mathematics. If you leave one end of your street from a dead stop and get up to 50 km/h at some point and then come to a dead stop at the end of your street at the stop sign, your average speed will certainly be less than 50km/ h.

I hope our city council isn’t relying on this expert’s advice and can see through the errors in the conclusion, but I’m not holding out hope.

Cleaning up transit

I am a senior, don’t drive and always ride the bus. Now I hardly go out.

They used to say, leave your car at home and take the bus. Now, people who don’t have a car and take the bus to work aren’t getting there on time. Now they say they need to buy a car to get to work. It doesn’t make sense.

I think the people involved who destroyed our transit service need to look in the mirror and admit to themselves — not once, but twice — that they have made a big mistake.

Canadian values

Re: Canada at the centre of Olympic curling controversy (Feb. 15)

Well, this is embarrassing. The International Olympic Committee’s mission is to “unite the world in peaceful competition and foster an atmosphere of peace … tolerance and understanding.” How is Canada doing so far?

Well we have curler Mark Kennedy’s overly aggressive, profane response when challenged by the Swedish opponents for making an illegal throw. Kennedy, while protesting his innocence, attacks the Swedes by stating that “they’ve come up with a plan to catch teams in the act” and “he might have been upset that he was losing.”

The good ones

Re: The quiet, sustaining architecture of volunteer leadership (Think Tank, Feb. 19)

I was struck by the stark contrast Borys’s opinion piece conjured up in my mind. The chaos and self-aggrandizement evident in other news often simmers in my head but was soothed by this reminder of the many good people doing good work. In Winnipeg, across the province, country and the world people young and old, rich and poor are finding ways to sustain our community, our institutions and our ability to withstand whatever comes next.

In the past month, my grandson’s hockey coaches have taught sportsmanship. Music teachers have celebrated progress. The Winnipeg Model United Nations young leaders are building expertise and community. The University Women’s Club is providing a forum for intellectual discourse. New Yazidi refugees are coaching futsal teams. Our cultural institutions like RMTC and WECC are providing ways for us to celebrate each other and recognize and nurture talent.

Public inquiry gailing

Re: Developer ‘aggressively’ pursued HQ contract (Feb. 20)

As I read the coverage on the public inquiry regarding the police headquarters project, I am increasingly concerned that the inquiry will not achieve its stated objective. The goal is to determine what went wrong, which processes failed, why the project went so far over budget and what should be done to prevent this from happening again.

We have heard a lot over the years, and again so far during this inquiry, about former Winnipeg CAO Phil Sheegl’s and former mayor Sam Katz’s potential misconduct. While that may explain why Caspian Construction was able to get on to the bidders list, it does not explain how they became the successful bidder. The mayor and CAO do not make the final decision on who wins the contract.

Make room for camp

Re: New homes, businesses and parks anchor plan for revitalized Point Douglas (Feb. 19)

The planned redevelopment of Point Douglas should include as many campsites as practical to accommodate the hundreds of citizens who have no homes nor the means to acquire one.

You can see in Thursday’s Free Press that the southeast corner of Point Douglas is completely empty, so why not establish a temporary riverside campsite acreage here? It can be converted into the planned national park further in the future when homelessness has hopefully been dealt with.

Canada’s responsibility

Re: With new American pressure, will Cuba fall? (Think Tank, Feb. 18); Cubans caught in humanitarian crisis (Feb. 18)

Wednesday’s paper had two quite different articles about Cuba, due to one being written by a Canadian professor (Peter McKenna) and the other being a Miami Herald article.

The Canadian article describes Cuba’s outstanding success in overcoming decades of American embargo and asserts that Trump would not likely run the risk of “overextending U.S. naval assets” if he initiates another act of violation of international law. Despite this he also concludes that “oil-rich Canada, especially under the leadership of Prime Minister Mark Carney, is not going to come to Cuba’s rescue.” Leaving me to ask: if not us, who? We do have the oil and a law — the Foreign Extraterritorial Measures Act — which was specifically passed in response to the U.S. embargo on Cuba, and which protects Canadian companies who defy the blockade.

City must reject bylaw

Re: “Bylaw goes too far” (Letters, Feb. 12)

Kudos to Mr. Kohan for his convincing letter in opposition to the City of Winnipeg’s proposed “Safe Access to Vulnerable Infrastructure” bylaw.

As president of the Green Party of Manitoba, having read the draft bylaw multiple times, I’m horrified by the precedent and affront to democracy this bylaw represents. Pure and simple, this is a broad suppression of our collective right to dissent and civic engagement.

Time and emotion

Re: Keeping public in dark about patient deaths erodes trust (Feb. 5); A curator’s dilemma: art, power, and the limits of neutrality (Think Tank, Feb. 5)

In medical postgraduate surgical training, error is adjudicated in forums such as “morbidity and morality rounds,” as emanating from the realms of diagnosis, technique, judgment, and intra-operative and post-operative management.

Dismissing or minimizing a client’s, or their proxy’s, genuine complaint would be a judgment error while an overly prolonged wait for assessment would be a management error.

Cheap solutions

Re: Hydro eyes incentives to reduce power usage as shortage looms (Feb. 4)

Hydro quietly released its 10-year plan. Perhaps the release was low-key because neither Hydro nor the Manitoba government are proud of the choices they are making.

Hydro’s website leads with talk of net zero and shifting away from fossil fuels, accompanied by pictures of windmills and electric vehicles, but the bottom line is “Manitoba needs new, dependable energy sources as early as 2029 to meet increasing demand.”

Care while aging

Re: Pair of St. B ER deaths probed (Feb. 3)

Early into the article about Judy Burns, 68, who died three days after being admitted, are some words which can’t be ignored, particularly if you are elderly. Those words are, “age-based dismissal.”

Would our health-care system actually ignore someone based on their age? As someone who will turn 80 this year (and is healthy), I say “yes” to the question.