Letters, May 19

On personal accountability

Re: “How we got here” (Letters, May 14)

Like James Paskaruk, I am a “Gen-X kid.” Like him, I grew up in the 1970s riding my bike everywhere, and not seeing the issues that we see in Winnipeg today. However, despite this common background, we have very different views of the reasons for these problems.

Mr. Paskaruk seems to pin the blame on an increase in capitalism since our childhood, as though somehow the ongoing quest for a more economically prosperous life is the source of societal decline. However, if we look at the reality of how Winnipeg (and Canada) evolved since the 1970s, and what has changed in that time, it paints a very different picture.

The main changes in the ensuing half-century, which influenced crime and related issues, were not an increase in “fetishizing the profit-seeker” (to use the author’s words). The main changes were the removal of personal responsibility as a basic expectation of ourselves and our fellow citizens, and the associated insertion of numerous excuses baked into the criminal justice system.

Now, the mantra is that the blame must lie elsewhere — it is always due to some externality or societal influence. People have heard repeatedly that the challenges they face are not theirs to solve, nor should they take responsibility for their own negative actions.

We have created an entire mindset in which some larger villain or externality must be to blame. Criminals, including violent criminals and drug dealers, are given light sentences — and treated, both during sentencing and after release, as though they themselves are victims. It is this, not the desire for increased economic prosperity, that has led to many of the difficulties facing the city and province today.

Steve Teller

Winnipeg

Time to listen

Re: The House Speaker, heckling and ‘banned’ words (Think Tank, May 14)

I was going to leave this one alone, until I read Paul Thomas’s article. He concludes that there has to be more respect for the role of the Speaker. Really? It was about the Speaker all along, and here I thought it was about racism, sexism and transphobia!

In this province, with the highest percentage of First Nations and Métis people in Canada, with the highest percentage of BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and people of colour) MLAs in the NDP, and contrasting with the mostly white, privileged people in the PC party, with the ongoing harassment of ministers Nahanni Fontaine and Uzoma Asagwara, with the targeting of Premier Wab Kinew with racist stereotypes, this issue is not going away.

We try to teach our children to call out racism, misogyny and transphobia. We tell them that it’s important to name what they are hearing, seeing, living with. Now we are telling them it’s more important not to name those things, to let things slide, or just to ignore it. Wrong.

This matter is not about the position of the Speaker, which Thomas suggests it is. It is about white people being racist towards Indigenous people and then telling Indigenous people they can’t say it’s racist. Kinew is right when he says it is up to non-BIPOC people to listen to BIPOC people, not to correct them. Most of us have taken some kind of sensitivity training where we are told to walk a mile in another person’s shoes. Can most of the straight people actually imagine what it is like to be trans or genderfluid, much less walk a mile in their shoes?

It’s time to let the white people listen. Not to tell the BIPOC people to be quiet or be polite. Enough of Miss Manners already.

Gloria Enns

Winnipeg

Pipes waste of funds

Re: Meth pipes in high demand (May 8)

Why are we handing out meth pipes? What are we afraid of being spread … cooties? Lipstick? Needle exchange and free hypodermic needle programs at least help (somewhat) prevent HIV/Hepatitis C, and other bloodborne illnesses. And even that, with the recent report that Manitoba’s HIV rates are the highest in the country, is becoming perhaps more theoretical than actual.

I would like to see any information showing what the benefit to the taxpayer is for free meth pipes. If you ask anyone objectively if handing out free meth pipes is promoting or deterring drug use, I cannot see any other answer than promoting it. We’ve gone way too far in accepting drug use as normal. And now it seems like we are just promoting it. Please stop spending my tax dollars on these initiatives.

But I did enjoy the subtle pun in the title!

Willson Caetano

Winnipeg

Winnipeg’s crisis

Re: Manitoba declares public health emergency over HIV rising rates (May 7)

I care deeply for Point Douglas. For years I have watched the addictions crisis on these streets, and watched the province point to declining overdose deaths as proof its response is working.

The chief public health officer has declared an HIV emergency — 70 per cent of new transmissions tied to injection drug use, a rate 3.5 times the national average, with Indigenous people most affected.

Our crisis is not ending like they want us to believe. It changed form.

The province’s most recent audit of addictions services found that RAAM clinics turned away 1,218 of 2,560 people who asked for help. Almost half. Manitoba’s only medical detox has 11 beds. The supervised consumption site promised in 2023 still does not exist; the Disraeli Freeway location was withdrawn last September.

These are not separate problems. They are one crisis being managed by seven separate departments, and the people living it pay the price across all of them. In Point Douglas South, men live to 69. In Inkster west, men live to 87. Eighteen years, in the same city!

The HIV emergency should be the moment the province stops splitting this crisis into departments and starts responding to what is actually happening. If the rate is 3.5 times the national average, federal support should match. If the auditor general says treatment capacity is overwhelmed, the next budget should fix it.

Don’t celebrate one number falling while another doubles.

Hersh Seth

Winnipeg

Who has the cards now?

Re: Sweden, Ukrainian drone pilots and a warning to NATO (May 13), and Drone deal for Canada: Zelenskyy (May 13)

After reading those two articles in the Free Press, and both appeared coincidently, it is telling the world that Ukraine is becoming an international leader in the production and use of drones.

Lately, Sweden was involved in a war-game scenario, the focus of which was to gain strategic knowledge, how to protect the island of Gotland, located in the Baltic Sea by Kaliningrad (where Russia has stationed missiles).

This war-game scenario was a tremendous success, engaging NATO members and Ukraine. What Ukraine provided to the participating countries was total advice on drone warfare.

The other article closer to home, discussed how Ukraine is preparing a military drone deal with Canada in conjunction with 20 other countries in advancing drone technology.

Now, who has the cards? Last year, U.S. President Donald Trump told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy “you don’t have the cards,” informing the delegation that Ukraine is not in a good position to dictate without U.S. support in the war against Russia.

Since the invasion of Ukraine, Russia has not made significant gains in the war, lost thousands of army personnel, encountered destroyed military equipment and had large numbers of their fuel depots destroyed.

Ukrainian drones have made the difference.

Peter John Manastyrsky

Niverville