Protesters are really in search of significance
Re: “Crowds fill B.C. legislature lawn as anti-mandate convoy returns to Victoria,” March 6.
Like many others, especially those living in the legislature’s environs, I’m frustrated and annoyed by the weekly protests of those who keep braying about their rights to be free of the pandemic’s restrictions, as if they’re the only ones tired of wearing masks.
I expect they’ll keep it up until such time as Dr. Bonnie Henry, guided by science and data, finally declares that we can stand down from these measures. At that time, they’ll declare victory over her and congratulate themselves for having “worn her down” with their repeated demands.
But I’ve also come to understand that the most fervent of the protesters are actually to be pitied — deep down, they’re looking for some significance to their lives, a sense of meaning that has so far eluded them. They think that by raising a big enough stink, the authorities will eventually bow down to them, and that therefore their actions have actually mattered.
Too bad that they can’t understand that they could satisfy that hunger if they’d just stop, look around and find someone worse off, and find ways to help them. It could be an older neighbour needing help with heavy yard work or some minor repairs done to their homes. It could be someone who needs a ride to a doctor’s appointment or to the store to pick up groceries, or a dozen other things. But it’s unlikely this will happen — such gestures aren’t dramatic enough. As I say, it’s a pity.
Lorraine Lindsay
Saanich
From the tragic to the foolish
I read with disbelief the account of those crowds gathering once again to protest our public health policy. If they have been following world news, surely it is obvious that such public health responsibilities for the common good have nothing to do with loss of freedom.
I suggest those who are willing should read one of the little spiritual reading books on cultivating gratitude. Failing that, a holiday in North Korea, Syria or Russia might be in order to understand just what it is to have one’s freedom restricted.
Maureen Cambrey
Saanich
Protests fuelled by real losses of freedom
It is ironic that some letter-writers are asking the truck protesters and their supporters to “see what the loss of real freedom means” by looking at the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The attack on Ukraine by the totalitarian Russian regime, under Vladmir Putin’s leadership, is an exact example of why people were protesting here in Canada.
The incremental loss of freedoms under Trudeau is what motivated the truck protests. Losses including the loss of the ability to speak freely on social media, and the loss of the right to decide what medical treatments you will receive, are some of the losses in our personal freedom that are so concerning to many truck protesters, as well as a concern for other Canadians.
Is this not easy for people to understand? Totalitarian rule is what we are trying to avoid.
Bill Wilson
Saanichton
Let’s help women get back to work
The pandemic has revealed a labour crisis in Victoria; from my colleague doctors, nurses, and health professionals, to the servers and cooks at restaurants, to the retail staff in shops and stores, this shortage is evident everywhere.
As a parent of two preschool-aged children, I see firsthand the inefficiency and inequality of having a massive portion of our population, mostly women, who cannot return to work because they cannot find child care. The so-called “she-cession” is real.
The situation is almost identical across the city’s care facilities; at the excellent Cridge Centre for the Family, for example, over 200 children are on the waitlist for eight infant spots. The problem, we are told, is the struggle to attract and retain early childhood educators (ECEs). ECEs are consistently lost to the primary care school system where they can secure education assistant positions for higher pay. There is no shortage, however, of parents willing to pay for such spots.
Currently, I’m contributing to the ER doctor shortage by staying home to help care for our two small children. As much as I love and benefit from this quality time, it is not the most efficient use of society’s resources.
Help us take care of our future generation and get our highly underutilized labour force back into the workplace. Better provincial funding for child care spaces for infants and toddlers is needed now.
Dr. Brian Wall
Victoria
Hospital parking fees are immoral
I worked as a hospital nurse when the B.C. Liberals told the administrators of hospitals to generate as much funding as they could, to help reduce costs and taxes. The easiest way to generate more funds was to force all workers, doctors, patients and visitors to pay for their parking at hospitals.
Remember the old coal companies that would claw back wages of the miners by charging high rents in company towns? That was what it was like for staff to pay for parking at their place of work when they have to park there in order to work.
I remember one poor family that parked on the street outside B.C. Children’s Hospital one night, to avoid the parking fees, as they visited their son in the ICU. The boy’s condition deteriorated and the family waited and prayed as he died. When they left the hospital, they found their car had been towed away. Street parking was only allowed around the hospital during the night, at the request of the hospital, to force everyone to park and pay on the site during the day. Heartbreaking.
Our hospitals are owned by the citizens of B.C. The parking lots as well are owned by the citizens of B.C. How is it necessary for all of us to pay for parking at our own hospitals to get medically necessary treatment, or give those treatments, or help loved ones get those treatments?
All parking should be free for all who need to be in our hospitals. Charging to park at our hospitals is immoral.
Linda Carter
Saanich
Coyotes vs. deer, nature in action
Lawrie MacFarlane’s rather tongue-in-cheek solution concerning deer control is thought-provoking. These rodents with horns simply don’t belong in, or on, our urban and farming landscapes, period.
For 20-plus years now, they have devoured thousands of tonnes of our Garden City’s flowers and vegetation. Their toll on local food production is in the thousands of dollars; just ask any one of our hardworking Peninsula farmers.
They continue to cause ICBC insurance claims, in addition to injuring and hospitalizing our citizens on occasion. Not only do they run out in front of vehicles, they also exhibit the same behaviour with Victoria’s many cyclists.
Coyotes would not only identify them as a prey item, but most likely drive them back into the environment they came from, and belong in. The only issue remaining would be dealing with the surplus coyote population, which is now a urban problem in some major cities. Sadly, we might be mitigating one problem to only create another.
Nonetheless, certainly a more eco-sensitive solution to a problem that has plagued us for decades — nature in action.
John Stevenson
Victoria
Trump was a sideshow to global politics
Re: “Putin didn’t invade during Trump’s term,” letter, March 5.
During the defeated Trump’s one-term presidency, Angela Merkel was the de facto leader of the free world. Putin recognized this, and having seen her bravery in admitting hundreds of thousands of refugees in 2015 and her leadership in other causes, was fearful of her ability to galvanize Europe into opposing him. He then underestimated the willingness of Olaf Scholz to drastically shift German policy against him.
Putin then assumed that due to the U.S.’s diminished international standing and inward-looking focus created by the defeated Trump’s term that Biden would be unable to gain cross-party support to oppose him. Putin further assumed that Trump, having weakened U.S. commitment to NATO, and Boris Johnson, having removed the U.K. from the EU through Brexit, would make these organizations unable to mount a defence against him. He thought this would be the ideal time to strike.
Trump is and was a sideshow to this; disappearing into the international shadows.
Geoff Owen
Victoria
History repeated — and it’s still true
After the Second World War, when Winston Churchill realized what Russia was up to, he said “we have slaughtered the wrong pig,” and never has that been more evident than right now.
Heidi Lamb
Victoria
Engage B.C. gives voters a voice
Re: “Environment is vital to B.C.’s health,” letter, March 1.
Readers who share the concern for the environment expressed in the letter can express their concern through Engage B.C. This is an online public consultation tool used by the provincial government. It is calling for feedback on its Watershed Security and Fund Discussion Paper. The engagement period ends March 18.
The paper brings together the many reasons for protecting our water resources and the role of governments at all levels and of citizens in developing policy and “making it so”: ecological integrity, a strong economy, the conservation of nature and human health are all connected to our water supply.
One problem is that we often see a need and expect someone else to do something. Let the government know what you think through this engagement process. Elected governments are often slow to act because there is a burden of laws and customs to be lifted before new policies can be put in place.
Maybe if enough people get behind this initiative, it will happen faster.
Heather Phillips
Sooke
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