We need to get tough with the anti-vax crowd
Re: “I don’t want to die,” Oct. 2.
The tragic case of this poor woman made my blood boil. The anti-vaxxers pose such a serious threat to the health and lives of people across Canada, they need to be stopped. End of story.
If there were snipers randomly shooting at people in downtown Victoria, would the police just look the other way, defending their “right” to free expression? Would they be allowed to congregate in mobs outside hospitals and schools, citing their “freedom” to protest as they take aim at patients and children?
No, of course not. They would be immediately arrested and locked up, to protect lives.
So, what is the difference between that unthinkable situation and our present response to the anti-vax crowd? These ignorant and selfish people are knowingly endangering the lives of people around them by refusing to vaccinate themselves against a deadly killer.
Their actions are directly causing illness and death. And forcing patients like Sharon Durham to wait for life-saving surgery.
This madness has to end. Barring those with medical exemptions, anyone suspected of refusing to get vaccinated should be given the choice of a COVID shot or jail time.
Doreen Marion Gee
Victoria
The best protest of all: A major cycling event
Here’s some advice for budding protesters looking for ways to disrupt the everyday lives of innocent people: Don’t waste your time waving signs outside the legislature or blockading ferries or logging roads.
Such things inconvenience only a few hundred people at a time.
Arrange a cycling event instead! You can inconvenience tens of thousands of people from Sooke to Brentwood Bay all day long. Not only will it show how green you are, but the cops will actually help out.
The key to success is choosing the right route — preferably multiple routes to eliminate all possibility of escape.
You might think that roads with bicycle lanes along the shoulders would be the best choice, especially since lobby groups have been telling us for years how much safer they are and how we must spend tens of millions of dollars building more of them.
Wrong! If you do that, normal vehicles will sail by unperturbed by your presence.
No, if you choose narrow, winding roads with poor visibility, you will be able to trap each unsuspecting motorist behind a weekend cyclist — at 10 km/h on moderate gradients — unable to pass lest a car should come the other way.
If your route criss-crosses a main road at every opportunity, teams of flaggers can hold up everyone else for five minutes at a time every couple of kilometres.
Best of all, you can do this every few weeks during a normal summer — just give each event a different name. What fun!
M.H. Ward
Victoria
Motor-vehicle lane is not safe for bicycles
Re: “All road users have role in keeping safe,” column, Oct. 1.
Although pedestrians have officially recognized, unmarked crosswalks, John Ducker suggests cyclists do not have such luxuries.
Ducker advises that a cyclist has the same rights and responsibilities as the operator of a motor vehicle. He further advises that a highway shoulder is not a legal place for bicycle travel, implying that cyclists should/must ride within a motor-vehicle travel lane.
While this may be reasonably safe and comfortable on a quiet, residential street, I would be very hesitant to ride a (pedal-) bicycle in the middle of the right-hand travel lane, on the Pat Bay Highway, southward from Island View Road, especially during ferry traffic.
Jim Grayson
Saanich
Be thoughtful, tactful and tolerant
Re: “Intellectual narcissism is a danger to public discourse,” column, Oct. 2.
Maybe it’s just another example of “magical thinking” to assume we’d all be on the same COVID wavelength if only we followed science and logic.
It implies we’d all know the truth if we were properly educated in critical thinking.
Ironically, the problem today may be too much critical thinking, thanks to the internet. With so much information online, we are constantly bombarded with conflicting theories.
With internet access the problem is not so much the narcissistic “I’m entitled to my own opinion” as “I’m entitled to do my own research.”
Gone are the days when we lined up obediently for polio shots without internet interference. Only later we learned some early batches of the vaccine had been contaminated with live virus and SV40 (with still undetermined consequences). But the potential for controversy was minimal back then.
Today with information overload, there is scope for diversity of opinion.
We each come to conclusions based on our own research and individual situations — hopefully respected by others. In light of the ever-changing complexity of information and opportunity for conflict, our new motto might be: Be thoughtful, be tactful, be tolerant.
K.R. Lynch
Victoria
A night at Emergency would be a lesson
The other evening I had to spend the night at Victoria General Hospital in the Emergency room.
I had been taken there from Salt Spring Island and I could not return home until the ferries started running again. I learnt something that evening.
It was a Friday night and the Emergency room was very busy and my stretcher was in the hall by the nurses’ station as there was no room for it anywhere else.
I couldn’t sleep and all I could do was watch and listen to a real world. I would suggest that any anti-vaxxer, anti-mask wearer should spend the night in an Emergency Department to see what happens.
The nurses and doctors are working flat out, often on their feet the whole time, not stopping to rest, wearing masks and shields the whole night.
They were kind, caring and obviously dealing with many people with many different problems, trying to make lives better, trying to save lives and I kept hearing the word COVID coming up.
The nurses and doctors and ambulance crews care about you — but do you care about them? Please don’t do this to them. Please get vaccinated and stop listening to people who do not know what they are talking about on Twitter or some other fake-news internet site.
Susan Benson Whitfield
Salt Spring Island
Much appreciation for care at VGH
This past week my youngest son came down with a bad cold. By Saturday evening, he was running a fever and his asthma was out of control.
We had scheduled a COVID test for Sunday afternoon, but it became apparent that we were not going to be able to wait that long. I did not want him to spend another night struggling to breath, so at 6:30 p.m. we headed off to Victoria General Hospital to get some help.
I was very worried that taking him there was risky. If he didn’t have COVID, was I putting him at risk.
All my fears went away at our first contact with the staff at the entry way to the hospital. With the incredible pressure the staff are under these days, I was expecting to wait a long time and for staff to be rushed.
Instead, we were treated with such kindness and caring attention. From the triage nurse, to the respiratory therapist, x-ray technician and emergency room physician, we were reassured and received exemplary care.
My son went from being nervous, to thinking the whole experience was pretty cool. By the time we left less than three hours later, he had received the treatment he needed to breath without effort and he was not worried to go to sleep that night.
The next day the test results showed that he did not have COVID, a huge relief to all our family. We would like to extend our utmost gratitude to the wonderful staff at VGH for the amazing care we received.
Christine Young
Saanich
Plenty of respect for 6 South nurses
I was in Royal Jubilee Hospital recently for major surgery. I was transferred to my hospital room on 6 South to recover from surgery.
I was completely helpless and could only push the call button if necessary but it rarely was. The nurses anticipated my needs and made sure I was comfortable.
I felt they cared about me and I wasn’t just a job to them. They explained each step of my recovery and answered all my questions fully.
When the treatment they receive on some social media or at their workplace doesn’t interfere with them doing a great job, I have so much respect for them and all they do.
Louise Smith
Parksville
Health-care workers deserve our support
Yes, our health-care system needs some attention, especially more primary-care givers. However, to give credit where credit is due, I want to commend the front-line health-care workers at the Royal Jubilee Hospital, in particular those working in the Emergency Department and the Cardiac Short Stay Unit.
They are professional, knowledgeable, compassionate and attentive, all the while working with limited resources and often under very challenging and urgent circumstances.
Health-care workers in general deserve better recognition, more resources and better compensation. I am grateful for the high quality of their care, available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Thank you!
Kenan Sweezie
Victoria
Don’t bother with ships, just roll the cameras
We hear repeatedly that the cruise-ship industry contributes many millions of dollars to our economy. Figures vary.
The Greater Victoria Harbour Authority said it ended its fiscal year with a $1.1-million loss. I confess the absence of cruise ships and assorted traffic and pollution has been a welcome reprieve for some of us in James Bay.
Also this past week, the Victoria Film Commission indicated that filming of a Netflix series resulted in 200 well-paid jobs and about $10 million in economic benefits to the capital region.
That got me thinking that I would prefer more filming and fewer cruise ships in the future. The economic and environment benefits might be worth it.
Linda Carlson
Victoria
Harbour authority should get cruise ships back
It was interesting to see the Celebrity Millennium at anchor in the stream last Thursday evening, awaiting her docking in Seattle on Friday morning. It was the first time I have seen a cruise ship in Juan de Fuca Strait in 18 months.
She sailed on Friday evening on a one-week cruise to Alaskan waters. Of course, under Canadian regulation and a waiver of the American Jones Act, she could not and was not required to stop at a Canadian port, coming or going.
As we continue to rail against the supposed infamy by Alaskans who want the Jones Act repealed permanently, let us hope that the Greater Victoria Harbour Authority’s marketing A-Team is working hard to persuade cruise lines and their passengers that Canadian ports such as Victoria are worth a stop.
It is up to us to make the case, and not to expect that cruise ships will be forced to stop here whether they, or their passengers, want to.
D.B. Collins
Victoria
Reconciliation in action is an inspiring story
Re: “Oak Bay senior puts reconciliation in action with donation of her home,” Sept. 26.
Often, it looks like humanity is headed toward catastrophe, arguing and fighting as we go.
And then Jeff Bell shares the stories of “good neighbours,” including beautiful Marion Cumming.
To read his article about how she’s putting “reconciliation into action” is to remember that another world is possible.
Marion told me it might be useful for people to know that when she was a teen in the 1950s, she felt suicidal, just to look at the horrors of war and injustice in the world. Then people prayed for her and things shifted.
Helen Keller once said: “We live by each other and for each other.” The beauty and love in Marion’s world shows how powerful that way of seeing can be.
Jan Slakov
Salt Spring Island
Isitt should mediate community dispute
The Fairfield-Gonzales Community Association operates an outstanding facility, The Place, offering multilevel childcare and a variety of recreational activities for residents of both Fairfield and Gonzales.
A small, but significant part of its platform is the land use committee (CALUC), that allows residents to be informed in land development proposals.
The CALUC mandate (by the City of Victoria) is impartiality in development issues, collecting only the viewpoints of residents for submission to City Hall, a position that some members of the Gonzales area refuse to accept, and insist that the FGCA must advocate on their behalf.
As a former Fairfield resident and multi-year member of the FGCA’s board, I can attest that Gonzales had always received their full share of attention, and any rift or lack of goodwill between the two communities is from the Gonzales side only.
Accordingly, the idea of taxpayer-funded mediation is highly objectionable. Moreover, it is Coun. Ben Isitt, who is the city liaison to FGCA, the same person who infamously objected to spending on Christmas decorations and Remembrance Day activities; how can he support this spending?
How about acting as the mediator and resolve the issues without added cost?
George Zador
James Bay
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