Don’t be fooled by those bouncy castles
Re: “Bouncy castles are not a threat,” letter, Feb. 17.
The right to protest is protected by the Constitution, but a blockade is not a legal protest.
Using their children and carnival accessories to anchor a blockade in Ottawa is nice public relations for convoy insurgents uninterested in the rule of law that governs freedom of assembly, but it is still illegal.
However peaceful the occupation may appear, there is no right to squat on public roadways or in public spaces so as to prevent other citizens from going about their daily business.
The Criminal Code reads, in part: “[E]veryone is guilty of an indictable offence … who, wrongfully and without lawful authority, for the purpose of compelling another person to abstain from doing anything that he or she has a lawful right to do, or to do anything that he or she has a lawful right to abstain from doing … blocks or obstructs a highway.”
Occupiers have been tireless in reminding their fellow citizens that they are not abandoning their blockades and that one of their objectives has been to have the unelected Senate and the unelected Governor General dismiss a democratically elected government, and replace it with representatives of their leadership to govern alongside those otherwise impotent officeholders.
To advance this agenda, they continue to frustrate the lives of Ottawa’s citizens, harass and intimidate health-care workers, schoolchildren and others traitorous to their belligerent cause.
So, whether it’s bullets (convoy leader Pat King has said that “this thing will only be solved with bullets”), or bouncy castles, the aim of those happy-go-lucky thugs remains undisguised by the clown show.
No one should be fooled, and the government is right to take whatever means are necessary to send them home, even if their new homes may be a crowbar hotel.
John Luton
Victoria
Difficult to watch our flag disrespected
For 27 years I travelled to 21 countries around the world doing humanitarian work.
I taught English, worked in refugee camps, helped build houses, delivered Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes and worked in summer and winter camps. I handed out our Canadian flag pins with great pride in all those countries.
The last several weeks have been very difficult for me as I watch our flag being treated with such disrespect. How sad to see so much misdirected anger and self-righteousness.
M.A. McGee
Saanichton
Shocking display by mandate protesters
As a former Gabriola resident and recipient of medical care from the staff of Nanaimo Regional General Hospital, I was shocked and embarrassed by the behaviour of protesters towards medical staff there during the recent protest.
These are the people who risk their health and safety to care for COVID patients and others and do not deserve any of the abuse that was directed their way by an immature, uninformed and ungrateful mob who care nothing about the welfare of others and are only concerned with their own selfish motives.
In addition, these staff did not create mask or vaccination mandates, and are only doing their best to care for the health of others and pursue their livelihoods.
I hope these protesters will take a good look in the mirror and into their own consciences and ask themselves who they expect to care for them when the time comes, and be prepared to apologize to the dedicated health workers whom they have wronged.
George Myette
Gabriola Island
We all have ideas about what freedom is
Freedom! Yup.
Nothing says “freedom” like sitting around for three weeks in your truck, honking the horn and going nowhere.
And when it’s all over, possibly being incarcerated.
Inspiring.
Sandy Szabo
North Saanich
Falsehoods abound in these pandemic times
The freedom rallies highlight the tension between actual facts and opinion.
I’ve been told that epidemiologists and provincial health officers are pawns of “the state,” that not everyone wants the pandemic to end, that the pandemic is not real (then are exhausted health care workers and intubated ICU patients actors? what are they really putting in those refrigerator trucks when hospital morgues overflow?), that the COVID-19 virus has never been isolated (CDC website: by Feb. 4, 2020, the virus had been isolated), that the Omicron variant came from a lab in Winnipeg, that I should read a book by anti-vaccine crusader Robert F. Kennedy Jr., that the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is not reliable (based on misapplication of a 25-year-old video by its inventor, who died in August 2019).
Globally, thousands of PCR reactions is undertaken daily, the results are highly accurate and repeatable. For 40 years the PCR has been refined and the applications expanded widely to include genealogies, genetic testing from human disease to dog pedigrees, widespread use in forensics and in nearly all biological sciences.
One man complained that he was not free to go to a restaurant. (From Amnesty International: a woman was just freed after three years of imprisonment for challenging a driving ban for women).
Months ago Dr. Bonnie Henry predicted that as more people were vaccinated, restrictions could be eased — as we are experiencing now, based on scientific insights.
Ken Marr
Victoria
Be cautious with easing restrictions
B.C. is opening up, but I feel as if we’ve been down this path to reopening more than a few times in the past two years.
Rather than get hyped up, I think I’ll wait this one out until health services and doctors think it’s safe to see patients in person again.
J.R. Ross
Nanaimo
Another way to improve ICBC
ICBC announced they’re going to get rid of the decals and will allow renewing policies online — these are great ideas.
I have another great idea. Why don’t we get rid of having to renew every year? They should automatically be renewed as long as you’re in good standing like they do in New York.
Leroy Norville
Sooke
Fyke’s recommendations demand attention
Re: “A shortage of physicians? Let’s solve the real issue,” Feb. 16.
What a timely and informed analysis of the issues underlying our access to family physicians here in B.C.
Ken Fyke has identified the key players needed to resolve this matter in a clear, concise and accurate way. One aspect in particular needs attention: The current system of compensating physicians, now decades old, requires a major overhaul.
This will not be welcomed by some specialists, but clearly the current system is collapsing for many Doctors of B.C. members; notably family physicians.
Throwing significantly more scarce tax dollars at the issue will not resolve it over the longer term, only prolong it unless the current “fee for service” (aka turnstile) model of practice endorsed by the Doctors of B.C. isn’t dramatically changed. Salaries for some, including family practice physicians, makes practical sense.
Let’s not poke around the edges of the problem, but take a close look at what Fyke recommends and get the leadership necessary to move on in the right direction. Otherwise we will talking about this for the next several decades.
John Stevenson
Victoria
Health care and a new approach
Re: “A shortage of physicians? Let’s solve the real issue,” Feb. 16.
Kudos to Ken Fyke for his informed and articulate piece on the current state of our precious health care in British Columbia.
Solutions to ensure and protect a system that would provide an appropriate and desirable level of care to all residents continues to elude us.
Our elected leaders face an almost insurmountable task to provide high-quality care for all, while at the same time ensuring the system does not implode.
The time has come for us to remove the blinkers, so to speak, and open a dialogue among the multitude of creative and gifted people on both sides of the aisle to put forth a new approach.
Tony Southwell
Victoria
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