Victoria council shows disrespect for the city
I write as past president of the Victoria Arts Council. Because I was educated as an architectural historian, I am glad our mayor and council only represent Victoria, because I have imagined them in a city like Rome.
The Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps, attracting both undesirable and welcome visitors, could become a splash park and a water slide, so police could “legally” remove undesirables away from children.
If council wants to change our cultural fabric, how do they love our city? Some people in love partner up so they can “fix” their mate, life partners being their constant “work in progress.”
A “fixer-upper” is not why I love Victoria. What makes our city so attractive to me, to the citizens who worked to build this city, and to our visitors, is why I feel this council should take a crash course in civic cultural memory.
They should learn to love what we are today, to fully appreciate our heritage, and in line with those values, to imagine Victoria, going forward.
The cultural memory of Centennial Square does not exist at the whim of one elected group. The architectural and cultural fabric of Victoria should be respected, enhanced, and loved.
The disrespect this council has shown for Old Town should have been a warning that they would consider removing the city’s most significant public sculpture, a gift from three sister cities, the 1962 Centennial Fountain.
Mayor and council, please show that you love our city, not with planning experiments, not with tall buildings in Old Town, but with respect for the unique city that was here before you were elected, and for the citizens who built and preserved this city.
Please respect and love the Victoria that we, the people of this city, all deserve.
Keep our fountain.
JC Scott
Victoria
We need to know how drug users think
Re: “We need new thinking to tackle the overdose crisis,” commentary, April 30.
If we’re going to effectively deal with drug use and abuse (illicit and licit), there’s no doubt about the need to think differently.
Controlling supply, discouraging use, increasing surveillance, and changing our approach to harm reduction and legalization are changes that might have an impact on what is happening, but these are behavioural changes.
Unfortunately, they don’t deal with the way users and nonusers think about drug use.
If we don’t understand why drug users think the way they do, which is an absolute must if there’s any hope of providing effective treatment (which might impact the number of overdose deaths) there’s not much hope of finding a new way of thinking about our approach to the overdose crisis.
Ken Dwernychuk
Esquimalt
Drug decriminalization and a lesson from history
It is good that the B.C. NDP government has chosen to try roll back its decriminalization scheme pending approval from the federal government.
It is bad that it took a massive exercise in public drug abuse and subsequent outcry to overcome what from the beginning was more an exercise in ideological validation than evidence-based decision making.
The decriminalization scheme is the latest and worst in what has been a steadily increasing series of ideologically founded policy decisions on the part of this government.
To assure the public that it will neither consider nor repeat such ill-considered behaviour, the provincial government must identify, hold accountable and remove from its core decision making processes its extreme party ideologues.
I come from Saskatchewan and remember well the standard of good government provided by NDP leaders Allan Blakeney and Roy Romanow, done in the spirit of Tommy Douglas.
They did so because they kept their ideologues at arm’s length away from their core decision making processes.
By keeping them at bay these premiers in the long run preserved the professional integrity and independence of the provincial civil service.
All bureaucracies are subject to the risk posed by bureaucratic entrepreneurs who will tailor their work to please the biases of their political leadership rather than speak truth to power.
This process accelerates within ideological environments because they tend to project a binary view of faux-reality.
If Premier David Eby wishes to emulate and measure up to the old Saskatchewan NDP standard of good government he may wish to study and learn from its history.
Daniel Kyba
Victoria
Remember, that orca is just a teenager
Like many teenagers, Kwee-sa-hay-is, or Brave Little Hunter, hung around for food, then eventually got bored and left.
Bill Carere
Victoria
Be fair in taxing capital gains, labour
Since the federal budget was passed, much attention has been on the increase to the inclusion rate for capital gains.
Capital income, the predominant form of income for the one per cent, will still be taxed at a rate that is significantly less than labour income.
The tax system will be a little closer to fair when capital income and labour income are taxed at the same rate. I’ll be looking for that level in fairness in next year’s budget.
Kip Wood
Nanaimo
Premier’s best buddies: Other party leaders
Next to Premier David Eby’s immediate family, Eby has two best friends. These two best friends are Kevin Falcon and John Rustad.
Why? The two of them are going to cause vote-splitting in the provincial election and David Eby’s NDP government will win the election.
Joe Sawchuk
Duncan
Follow Singapore’s lead on drug smuggling
Some years ago I travelled to Singapore on several occasions.
Before arrival, landing cards were issued and I recall that printed on each card in large red letters were the words “the penalty for smuggling drugs into Singapore is death.”
On the way toward immigration and customs inspections were large signs reading “if you are carrying anything you do not wish to bring into Singapore you may deposit it here,” pointing toward conveniently placed bins.
Something to think about here, perhaps?
Brian Summers
Victoria
Walk, cycle, use transit to fight oil companies
The price of gas has jumped again. It’s nothing to do with carbon taxes — just world oil prices and/or corporate greed.
The best thing now would be if we all reduced our oil and gas purchases to show the oil companies we won’t be pushed around.
How to do that? Spend $50,000-plus on an electric vehicle?
That’s not affordable or practical for most people — but everyone who gets out of their car or truck and cycles, walks or uses transit is reducing fuel purchases and benefiting all of us.
Good for them. Well done.
Michael Fisher
Saanich
Overcome darkness with law and order
I don’t know why elected officials chose to follow places like Portland, Oregon, into the weeds of legalizing illicit and dangerous drugs and open usage.
We must criminalize drug possession and seek to restore law and order. We need to overcome the darkness and death of drugs with the light of life.
Elected officials should never copy the malevolence of other radical left-wing cities or states on this or any other matters in the future.
David R. Carlos
Saanichton
Drug consumption leads to homelessness
Friday night coming out of a restaurant I witnessed people shooting up on the sidewalk along Johnson Street.
One individual was half naked sitting in the middle the sidewalk, arm outstretched. I looked over to my left and I saw the police and I thought, great somebody will do something with this situation.
Then I realized under current laws the police were powerless to stop it. Our government’s policies have normalized doing drugs in public.
Now that they’ve normalized this behaviour, what is going to stop any of these drug addicts from doing drugs in public? That is why it was with much relief that I saw that the NDP government has asked to have drugs openly consumed in public criminalized again.
The argument is these people are homeless and they should be allowed to do these drugs where they find themselves. Perhaps if it wasn’t so acceptable for them to do the drugs in public, they might find a more appropriate places to consume and eventually become not homeless.
Pretty hard to get motivated looking for a home when you’re strung out sitting on a sidewalk.
Perhaps I’m wrong, but looking at the numbers and behaviour, the drug problem leads to homelessness, not the other way around.
So far the policies have done nothing but raise the homeless numbers.
Doug Coulson
Saanich
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