No more patience on Malahat upgrades
We shouldn’t have to beg for barriers on the Malahat. We shouldn’t have to beg to not be killed or maimed whilst driving on this treacherous road. We just shouldn’t have to. We shouldn’t dread it. But we do.
I have clocked drivers at 160 to 180 km/h both northbound and southbound. The police can’t always be there. Why don’t we have photo radar and why shouldn’t ICBC make this happen?
Why don’t we have barriers so that a young woman and her two children don’t have their lives changed by a car crossing the line?
Why should any of us be patient while it’s “studied”? I truly hope that the people who are “studying” it have no one they love die or be injured on this very treacherous road.
Why should we have to be patient?
Susan Worrall
Chemainus
Victoria council lost important support
Regarding the planned removal of large mature trees in the City of Victoria, if Mother Nature had a vote, she would not vote for Victoria city council.
Martha McNeely
Oak Bay
McKinnon Pool was vital during the pandemic
During the Covid pandemic the McKinnon Pool was a redeeming feature in a world that seemed to be, at times, unwelcoming.
The schedules, routines, pool staff and lifeguards were professional, and every job they performed made the experience of swimming enjoyable.
I could write about the several groups and activities that the McKinnon Pool supports, but others have done this with passion and sensibility.
I echo their sentiments. I am asking the decision makers to keep the McKinnon Pool open.
Hayley Henderson
Victoria
We need an outdoor swimming pool
Victoria needs a public outdoor swimming pool! I grew up in Alberta and was never without one in my neighbourhood.
Now we have pools closing and closed beaches.
The new rafts at Banfield park are well used and are packed with people most days.
Consider updating the Crystal Pool and building an outdoor pool in the park behind it.
Wendy Rudd
Victoria
Don’t go this way, and don’t go there either
Could someone find out why there are “Detour” signs with arrows all over Saanich, and why? They don’t communicate who is supposed to detour, going where, or why … are they doing anything for anyone?
We just drove on in the direction we were going, as did the drivers ahead of us. An email to Saanich evinced the reply, “they aren’t ours, they are placed by CRD”…end of reply. Why?
Janet Doyle
Victoria
Using obituaries to take advantage
When I read the article on third-party operators taking advantage of the death of a loved one, I looked up my recently deceased husband’s obituary, and saw that Echovita had rewritten it, poorly, in an attempt to get well-wishers to purchase flowers, a tree or light a candle.
It sickens me to think people would stoop so low to take advantage of those who are grieving and are at their most vulnerable.
My funeral director has already asked this company to never use their obituaries, but they feel entitled to ignore them.
I hope there will be legal ways to shut down this shockingly abhorrent activity.
Jean Bigelow
Victoria
More must be done for women and children
Why don’t our laws do enough to protect our most vulnerable — women and children? In Canada almost 50% of homicides (solved, 2009-2022) involving women were attributed to intimate partner perpetrators; in 2022 more than six million women reported abuse by an intimate partner.
Factor in unreported abuse and the enormity of the issue is even more staggering. Unfortunately it’s not uncommon either to hear news about a mother and children being victimized by a partner.
And on a given night in Canada how many women and children will be sleeping in a safe shelter — if in fact there are spaces — trying to escape, at least temporarily, abuse and violence in their homes? The layered scars of violence are never superficial — children, and women, are burdened, perhaps for the rest of their lives.
However, pitying the victims who have to endure such violence in the home, often for months, years, does nothing at all to change their harrowing circumstances.
Empathy does not make victims safer. It seems our laws don’t either.
And it is inexcusable that at a Status of Women committee meeting, where witnesses were describing the personal terror they had endured, that Liberal MP Anita Vandenbeld blatantly diverted the meeting – on violence against women – to focus instead on abortion rights.
Despite the Liberal MP’s shameful partisan antics, intimate partner/domestic violence is a critical issue in dire need of action – not words – to mitigate its devastation on the lives of its victims.
Action such as urgent bail reform. For starters. And, if the PM is serious about violence against women, why is Vandenbeld still in the Liberal caucus?
The issue is dire and needs to be elevated in the consciousness of one and all — in particular our elected officials, judiciary, and law enforcement to effect the urgency of the changes required. Empathy alone is not enough.
Don’t our most vulnerable deserve as much?
Gordon Zawaski
Parksville
Throw cigarette butt, get thrown in prison
So we have enough to worry about when it comes to forest fires. Lightning being the worst, no, second worst. Human caused forest fires are the worst!
Humans causing forest fires, flicking their cigarette butts out of the car windows, or starting them intentionally to watch the reactionary response.
These people need prison! Throw your butt out of your window, go to prison.
Start a fire intentionally, double the sentence.
I am sick and tired of our society accepting poor human behaviour.
Do the deed, pay the price. Let’s toughen up these laws.
The lazy smokers, and the wilfully fire starting individuals need to pay a price.
Years in prison. That’s the price.
Dewane Ollech
Victoria
Please, keep school grounds as they are
Re: “Create unhoused area on the old school grounds,” letter, Aug. 6.
No, no, no. Not! What a hideous thought to have one of the last tranquil spaces left in this city to be turned into a hub.
No thank you!
Colleen Rhymer
Victoria
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