The one per cent who help everyone
A definition of discrimination is the unjust or prejudicial treatment of different categories of people.
So the new provincial budget is discriminating against the so-called one per cent, an easy target because they are only one per cent.
However, who are these people? They are the ones who have taken risk and employ many of the people in the province.
They are the ones who have taken the risk we are relying on to build affordable housing or accommodation of any type. They are the ones who spent 10 years in university accumulating student and living debt, getting specialized medical training to do operations to save lives. They are the ones inventing everyday technology we are using.
They are the ones we are relying on to come up with solutions to climate change. They are the ones donating to non-profits. They are also the ones donating buildings from hospital wings to universities.
History, time and time again, has proven to discriminate against any group has consequences and a backlash. So when we see a shortage of doctors, fewer houses being built, less jobs being created, non-profits going broke and a brain drain from our province, remember this budget.
It was the reason a very important part of our community retired or left to greener pastures where they are appreciated, respected and not discriminated against.
Gerald Hartwig
Victoria
Even on the phone, idling is a bad idea
This message is for the ever-increasing number of people who I see in parking lots or at the side of the road sitting in their cars, talking on their cellphones while their car is idling.
Thanks for pulling over or not driving. The roads are safer because of you.
However, our overheating Earth and the life that’s left do not need this unnecessary carbon in the atmosphere.
Every little bit matters!
Be part of the solution rather than part of the problem. Shut off your engine, please.
Dave Secco
Victoria
Don’t link anarchism to chaos and violence
Re: “Don’t let dark shadows destroy our lives,” letter, Feb. 21.
The letter writer references Webster for a correct definition of anarchy, as “a state of lawlessness or political disorder due to the absence of governmental authority.”
But, unfortunately, he goes on in the next paragraph to incorrectly define the role of an “anarchist.”
“Anarchism” is, according to the same Webster dictionary, “a political theory holding all forms of governmental authority to be unnecessary and undesirable and advocating a society based on voluntary co-operation and free association of individuals and groups.”
As such, an “anarchist” is someone who advocates or practices such principles. The presumed associations of chaos and violence are just plain wrong.
The anarchists I know are peace-loving people, anti-nuke, anti-war pacifists, dedicated to the deconstruction of the military-industrial complex. They don’t promote lawlessness but rather a form of individual and societal co-operation.
Historically, they have fought at the forefront against fascists and dictators.
Anarchists bore the brunt of brownshirts and other fascists across Europe in the early 20th century, and they were especially zealous in their efforts to combat fascism during the Spanish Civil War, for which tens of thousands of volunteer anarchists sacrificed their lives.
I hope the letter-writer and your readers might reconsider these terms, based on historical precedent rather than jingoist labels.
Darren Alexander
Victoria
Get together to solve real problems
Re: “A divided Commons, a fractured country,” commentary, Feb. 21.
Maybe when the protesters run out of food, gas, and everything else they, and the rest of us, need to survive, they will stop what they are doing.
Like it or not, we are a resource-rich country, and getting these resources to buyers, both foreign and domestic is what we do. Look up into the sky in most countries to see what is the main cause of global warming.
If the warnings are to be believed, the climate worldwide will soon become our major problem and all this strife will become moot.
The way forward requires us all to work together.
Brian Hudson
Victoria
Trudeau has not ended this dispute
When I heard Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s announcement to remove blockades, I felt very angry.
Here was an opportunity to demonstrate true reconciliation and collaboration between Canada and the Indigenous nations.
The Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs offered a solution which would end all the blockades. They offered an alternative route for the pipeline that would meet their interests in protecting their land.
The government’s problem was that it would cost more money. Yes, it would be more expensive, but what is that compared to what is lost in relations with Indigenous people?
One thing we can know for sure is that this is not over.
Jeanette Aubin
Victoria
Youth transit pass about our priorities
On Feb. 25 the Regional Transit Commission will consider a motion to expand fare-free transit for all youth in the Capital Regional District.
It’s long past time that we make this decision, and more forward towards fare-free, expanded and electrified public transit for the whole region.
A couple of commissioners oppose the idea, claiming there is no money. But the resources are plain to see, when we look at how car travel is paid for.
Our society favours car use. While there’s a fare box in every bus, we don’t have a “pay per use” model for cars — each car trip feels free. But in reality, roads and car infrastructure are heavily subsidized by our tax dollars.
This means we are incentivizing car use at the expense of a much lower carbon transit system. To get people out of their cars, we must make public transit as or more affordable, convenient and comfortable.
The science is telling us we have only a few years remaining to cut emissions and avoid runaway climate change. In the CRD, the single largest CO2 source in our region is transportation.
Our priorities need to change. The transit commissioners need to act like there’s an climate emergency and start building the fare-free, zero-emission and vastly expanded system that we will be using in place of cars.
A key step is to remove the financial disincentive for getting on the bus. The commissioners must start with the region’s youth.
Patrick Schreck
Victoria
No taxis at the Victoria airport
After four hours travelling and waiting at the airport in Cancun for our flight, and after a 61Ú2-hour flight, we arrive at Victoria International Airport at 11:35 p.m. Saturday.
We collect our luggage and go through customs (a breeze) and then walk outside to observe a lineup at the taxi stand with more than 150 shivering souls waiting for a ride home, only to see there isn’t even one taxi in sight.
Do the taxi companies not check the times for incoming flights? Where are you? No wonder everyone is screaming for ride hailing on the Island.
Brian W. Shaughnessy
Victoria
The rooster and the crows can tell time
The roosters crow at the same time, the cows moo at the same time, and “the birds and the bees, the flowers and the trees” at the same time every year.
Saskatchewan had it right, leave it at standard time.
Maureen Dineen
Langford
Forestry workers need years to recover
The seven-and-a-half month forestry strike is hopefully over, with the workers gaining a cumulative increase in pay of about 12.5 per cent over five years — between two and three per cent per year.
However, they have lost about 62 per cent of annual wages while on strike.
This seems a phyrric victory indeed, one from which it will take decades to recover.
Roel Hurkens
Victoria
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