Police should de-escalate whenever possible
Re: “We need to pull over when directed by police,” letter, July 8.
The cyclist in this case ran a red light and failed to pull over when the police vehicle flashed its lights and sounded its siren.
The letter concludes that these actions justify the cyclist’s injury due to being bumped by the police vehicle. I have serious concerns about this attitude toward not just cyclists, but any citizen suspected of committing a traffic offence.
There are few contexts in which our police force should escalate a situation on our public roads. While running a red light is dangerous and increases the chances of an accident, having an officer instigate a collision does not make sense as a remedy.
I feel much safer on our roads when police focus on de-escalation rather than escalating situations in public spaces, which only puts more people in danger.
Less “Starsky & Hutch” and more “White Bronco chases,” please.
Kevin Hampton
Saanich
Toxic social media are changing our world
A recent letter expressed dismay that a poll showed that 70% of Canadians believe “Canada is broken.”
Not surprising, as toxic, hyper-politicized social media are attacking every government institution and policy. It’s a war on imperfection!
Every social problem, small or big, is ballooned into something alarming. Their videos use every trick of manipulation: menacing music, disturbing stories of hardship, rapid cutting of shocking images — until the viewers are panicked that the world is at its end.
The constant underlying theme of every post is the malevolence and corruption of our democratically elected governments. No wonder people think that Canada is broken.
The far-right conservative social media channels are no better. Semi-profane and viciously disrespectful of our elected leaders, they paint a picture of Canadians in a state of economic desperation, suffering under the burden of inflation and the carbon tax.
They don’t seem to notice that all the restaurants are full, the stores are busy, everyone’s hiring, unemployment is low and inflation is abating.
They claim that human-caused climate change is a hoax and NASA is “woke,” so its excellent website explaining the evidence behind human-caused climate change is to be disregarded.
Consumers of these sites have usually stopped watching or reading legitimate news outlets with their professional journalism standards of fact-checking.
They are told (and they believe) that the climate is cooling, not warming, that Canada’s historical record high temp was 42 C in the 1930s.
They don’t know about Lytton burning to the ground under 49.9 C heat three years ago. Nor do they know about 800 touchdown tornadoes that ripped up the U.S. Prairies in May.
These social media channels go a long way to explaining Pierre Poilievre’s popularity and the Conservatives’ hard turn to the extreme. Toxic social media are changing our country.
These toxic social media channels have the potential to make our civilization ungovernable, as we saw with the Ottawa occupation and the Jan. 6 insurrection in the U.S., both stoked by toxic and misleading social media.
And this is happening all over the world, in every democratic country. Toxic, politicized social media are changing our world.
Cynthia Montgomery
Duncan
Move to Central Saanich for the cars and trucks
I have read many letters to the editor on bike lanes; it seems to be one of the more popular topics in the last few years.
Being a resident of Central Saanich, I found the letters to be interesting as they gave the complete range of opinions on the subject. The letters for and against were very well balanced.
For those who wrote against bike lanes, my advice is to move to Central Saanich, where cars and trucks are king.
No need for the cost and trouble of building bike lanes when we can just label roads such as Wallace Drive as “shared roads” and it is considered unfair to homeowners to remove street parking for bike lanes.
For those residents of other areas of Greater Victoria who support bike lanes, I suggest if you are skilled and brave enough, cycle from Saanichton to Brentwood Bay on Wallace Drive, a segment of the Interurban Rail Cycling Route, as per the regional district cycling maps.
This will make you greatly appreciate the efforts of local councils to build safe cycling infrastructure, as you never know how good you’ve got it until you see how the other half live.
Bruce Elliot
Brentwood Bay
Vaccines have saved millions of lives
The recent discussions about whether health professionals who don’t believe in vaccines should be working in the health-care system raise some interesting questions.
Would we tolerate health-care workers who refuse to wash their hands because they don’t believe in germs? That sounds ridiculous, but until the mid-19th century most doctors did not understand germs and refused to wash their hands between patients.
We wouldn’t want to board a plane whose pilot doesn’t believe in gravity. You wouldn’t want to employ a banker or engineer who has no faith in math.
Requiring medical staff to believe in something as basic as vaccines, which have saved millions of lives over their history, doesn’t seem unreasonable.
S.I. Petersen
Nanaimo
No-fault insurance has had a nasty impact
Congratulations to Premier David Eby on another stellar fiscal year for ICBC and the no-fault insurance model. It’s driven this senior to the brink of insolvency.
The NDP’s platform touts a more affordable province. For a senior, or anyone injured under the new system, the financial implications associated with no-fault insurance are definitely not affordable.
Shifting the payment for services from ICBC to the injured party is irresponsible. To a senior reprehensible.
British Columbians are facing big challenges. This “big challenge” has been created by the government. Therefore, responsibility for the serious faults inherent in a “no-fault” insurance model rests solely on the government’s shoulders.
The premier professes to have a track record of tackling big problems and getting results. He has the authority to correct these deficiencies.
I challenge him and his government to do so.
Maureen Owen
Victoria
Building more dams might take far too long
As I read all the letters against Gwyn Morgan, I wonder if people really thought about it.
How long does it take to build dams? Think of the red tape and protests, and that the dams might be unreliable with expected droughts.
Also, look what happened to solar panels and wind turbines in storms — they were destroyed.
If we have heat waves, are people going to have to decide on air conditioning or charging cars?
Everyone has to step back and think. Timelines are unrealistic right now. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket as the Trudeau Liberals want us to do.
Be very careful as we go forward.
Ken McKay
Saanich
Maybe that term is not really Canadian, eh
If the use of language in the BBC-TV series (now on Netflix) Peaky Blinders is historically accurate, then the true origin of “eh” is not Canadian, but rather British, eh?
Gil Verrier
Esquimalt
Province is the cause of surprise costs in condos
Re: “Condo owners face steep cost for potential electrical needs,” commentary, June 15.
We would like to associate ourselves with the comments about the new provincial requirement that condos provide — i.e. pay for — an electrical planning report by the end of 2026.
It is only condos/stratas that are required to undertake the commissioning of and payment for these reports.
As she also mentions, condo owners typically have lower incomes than do those owning single-family dwellings. Moreover, many are seniors on fixed incomes who are already dealing with increased prices and the rising cost of living.
The province has also decided that condos will no longer have the ability to waive their depreciation reports no matter how well-managed the condo, ostensibly on the grounds that strata-owners will be spared “surprise” levies or assessments.
The requirement to commission and pay for these reports by “qualified persons” will also be implemented in 2026.
To this the province has added yet another new obligation, that stratas must contribute 10% of the operating fund per annum to their contingency funds, whether it is needed or not.
These new requirements potentially comprise significant outlays of strata funds.
We suggest that the only “surprise” levies facing well-managed stratas are those being imposed by the province itself.
Janet Brons
Gary Wilton
Sidney
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