Bad seed sown
I have some thoughts on the Canadian injustice system, which is under the spotlight due to recent gangland style shootings in Toronto …. This situation did not start last year, but is the harvest of many years of well intentioned but lunatic social theory.
It starts with the theory that there are no bad people and that all criminal activity is the result of poverty or social injustice. Why then did not our pioneers, the people who built this country, murder and rob at will?
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I would suggest it was because they were taught respect for other people’s rights and property and that there were real consequences for crimes.
I think the seeds of today’s problems were sown with the young offenders act, which leaves young criminals unnamed, calls them victims and leaves them unpunished because of all their “rights.”
Their victims have the right to remain silent. These people are not stupid. Over the years it has been ingrained into their psyche that they have a right to everything and responsibility for nothing…
Our revolving door and volume discount sentences give everyone the message that there are no real consequences to crime. Recently, because of public outrage, and with their usual fanfare, the Liberals introduced the youth justice act, but by all accounts this has made the system even worse.
Statistics Canada claims that crime rates are down, but we know that is a crock. Many crimes don’t even make it onto police records, as they are often just too busy to investigate.
This is not to denigrate the police. They are largely good dedicated people. There is limited ability or incentive for them to do their job when criminals either beat them back to the street, or after long delays, simply walk. …
Of nations we compare ourselves with, we have the lowest rates of police per 100,000 and the lowest rates of incarceration per 100,000. With prisoners union and prisoners voting, the inmates are running the institutions.
I don’t think most people want subsistence food and physical abuse of prisoners, but I believe the majority would agree that there is a place for corporal and even capital punishment in our system. The theory that punishment is no deterrent to crime flies in the face of thousands of years of experience and all common sense.
The wholesale muggings, knifings, shootings, etc. on once safe streets leave no doubt that if we don’t get radical justice reform soon, we are headed for total anarchy.
– Delon Bleakney,
Turtleford, Sask.
About parenting
I am writing in response to Joan Bell’s “Child-care plan” letter, (Open Forum, Jan. 12.)
I am a stay at home mother of three (three, five and seven years) and college educated. I left a full-time career to marry a dedicated Canadian farmer and raise our children because I feel that it is my responsibility to do so.
My husband and I work together as partners. I do not draw a wage nor do I ask for one. We are self-sufficient re: budgeting, growing garden and fruit trees, home-cooked meals, activities as a family.
We are with our children almost every day, showing affection, reading to them, making sure chores are done, celebrating special events, kissing boo boos, teaching them how to get along with each other.
When we are faced with a situation we do not understand, we call upon resources in our community – an aunt, nurse, sitter, a person that is involved in the school system, another parent.
It is mentors we need, not more day care. In our community many children come from two parent families. A majority are very involved in their schools/after school activities.
I will gladly accept $1,200 per year from the Conservative government to use for food to feed my children or to purchase a $40 to $50 snow suit that will fall apart after a few months of outside play.
Maybe I can hire our sitter to play with our children so I can spend time at the library researching websites and reading books on “parenting your child.”
I take exception to the idea that a degree or two behind your name makes a person expert on child rearing. The majority of parents – two parents, single parent or relatives – know what is best for their children.
– Barbara Onofreychuk,
MacNutt, Sask.
CWB sales
Regarding the “Valuable CWB” letter written by Avery Sahl, Mossbank (Open Forum, Jan. 12.)
Mr. Sahl’s statement that “the CWB is a sales organization only” is like saying Ralph Goodale’s inappropriate investment trust tax comments only affected the tooth fairy. It’s just not that simplistic.
Clearly this “sales organization” forces farmers to sell their grain to them exclusively or face severe penalties. These penalties, evident in the media, show farmers being arrested and their property confiscated because they choose to market their own wheat from their own land.
Surely no ordinary sales organization would have the power to confiscate property without compensation, unless it was to maintain a monopoly. It is no wonder the Liberal government excluded property rights from the Canadian Constitution and our Charter of Rights.
With all due respect, Mr. Sahl’s letter seems to imply that grain farmers having marketing choice is bad, shareholders making money is bad, marketplace competition is bad, and the U.S. government and their grain companies are bad.
Some of us peasants have a different view, like choice and property are rights, profit and shareholders provide capital for companies to employ people, competition makes organizations and economies efficient, and trade with the U.S. creates millions of tax paying jobs in Canada.
Scare tactics aside, I do not necessarily agree with the conclusion that the CWB will be destroyed if they have to compete for the marketing of western Canadian farmer’s wheat.
Unless I have missed something, I would hope that the professional grain-marketing group at the CWB are smart enough to stay in business, as well as respect rights to choice and private property.
– Lyle Denton,
Regina, Sask.
Property rights
Isn’t it interesting how Paul Martin is defending Trudeau’s Charter of Rights? It now looks like the Charter of Rights only takes away from good honest, hard working, moral living people and gives rights to dishonest, corrupt government and criminals.
Has this Charter of Rights fuelled separation? I do not recall any threats of separation before Trudeau pushed his charter onto Canadians. Why did he leave out the rights to own property?
– Bob Snider,
New Norway, Alta.
Farm struggle
More is less when one considers that 10 years ago or more, the farmer growing, for instance, canola and with minimum input costs, could realize a production of 30 bushels per acre, and at $9 per bu. his gross return would be $270 per acre.
Now with genetic influence, hybrids and whatever else an industry incorporates… that farmer today can realize even 60 bu. per acre. But at today’s price of $5 per bu. that gross return comes to $300 per acre.
Is the farmer better off? Financially or otherwise, I suggest no. They need more bins for the greater production. They require more trips to the grain terminal and there are more transportation costs to be considered. And ultimately, more stress and worries of how to pay the bills.
Years ago, did anyone hear of a telephone stress and crisis line for farmers, like we have today?
I think the farmer’s work nowadays is accomplishing little but a constant and great profit margin for the fertilizer, pesticide and genetic seed companies; while the farmer himself is on the road to bankruptcy ….
Isn’t it about time that farmers earn a decent living to support their families and way of life, instead of working their butts off to keep the other industries, corporations, agri-business and the share holders profitable? …
There is a saying that if you find yourself in a deep hole and those that come to your aid only throw down shovels, you are really in trouble. And as the hole deepens, wouldn’t ladders be a more appropriate tool? Ladders and a farm policy that recognizes, addresses and establishes agriculture and its stewards as our most important and vital resource….
– John Fefchak,
Virden, Man.
Letters to the editor
letters
Liberal water?
I find it hard to believe that you people in Regina would send Ralph Goodale to Ottawa again.
Is there something in the water in the Wascana slough? What is the matter with you people?
I couldn’t believe it when he won again and also when he had the audacity to comment on the insinuations made during the campaign. Those last ditch attempts made by his pitiful party on Saturday night should have turned anyone with any kind of a brain away from the Liberals, but then Regina has never been known to be the intellectual centre of Saskatchewan, or the centre of anything. Is there an ad company in Regina too?
– Brian Waldie,
Fort Macleod, Alta.
Muzzle control
Regarding the article by Mr. Verpy and guns, WP, Jan. 19.
I feel very sad for Mr. Verpy and family and hope his son comes through this with no scars, physical or mental.
The fact remains that the government should not have to place restrictions on us for commonplace things.
He was totally negligent in leaving the firearm loaded, which he knows all too well, but his biggest failure is that he failed to teach his son the one fundamental rule to safely handle any firearm and that is muzzle control.
I grew up in the 1940s and ’50s on a farm, long before these rules came in. We had guns always within reach. The ammunition was never in sight and we were always told to never touch those guns. When we were about 10 years old we were taught how and when to use them and to point them only at what you intended to shoot…
My four boys all took hunter safety at the first chance, 12 years old, because I thought they should know how to handle firearms even if they didn’t hunt, and I have always stressed the importance of muzzle control. Even an accidental firing cannot harm if the muzzle is controlled.
The fact remains that it is not only firearms that are a danger without proper instruction. We have driving regulations and drivers tests for all drivers and yet every day I have people pass me at intersections with cars waiting to enter traffic, cars staying in the left lane on a four-lane highway when vehicles are entering that lane from an intersection, drivers taking off at a green light without looking to make sure no one is running that light, drivers not moving into the left lane that is empty as I try to merge into the right one from an adjoining highway in the merge lane.
There is a need for regulation and the safe storage of firearms is a good one but none will replace common sense and the ability for us to teach our children the same.
– Robert Campbell,
Saskatoon, Sask.
Gun rules
In regard to the article by Mr. Alan Verpy (WP, Jan. 19) about safe gun storage.
First of all, I’m feeling sad about what happened to (his) son, but am glad to hear that it was not worse. Gun storage in a safe manner should be a priority to all of us, but we are human and sometimes an honest mistake is made.
This is one example of how our very expensive gun registry is a terrible waste of taxpayers’ money and would not have prevented this near tragedy.
By the time this is printed, we may have a Conservative government that may do away with the gun registry.
Instead, train more police, set up tougher sentences for crime with guns and take a look at the Young Offenders Act and see if this is really a good thing.
– Stephen Warunki,
Bon Accord, Alta.
Applaud organics
Re: “Use caution in move to Organics,” WP, Jan. 19.
Mike Larsson’s article certainly proves like begets like. Many of his comments mirror the same fervor he criticizes in his article.
I suppose one might consider us in the natural food business as health food fanatics. Maybe there is nothing wrong with wanting to improve our personal and environmental well-being.
While we do see beamers in our parking lot, the majority of our customers are in the same or lower income bracket as the average Canadian. I can see this by the young families and students that frequent our stores.
In regards to producers, Mike is certainly correct that organics isn’t a fairy tale. The same hard work applies as it did for our pioneers before the chemical revolution. These are the same “advancements” that brought us Thalidomide, DDT, Agent Orange, the Bhopal incident, etc.
I applaud those producers brave enough to put up with the derision and critics. They continue to enrich all our lives.
As with any other venture there are success and failures. Whatever the sales forecasts in regard to organics may say, there is no doubt that organics is making a splash and for good reason.
As this so-called new industry emerges, it will mature and continue to succeed and overcome the obstacles, whether they be crop diseases or the naysayers.
– Frank Sarro,
Category Manager-Produce/Bulk Foods,
Community Natural Foods Ltd.,
Calgary, Alta.
