Best wishes for healing after arson attack
On behalf of Kolot Mayim Reform Temple, may I extend our collective sadness and shock at hearing the news of the attack on the family home of Father Yuriy Vyshnevskyy, priest of the Ukrainian Catholic Church of St. Nicholas.
We also extend our most sincere hope that your daughter recovers from her injuries quickly. When our granddaughter was young (about 20 years ago) if we passed by your church, she always called out, “there is God’s house.”
And we would then have a conversation about God, and where God lives. A treasured memory of mine.
We are in the season of Pesach (Passover); a time to remember crossing over from bondage to freedom. A time to remember all of us are children of God.
As you and your family heal from this attack, we pray that the souls who acted with such pernicious violence will come to recognize a need to make amends for their actions.
May we all be healed, in the words of Isaiah: “Nation shall not lift sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.”
Rabbi Lynn Greenhough
Victoria
Make it easier for immigrants to work here
Maybe I am naive but I don’t understand why incoming immigrants and people from other parts of Canada cannot simply write the same provincial exam that is required by graduating students in their chosen profession.
I understand a language test for those whose first language is not English. If they pass the exam, they pay the fees from their credited association and begin working.
Why do they have to jump through hoops for both the province and the federal government? This would reduce the time and make the system much more efficient.
Eileen Cannon
Victoria
More money might not help health care
There continues to be a lot of rhetoric about the shortage in the health-care field. Many suggest that increasing income would solve the problem.
However, without a thorough statistical investigation we can’t be sure what the cause is.
There are a number of questions which need answering, such as:
How many years do they work after graduating (family doctors and specialists)?
How many hours per week do they work?
How many leave the country upon graduation?
How many are foreign students who intend to go home (remember the anxiety about the Saudi medical students being recalled home)?
What is the source of funds to pay residents’ salaries?
There are probably many more areas needing answers which a good statistician could add.
The simplistic suggestion of more money may not help and may even exacerbate the problem.
Furthermore, there are many professionals who are underutilized; clinical psychologists come to mind. If they were given the ability to prescribe psychiatric medications, they could help ease the mental health crisis.
They would have pharmacists to work with whose entire education is pharmacology.
Do we need doctors for MAID if we are conscious and can administer medication ourselves; perhaps PAID (Pharmaceutical Assistance in Dying) would be more sensible?
I lived in another country where the doctors were paid a salary based on the number of patients they served. The service was very good and there were no poor doctors (based on the high-end cars parked at the clinics).
So, in conclusion, we need to have a very careful study of what the cause(s) of the problem are before acting.
Deborah Crawford
Saanich
Getting attention with convenient lies
In her recent commentary, Alice Palmer makes the irrefutable case, on science and logic, that B.C.’s old-growth forests are neither imperilled nor mismanaged. No surprise for the rational person who can separate out logic and emotion.
Unfortunately, science and logic matter not a whit to protesters blocking highways and spiking trees. Their agenda is no agenda — the same nihilism that drives extreme right-wing movements that brought chaos to the streets of Ottawa and support for demagogues the world over.
Their claims are no more than convenient falsehoods that bring them attention. Once they get that attention they match one lie with another lie until a web of deception ensnares the gullible.
These protests are not about old-growth trees. They are about subverting democracy and replacing it with mob rule.
No arguments of science, logic, or fact can sway those who see truth as nothing more than something that just gets in their way.
Paul Walton
Nanaimo
Invest in proactive care to reduce the strain
The B.C. government needs to wake up, because our health-care system is in crisis. Emergency rooms are overwhelmed, walk-in clinics are on the verge of collapse, not able to handle the increasingly complex patient loads and are reaching patient quotas/caps before noon.
The government has us practicing “reactive” medicine when we need to focus on “proactive” medicine. The government needs to listen to healthcare workers and patients alike.
As a registered nurse working in a primary care family physician’s office, I see the benefits of a primary care family physician everyday. A family physician is an important part of our longitudinal practice, playing a key role in managing patients in community.
Family practice physicians are like seatbelts. They prevent more serious injuries and crisis by appropriately managing complex health issues in community.
They offer routine screening like mammograms, colon cancer screening, PAP smears, etc. and help to catch things before they become serious.
They advocate for patients, send for diagnostics and refer patients to specialists. They follow patients after medication changes and recommendations from specialists.
They work with patients to create action plans for chronic illnesses and help prevent these patients from ending up in hospital in crisis with an exacerbation of their chronic disease. And yet despite the great importance and value that a primary care physician offers, there are fewer and fewer physicians joining group practices.
Why would a family physician want to join or open a group practice that requires them to pay overhead (such as staffing, supplies, rent) when they can work in hospital for a week a month and make the same as a family physician in the community?
There is no incentive for family physicians to take on the burden of longitudinal care. They are not adequately compensated for their time and effort.
The government needs to re-evaluate the compensation model for family physicians and create incentives for physicians to join group practices.
Investing in proactive care will reduce the strain on our emergency and urgent care facilities.
Kim Harding, RN BScN
Comox
Would you dump your children?
Dogs are like children, they too have needs. Taking on a dog that becomes a part of your family then dumping it when you see fit (as is happening with the pandemic pets) not only affects the animal, it’s like sending your child out at five years old to fend for themself.
It’s not only cruel, it’s wrong.
James Cooper
Victoria
Pickleball group relishes all condiments
When the game you play includes the name for a relish in a hamburger, it is hard to take yourself seriously.
Yes, pickleball players have a lot of fun. Put down your pasta and kale, pick up a polymer cored paddle and an Onix Fuse G2 ball for quieter play and get yourself into a dinking game. Remember to stay out of the kitchen, please.
Connie McCann
President, Victoria Regional Pickleball Association
If you own in Victoria, think about selling
I don’t usually comment on actions taken by municipal politicians other than those who do so on my behalf, but I have to congratulate the Victoria council for coming up with a plan that really has the potential to lower house prices.
I refer to the proposal to remove zoning or public hearing requirements when a public agency wants to build affordable housing.
Suppose you have lived in a house in Toronto for 30 years, and it is now worth $2.5 million. You’ve been thinking of retiring to Victoria, and buying a similar house for $1.5 million.
Now you learn that a month after you move in, it’s possible that some group will tear down a house just like your new home, and build a six-storey apartment, shutting off your view and your sun.
Would anyone reading this who thinks that family will still move to Victoria raise a hand? That’s what I thought.
And if I lived in Victoria, I’d be thinking about selling my house ASAP. Well, all is not lost. There’s an election coming.
Ian Cameron
Brentwood Bay
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