Dallas Road tree is pruned by the wind
The notion that the iconic Dallas Road tree is dying has been around for decades. The tree is one of the finest examples of wind pruning in Victoria, and each year it comes alive with new foliage.
When the residents on Grange Road in Saanich became aware that a sludge sewage pipe to Hartland would mean the loss of 49 trees, they protested. Project officials moved the pipe to the other side of the road.
The two closest elm trees on Dallas Road are about 20 metres from the chestnut tree and I would rather see them removed before they get too tall and fall over in a winter storm.
Let’s pay more attention to our iconic trees, like the chestnut tree in question and the large Sequoia in Centennial Square.
Dennis Robinson
Victoria
Statue removal and the gold standard
Worldwide, there have been about 40 truth and reconciliation processes with differing terms of reference.
If you regard the South African model as the gold standard, then what Mayor Lisa Helps and her City Family are conducting is a misappropriation of the concept to justify Victor’s Justice.
Truth and reconciliation requires forbearance and tolerance among all parties before the reconstitution of equal citizenship among all members of the community, regardless of their respective histories.
In downtown Cape Town, there is Mandela Rhodes Place. Cecil Rhodes was hardly a sweetheart in his relationship with the black community, and no doubt many whites still harbour dislike of Nelson Mandela.
Yet there they are together, as the former white elite have to learn to accommodate themselves to a downgraded but now equal status to the black community, who in turn have to learn to forgive and forget and get on with the business of living.
One could, in the true spirit of truth and reconciliation, return Sir John A. Macdonald’s statue to Victoria City Hall and place beside it a statue of Nootka Chief Maquinna.
Unfortunately, Maquinna, as did many West Coast First Nations, practised slavery, which is an abhorrent modern practice. Under Helps’ rules, Maquinna’s name should also be demonized, and his symbolic presence purged from the public domain.
I am not and never will be a member of the City Family. But then, neither would Bishop Desmond Tutu, who I had the good fortune to observe in person when he came to the Solomon Islands to explain the whats, hows and whys of truth and reconciliation.
Daniel Kyba
Victoria
Diefenbaker statue graces Prince Albert City Hall
Prince Albert, Sask., has been represented by three prime ministers: Wilfred Laurier for 18 days in 1896; Mackenzie King, 1926-1945; and John Diefenbaker, 1953-1979.
The city has recognized this fact by building Prime Ministers’ Park, an outdoor athletic facility. There is a stone cairn in the park, naming the three prime ministers and the dates they represented Prince Albert.
Only Diefenbaker was from the area. The other two were from Quebec and Ontario and just ran in Prince Albert to get a seat in Parliament.
There is a statue of Diefenbaker outside City Hall in Prince Albert. He is holding the Bill of Rights that was passed by Parliament in 1960. Also in 1960, Parliament gave First Nations people the vote. Before that, First Nations people had to give up their Treaty status in order to vote.
Diefenbaker was from the area he represented. He practised law in Prince Albert. My impression, growing up in Prince Albert, was that he was very well thought of by his constituents, including First Nations people. In the 2016 census, 42.4 per cent of Prince Albert residents identified as First Nations.
There is no statue of the two prime ministers who represented Prince Albert by virtue of electoral gamesmanship.
Wanda Erikson
Nanaimo
Replacing the statue? Here is one guess
Council’s dialogue on Sir John A. Macdonald’s statue isn’t happening with the alacrity of its removal.
Rumour is, it’s being replaced with a statue of Vladimir Lenin.
Charlie Hardy
Victoria
Forget natural gas, move to clean energy
B.C. Transit has committed to a fully electric bus fleet in 20 years, with 10 electric buses in two years. In the interim, it appears as though they are going to invest in compressed natural-gas fuelling stations and buses.
Describing buses burning natural gas as “low-carbon-emitting buses” is a misnomer. The issue of fracking with associated methane release disqualifies natural gas as a clean fuel.
Additionally, it is questionable whether the investment in a dual system — compressed gas and electric — is fiscally responsible. In a time of climate emergency, we should be moving directly to truly clean alternatives, not propping up the industry that was forced upon B.C. by the former government.
Sandra Slobodian
Esquimalt
Compassionate Society took away the pain
Re: “R.I.P., Vancouver Island Compassionate Society,” commentary, July 28.
This letter saying goodbye made me cry. I have MS and have been using cannabis for eight years. I have no desire to return to my days filled with severe pain, leg spasms and a whole list of symptoms that would just make me curl up and cry.
The magic began when my doctors prescribed VICS — I got my life back. I talked to the most caring, patient people I had ever met. I wasn’t crazy — I was just a patient who had many years of pain and being misunderstood. The world was a better place at last.
Now we face having to find somewhere else at a much higher cost that the majority of us cannot afford. A lot of the customers were low-income, homeless or just down on their luck. They will look elsewhere and some will end up using street opioids, which will just make that problem much worse.
There will be no more compassion, empathy or caring in a system that just calls us drug abusers.
We are not — we live a life of pain and searching for an affordable and effective way to control it.
We can’t go to our doctors (if we have one) to be prescribed an effective painkiller because of the overdose crisis, so we are tossed into the system to find our own cure. I call that a revolving door.
Personally I will miss the low cost, the ever-caring staff and even the little dog that met us at the door.
The staff that worked there are heroes to me and many other people who are in constant pain. We are not complainers — we just need help that we can afford and is effective.
The loss of VICS is a loss to Victoria and I hate to say goodbye.
You are heroes and I thank you from the bottom of my heart.
Lynn Larsen
Victoria
Expect more crashes as people stop at lights
Good news for everyone who sees life in black and white — tickets for everyone who runs red lights.
Now for those who see life as grey: Expect the number of rear-impact collisions to rise.
There is a positive correlation between red-light cameras and the volume of rear-impact collisions due to those fearing a ticket unexpectedly braking rapidly, much to their own detriment, as the person behind piles into them.
On the one hand, ICBC, as of April 1, is penalizing those injured in a rear-impact collision by paying out a maximum of $5,500 to anyone suffering “whiplash, sprains, strains, pain syndromes, anxiety, concussions” who does not have a paper trail of lost time at work, recreation or social pursuits.
On the other hand, the provincial government, which owns the cash cow known as ICBC, is installing one of the best “whiplash”-generating devices known with modern driving laws.
Rather ironic isn’t it? Moral of the story: Be careful what you ask for (or demand), as you might just get it.
Frank McDiarmid
Victoria
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