Vets should have equal coverage

I am a veteran of the Canadian navy and can’t believe that Pharmacare is denying prescriptions for veterans to stop smoking.

Are they not aware that veterans of the Canadian Forces pay Medical Services Plan premiums like every resident of British Columbia and therefore are entitled to the same services as civilians?

British Columbians pay the highest medical premiums in Canada so what’s the problem with distinguishing between civilian and retired military personnel?

Alex Badiuk

Saanich

Sinister force behind garbage control

Re: “Victoria mayor willing to backtrack on switch to curbside garbage pickup,” Feb. 9.

Silly me. All this time I was convinced that some sinister force (Hells Angels, Sopranos, Dog People) has their sweaty clutches around the necks of our local politicians. And all along, it’s been the unions.

Talk about hiding in plain sight. I’m so embarrassed.

But wait a minute, the mafia is all about garbage control so maybe I wasn’t so far off the mark.

Joseph Jubb

Victoria

‘Peasant’ remark insults taxpayers

Re: “Victoria mayor willing to backtrack on switch to curbside garbage pickup,” Feb. 9.

Merriam-Webster defines a peasant as an “usually uneducated person of low social status.” I was appalled at CUPE 50 president John Burrows’ quote referring to the taxpayers of Victoria as peasants.

I doubt that those who work as public servants for the City of Victoria share his sentiments. It shows contempt for the taxpayers who pay the wages of those who, in turn, pay his salary.

Wayne Carlow

Victoria

Harper performing ‘pandamonium’

I have to laugh at the giant panda “loan” from the Chinese via Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

First, shipping pandas out of their natural habitat to a zoo halfway around the world is just plain stupid. Optics, and nothing more.

This PM just doesn’t get it. He’s all about “panda diplomacy” while the petroleum executives traveling with him are all about shipping Alberta heavy crude oil via the proposed Enbridge pipeline through B.C. and loaded onto supertankers in some of the most difficult navigation waterways in the world for ships of that size. It’s all photo ops while the dirty business happens behind the bamboo curtain, expertly choreographed.

How about the thinking that the Chinese use vast amounts of oil for their military, which is growing at an alarming pace? Militarily, they are our adversaries. And now we’re signing accords to ship them even more uranium for civilian nuclear power generation. Where have we heard that before? This is madness.

The only thing the PM is actually good at lately, is creating “pandamonium.” His previous hidden agenda becomes clearer with each announcement he makes.

The only real “radical” in Canada is Stephen Harper.

Rob Delaney

Victoria

NDP didn’t support electoral reform

Re: “ Liberals should have made electoral change,” Feb. 10.

The letter suggests B.C. Liberals should have changed the voting system in 2005 when they had the chance, to avoid the spectre of fewer seats after the next election than the proportion of votes they get suggests they should have.

Of course, the B.C. NDP have themselves had fewer seats than their proportion of votes suggested they should have, but learned nothing from it. They refused to support the last referendum on electoral reform. In fact, they advised their members to vote against it.

One begins to wonder if there is such a thing as a politician with brains.

Philip Symons

Oak Bay

Consider future of church property

The sale to a developer, set to close April 1, of St. Alban’s Church and church hall in Oaklands, designated surplus property by the Anglican Diocese of British Columbia, raises important questions for Victoria residents about property owned by religious institutions.

Is it right that the diocesan council may sell both church and hall, even though the hall, long rented to such groups as a pre-school and a children’s dance class, is central to community life in Oaklands? Or that Victoria city council should choose development over acquiring this largely green space and maintaining the hall and the public services it has provided? Will the city save the sequoia beside the church, probably the oldest planted tree in Oaklands, from the bulldozer?

Generations of children from all over greater Victoria, including significant numbers in recent years, have taken part in activities in the church hall and on its surrounding property. Such activities risk being prohibitively expensive or no longer available to anyone when this unique public property is no more.

Surely such churches and church halls serve as community centres for all kinds of people. Is it appropriate that local governments invariably promote development rather than the preservation of public space? Why not involve citizens in deciding the future use of “surplus” church property in their neighbourhoods?

Does it have to be too late to do this for Oaklands?

D. Gillian Thompson

Victoria

Cedar Hill should have business plan

Having been a resident of Victoria for just under 30 years, and having spent many of those years intimately associated with the tourism industry here, I find the current predicament that Saanich finds itself in concerning the Cedar Hill Golf Course to be fascinating.

To think that a significant participant in the golfing industry, or any business for that matter, might not have a complete business plan boggles the mind. I agree with the Saanich council member whose position on the issue is to ensure that the numbers are crunched and that a proper business plan is developed before a decision is reached on the future of this enterprise.

After a cursory review of the website for the golf course, I see there is only the most fleeting reference to functions, food and beverage, or services for the group market, which range from conventions, corporate tournaments to Sunday brunch. I wonder why.

It might be interesting to note that in all my years connected to the tourism industry, I never once was called on either in person or even by phone by a person promoting the facilities. I never once saw an advertisement for the facility either.

What is the lesson here? Nothing happens until someone sells something.

D.A. Moxley

Victoria

Cedar Hill more than golf

It is disturbing to read a golfer’s economic solution to the Cedar Hill Golf Course is to create a nine-hole course and commercialize the rest. The writer can’t see the forest for the tees.

I discovered the chip trail around the golf course more than 30 years ago and jog it pretty nearly daily. Hundreds of people use the trail daily: joggers, walkers, bird watchers, children feeding the ducks, dog owners, athletes especially this time of year with the TC10K coming up.

Over the years maintenance has done a superb job with drainage and yearly applying another layer of chips. I remember when they were going to extend the housing development on the north east side. Fortunately it was shot down.

The many ponds, trees and birds make this more than a golf course; they make it a park that should be appreciated and protected.

Robert Winkenhower

Victoria

OAS a way to make ends meet

The Old Age Security program is not a golden handshake. It is a way to make ends meet.

How much of the taxpayers’ money would be saved by having the “retired” MPs collect their pensions at age 65 like the rest of us?

Time has come for the elected politicians, federal and provincial, to lead by example.

Start at the top and work your way down. That is how you gain trust and respect from all Canadians.

Monica Rogers

Victoria

No apologies needed in Pickton case

Though not surprised I was nonetheless disappointed at the recent bitter comments directed at the RCMP by some of the relatives of the victims of Robert (Willie) Pickton. The comments followed the latest apology by Assistant Commissioner Craig Callen over mistakes and other factors that unduly delayed Pickton’s arrest.

Had Pickton been arrested following the killing of his first victim, many lives would have been saved. But he became a serial killer. As is the case with every serial killer, the police can always be seen to have failed in some way.

The RCMP and the Vancouver police were not to blame for the risks these women accepted by associating with the likes of Pickton and the steady stream of unsavory others who came and went at his Coquitlam farm.

Neither can the police be faulted for the lack of co-operation by friends and associates of the victims who saw Pickton as a “good date” who would provide both money and drugs to these women.

It was not lawyers or politicians or other “experts” who solved this case. And it was not assisted in any way by the relentlessly critical media. It was solved by the police.

Meticulous, exhaustive and very professional police work was carried out by both the RCMP and the Vancouver police, work which resulted in the conviction of Canada’s most notorious serial killer.

For that the victims’ relatives should be grateful and for that neither police force need apologize.

David L. Staples

Victoria

Suicide suggestion creates ugly possibilities

This concerns Sen. Pierre-Hugues Boisvenu’s comments about prisoner suicide and the backlash.

While I agree that the tone of the criticism of Boisvenu’s comments by certain members of the NDP bordered on insensitive, and while I respect his grief, I feel compelled to point out that offering the means of suicide to prisoners opens the possibility of coerced suicide, “assisted” suicide, and the possibility of covert lynching by fellow prisoners or corrections staff.

Remember Andreas Baader, history’s most famous prison “suicide.” Despite ruling his death as suicide, the West German government never did satisfactorily explain how, in maximum security confinement, Baader came into possession of a handgun, or why the entry wound was in the back of his head, with the corresponding exit wound centered in his forehead. Seems Baader’s greatest crime was to be a double-jointed, suicidal Houdini.

Doug Prentice

Oak Bay

Let Canadian creativity shine

Re: “Super Bowl served unappetizing ads,” Feb. 7.

I couldn’t agree with the writer more. I think it’s outrageous that CTV denies us most Super Bowl ads. The fact that the network can’t even be bothered to deliver any advertising product above the norm just goes to show it does not care.

You would think with the bad publicity CTV receives, it could at least crack open the donation jar in the coffee room and allow a little Canadian creativity to shine on game day.

John Vickers

Victoria

Clawback not likely for Parliament

Where was the outrage when the pension funds of the military and civil service were raided by former prime minister Paul Martin to the tune of $33 billion?

Since there was less money in the fund, creative accounting and legalisms allowed a clawback from military pensions at age 65. It’s nice for Parliament to be able to retroactively change contracts for the pensions of others.

Any bets as to how fast they will find all sorts of reasons their pensions are not subject to the same strictures of economy?

Bill Ouellette

Courtenay

Teachers deserve adequate pay

I do not know anyone in the teaching profession, nor am I a relative of anyone who is. I am writing because there are so many lopsided comparisons available with regard to teachers’ pay scale in relation to other sectors of our society.

We must remember that teachers are the first line, after parents, in pointing the direction in life to our children. I am sure there are many of us today who can relate success in our lives to teachers who made an impression on our young minds. I can still, generations later, remember the names of the teachers who made an impact on my life.

On the other hand, how many of us can remember the names of senators, politicians, athletes and CEOs who are drawing the big dollars and obscene pensions, compared to those who have made our lives better?

Is it not time for us to look at the people who really lay a foundation for our lives and reward them accordingly?

Shirley Stirrett

Victoria

How many needed for real life sentence?

Because of the shafia case in Kingston, Ont., we now know that murdering four people in Canada nets you one 25-year jail-term, which equates to six years and three months per murder.

Therefore, since we don’t have the death penalty, how many people must one murder to receive a jail sentence of never being released?

John Kendall

Victoria