Churches help the local economy
Re: “Care about health, not about money,” letter, Nov. 27.
I agreed with the writer up until the comment, “but they (churches) don’t put much money back into the system.”
Speaking on behalf of my own Anglican church, we have heating and lighting expenses for a very large building, employees’ salaries, and expenses for grocery gift cards which help those in need who come to our door.
This means that those benefitting are in turn able to spend, thus keeping the economy going.
Marjorie I. Adams
Nanaimo
Churches provide community support
Regarding the letter writer who states that churches don’t put much money back into the system: It is not an unusual presumption.
Recently, however, The Halo Effect, a study that included First Metropolitan United Church in Victoria, suggests that congregations, representing religious Canadians of all faiths, are contributing about $15.5 billion annually to Canada’s social economy.
First Metropolitan United Church alone has a local “halo effect’ of $15.8 million.
For every dollar that this congregation spends, the surrounding community receives $18.40 worth of social impact.
Without churches and their programs, services and volunteers, many of these services would have to be provided by for-profit organizations, costing far more.
Emily MacDonald
Saanich
Progressives are feeling conflicted
When I moved to Victoria from the Okanagan several years ago I considered myself a progressive voter; indeed, I support Victoria city council’s broad direction regarding environmental management and transportation/cycling infrastructure, even if not always the details of implementation.
However, this council has put forward some extreme positions that I simply can’t support. These include commissioning public art that contains a hateful slur against a group of city employees, disrespecting veterans, and considering defunding police.
And then there is the issue of how this council has utterly mismanaged the homeless crisis during the pandemic — allowing 24/7 camping, turning a blind eye to criminality, and essentially making large portions of our urban parks inaccessible to the majority of citizens.
Some people living in homes on the edge of these parks have literally had their lives ruined.
Crime statistics bear out what we all know: crime has increased. Many people are becoming more nervous in their homes and about venturing outside, especially after dark, and our council doesn’t seem to care.
What I am learning is that good civic governance does not always fall neatly into left- and right-wing factions. Many progressive voters will feel conflicted when they examine the track record of this council and consider how to vote.
It’s clear this city is badly broken and we need voters from both sides of the political spectrum to come together over the next two years to elect a council that actually knows how to run a city.
Jack Sutcliffe
Victoria
Let’s not debate residential schools
Re: “B.C. homework assignment asks for ‘positive experiences with residential schools’,” Nov. 27.
Can we be done with the supposed debate over the harm of the so-called Indian Residential Schools? There is no debate. The websites quoted in the article and those who support this alleged debate are simply the equivalent of Holocaust deniers. They want to deny the historical fact of inhuman acts.
It would be better if we stopped referring them as “Indian Residential Schools.” Being taken involuntarily is not to school. It is more like youth detention, or child prison.
Think of the recent separation of parent and child asylum seekers in the United States. But that went on for a few months, not the century-long practice targeting Indigenous families.
The harm, the crime, was already committed by forcibly removing children from their families and communities for assimilation into the dominant, non-Indigenous culture. That is an international crime, and it is the crime of genocide.
The 1948 UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, Article 2 (e), includes, “Forcibly transferring children of one group to another group.”
This was to address the Nazi practice of abducting “Aryan” looking children for transfer to Germany for raising as Hitler Youth, the fate of tens of thousands of Polish and Russian children.
It is estimated that as many a 150,000 Indigenous children in Canada suffered abduction and detention for the duration of their childhood.
Paul Glassen
Nanaimo
Worry not about Carole James’ finances
While British Columbians should appreciate retired MLA and Finance Minister Carole James’ seemingly altruistic gesture of serving as an advisor to the government for one dollar a year, taxpayers should not forget that according to the B.C. Taxpayers Federation she will be collecting an annual MLA pension of $80,000 (almost $7,000 a month!).
We can take some consolation in the fact that at least she is not doing the infamous double dipping engaged in by numerous former politicians and government employees who often upon retiring early, also with a generous pension, promptly farm themselves out as high priced consultants.
Les Barclay
Nanaimo
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