Re: “First Nation to take water complaint to United Nations,” Oct. 6.
Speaking of people who don’t get it. Clean water, that is.
I might have lived a more-sheltered-than-some life, but I do know heinous injustice when I see it.
Such as the negligence that much of the population of this country seems to have toward some of our least well-off communities.
I can’t claim to have an in-depth understanding of the plight of many indigenous communities, but when hearing of the situation in Shoal Lake 40 First Nation (no clean water for 17 years), or of the shortfalls in education funding in numerous other such communities, I think that even a slightly naïve person with a modicum of compassion could tell you something is seriously wrong.
So instead of fretting and complaining about how local authorities in Victoria, Nanaimo, Comox or Port Hardy might not be able to get funding from the federal government for that new bridge or road, remember, at least we have roads. At least we can drink water from the tap and not contract some debilitating stomach infection. Not everyone in this country has such luxury.
Perhaps a decent chunk of these tens of billions of dollars in infrastructure funding ought to go to helping out some of these less-well-off communities. Even if it would be nice to get that shiny new bridge being built downtown.
Onward and upward, indeed.
Malcolm Stewart
Brentwood Bay
