A good Saturday finding treasures at book sale
Saturday afternoon was spent enjoying the Times Colonist book sale with my sister. I loved being part of the mammoth crowd poring through the fabulous book selection.
At checkout time we joined the line. While it was very long it moved at an efficient clip.
In very good time we were toting our paid-for treasures out the door, grateful for all of the helping hands that make this event supporting literacy possible.
See you next year with nothing but thanks, a couple of empty tote bags and money saved up just for this!
Joanne Thibault
Victoria
Acknowledge history, enable changes
Re: “Much to be done before reconciliation is possible,” commentary, May 6.
I want to thank Bishop Anna Greenwood-Lee for her insightful, honest and informing piece on the role of the Anglican church in the colonization of this land.
However, colonialism is not yet history in Canada. We still have the Indian Act, inequality and injustice weighing on our Indigenous brothers and sisters.
I encourage readers not to fall victim to feelings of guilt as they have no role or value in righting the wrongs of the past that continue in the present.
What we all need to do is acknowledge the colonial legacy and its ongoing presence in this country that continues to benefit us non-Indigenous folk and our responsibility is to encourage, support and enable the necessary changes and actions to build a future where we respectfully walk hand in hand with the Indigenous peoples’ of this land in equality, freedom and justice.
It can only result in a brighter, more positive and fulfilling future for us all.
Lorna Hillman
Victoria
Ancestral blame and guilt doesn’t make sense
Re: “Much to be done before reconciliation is possible,” commentary, May 6.
Bishop Anna Greenwood-Lee states “we banned the potlatch and the Sundance, stole artifacts and arrested and imprisoned anyone who dared to defy us.” She also says “we knew full well we were simply justifyijng our own greed and sin and violence.”
Who is she talking about? All the politicians and religious leaders who advocated these things are dead. Most all Canadians going back to Confederation did not arrest or imprison anyone.
I doubt if the Bishop has done any of these things herself. Is she saying all immigrants were supporters of greed and sin and violence? She appears to be saying that all Canadians have inherited ancestral blame and guilt based on their genetics.
I’m a first generation Canadian and not responsible for any of those things. If ancestry or skin colour makes a person responsible for all the bad things in history, then I must also be responsible for the two world wars and all the bad things that happened there, from Dunkirk to Dresden, not to mention the entire 300-year British occupation of India.
On the other hand, using the Bishop’s logic regarding responsibility due to ancestral inheritance, I’d also be responsible for the harnessing of electricity, the internal combustion engine, the discovery of antibiotics, Shakespeare’s complete works, the theory of relativity and the invention of the airplane. The whole idea doesn’t make any sense.
Greenwood-Lee also states that “churches are places of worship for diminishing congregations of privileged folk of British descent.” Way to talk about your customers, and with those types of comments, it’s no wonder the congregation is diminishing.
I suggest the Anglican Church put its money where its mouth is and sell off all its churches and properties, giving all that money to the First Nations, or at least renounce its tax free status, as it appears to be more of a politicial than a religious entity these days.
David Harrison
Victoria
What about cell service for north Nanaimo?
I applaud the provincial government’s Highway 14 cell tower project, recognizing that good, reliable cell service is essential for public safety and other reasons. The seven cell phone towers installed along this remote 70-kilometre stretch of Highway 14 will eliminate dead zones.
One would hope that Nanaimo’s elected representatives will now be convinced of the need to immediately address and eliminate the grey/dead zone that exists in the north end of Nanaimo (Hammond Bay Road).
It’s been nine years since Nanaimo council rejected (for the third time) a proposal from Telus to install a cell tower in this area. Despite public pressure to resolve the issue of poor cell phone service here, which affects hundreds of people, this issue still is ignored by the current mayor and councillors.
Will Nanaimo’s elected representatives be motivated by the Highway 14 cell service improvements and take concrete action to improve cell service in the north end?
I would hold my breath and hope, but without reliable cell service it’s simply too risky to do so.
Wendy Farrington
Nanaimo
Let’s discuss monarchy and its future in Canada
King Charles III will be replacing his mother on the $20 bill. Why can’t Canadians have a say in this? Australia is not putting King Charles on their $5 banknote.
The debate is not whether Charles will be a good king or not. He’ll likely be a good king, whatever that means.
The debate is whether Canada remains a constitutional monarchy or transitions to a republic. Barbados left the monarchy two years ago, Jamaica is about to do the same.
Isn’t it time for a national debate on whether the monarchy is our future?
Kip Wood
Nanaimo
A Modest Proposal is a satirical masterwork
Re: “When books reflect the thinking of their time,” editorial, May 6.
I applaud the editorial about the foolishness of “sanitizing” books for the comfort of some modern readers. Well done!
That said, I fear that the writer went seriously awry in choosing Jonathan Swift as an example of someone being gratuitously offensive, and claiming that Swift “suggested the Irish should resort to cannibalism.”
The reference is to A Modest Proposal, a shocking lament addressing the dire poverty and hopelessness of Ireland at the time – much of which could be blamed on the English oppressors.
The key phrase in Swift’s piece was, if memory serves, “Irish babies for English plates,” and he was proposing that the Irish would have fewer mouths to feed – and more money in their pockets – if they sold their tasty babies to be eaten by their cruel overlords.
A Modest Proposal is widely seen as a satirical masterwork, and its savage bleakness came from the despair of a profoundly moral author who wrote his then-anonymous critiques of English power at great personal risk.
Robert Moyes
Victoria
Great expectations, but a comedy of errors
Re: “When books reflect the thinking of their time,” editorial, May 6.
The editorial made some relevant points. In addition to citing Charles Dickens’ Merchant of Venice, don’t forget William Shakespeare’s Oliver Twist.
Oops. Have I got it backwards? Or was it the editorial?
Hugh Stephens
Victoria
Care about heritage sites? Please get involved
I have read with dismay the difficulties of keeping heritage properties maintained and open to the public.
Preserving an aged wooden building requires constant attention; keeping it open to the public requires energy and ideas.
There are sites in Victoria that are operated by dedicated volunteers; unpaid workers keep them open, exciting and maintained. This takes money and effort.
For those who believe that sites such as Ross Bay Historic House Museum add quality and character to the city, who find themselves saying of Point Ellice House that “they should do something about it,” such sites welcome donations and offers of help.
Membership in a heritage-supporting society makes a tangible statement and can cost as little as $10.
Colleen Wilson
Victoria
How did we get to these problems in the streets?
Re: “A well-intentioned experiment gone bad,” commentary, May 3.
When are we going to stop milking the Riverview cow as a blanket explanation for all the social woes on our streets?
The closing of that facility has become a convenient red herring to distract us from the actual causes of the homelessness, drug abuse, and desperation in our communities.
This tragic spectrum of suffering — tent cities, rampant mental illness, and escape through chemicals — are the inevitable result of 17 years of tax cuts and austerity measures under the tyranny of the B.C. Liberals, now B.C. United.
This is what happens when governments put tax cuts first and people last.
On his first day as premier in 2001, Gordon Campbell slashed B.C.’s personal income tax rate by 25 per cent, to the lowest in Canada, and reduced the corporate income tax rate.
It came at a terrible human cost. Campbell financed his tax cuts by slashing income assistance rates and caseloads; cutting mental health and legal aid to the bone; closing tenancy offices; and axing the Debtors’ Assistance Branch. Then, Christy Clark kept welfare and disability rates frozen.
The man sleeping in a doorway was probably cut off welfare in the Campbell years. Was the distraught woman screaming on the street corner denied mental health treatment when she needed it?
Maybe the person in the wheelchair, begging for change, is just another casualty of Campbell’s Disability Review.
Ending the problems on our streets means taking an honest look at how we got here and making a sharp course correction.
Doreen Marion Gee
Victoria
There is a lesson here: Protect the vulnerable
Re: “A well-intentioned experiment gone bad,” commentary, May 3.
It is on very rare occasions I read an article so well written and so relevant to its subject material. Congratulations Natexa Verbrugge. My compliments to the retired lawyer.
I have been trying to put these exact ideas to type for years. It is great to believe that everybody can handle society in the same manner. We have thrown many of our citizens with varying disabilities to the street.
It is time to rethink society’s institutional care facilities and consider interventional methods to protect the vulnerable and provide restitution for those afflicted with substance abuse.
The vulnerable need to be protected from predators and the predators need to be reminded that full citizens’ rights need to be earned. Catch and release is not an option.
Lessons need to be learned.
Harold Wickstrom
Victoria
Belly up to the trough, Chandra Herbert
Unbelievable or wait maybe not! Spencer Chandra Herbert’s spending of my tax dollars on his transportation, by helicopter no less, is totally unacceptable.
While I wish him and his son well, I want him to know that many of us here on the Island commute long distances each work day to get to our place of employment.
For almost eight years I drove 200-plus kilometres a day, Monday to Friday, to and from my work and home. Many do this in order to pay the bills.
I have talked to people who live in Sooke and work in Duncan, people who live in Parksville and work in Nanaimo, live in Victoria and work in Nanaimo, the list goes on. This happens when you can’t find a place to live near the place you have found to work and we suck it up because that is what is expected.
So why does Chandra Herbert, or any MLA for that matter, think they are any different and deserve to spend someone else’s money to keep them travelling in comfort and affordability.
It is just not right on so many levels: environmental, financial, personal, and professional.
Chris Leischner
Youbou
A double standard perpetuates cynicism
Spencer Chandra Herbert shows poor judgment in what is reasonable and fair. I don’t think the average taxpaying citizen has the luxury to have their employer pay for travel to and from work.
Chandra Herbert behaviour shows a clear double standard and a sense of entitlement which perpetuates public cynicism towards our elected officials.
Dave Yadav
Victoria
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