We need to care about the plight of others
According to most of what we read, hear or view in today’s media, the world is going to hell in a hand basket.
And while that might be true to many, I think it’s important for us to stop being surprised by what happens in the world, and to never stop caring.
This past year brought to me a terrible surprise — a medical diagnosis of the terminal sort — but while I don’t particularly care about the end result (my undeniable demise), I still find it easy to care about the plight of others.
And the most specific “others” I would like to recognize and remind everyone about are the overworked (a true understatement) doctors and nurses in Victoria General Hospital and Royal Jubilee Hospital, and the ambulance personnel who truly cared about keeping me alive, at least for the short term.
So to all those party people who celebrate the New Year of 2023, I say raise your glasses, at least once, to toast the people who are there for you, even when you don’t need them. What they need to know is that you care.
T.L. Pedneault-Peasland
Saanich
Thanks for the help after a bad fall
I want to thank the nice young couple that helped me on Dec. 11 when I stepped over a curb and into a ditch at Brock Avenue and Scafe Road.
They helped me call my husband to pick me up and then called the Capital Regional District who came and put a cone where I fell.
I ruptured my achilles tendon and had surgery.
Will be in a cast for up to six months, then physio.
I’m very grateful to that young couple for their kindness.
Gail Hughes
Langford
In Victoria, half used active transportation
Re: “Victoria tops 91原创 cities for people walking, cycling to work,” Dec 29.
I want to clarify some of the numbers in the article which stated that the 2021 census shows that 5.3 per cent of commuters in the Victoria “capital region” biked to work.
This number refers not to the Capital Regional District but to the Victoria Census Metropolitan Area, which reaches from North Saanich to the Jordan River and does not include the Gulf Islands.
What perhaps is more significant about what the census shows is not that so many biked to work in the Victoria CMA but that just 74 per cent used cars as drivers or passengers to commute, and that this was the lowest share of people driving to work of all the 42 CMAs in Canada.
This low percentage is largely because the CMA includes the city of Victoria, which, at 53 per cent, had the lowest level of commuters using cars as drivers or passengers of any municipality in Canada (I have checked about 50 likely competitors).
In other words, 47 per cent of the working population in the city used active transportation; 22 per cent walked to work (by far the highest percentage in the country), 10 per cent biked to work and the rest used transit or other means of travel.
Only two other municipalities in Canada — 91原创 and Montreal — were over 40 per cent active transportation for commuting. As far I can establish, Esquimalt, at 34 per cent, ranked seventh, and Oak Bay was 10th (with what might be the highest share in Canada of people biking to work, at 11 per cent).
It’s also worth noting that actual numbers for commuting in 2021 were lower than they were in 2016 because the census was taken at the height of the pandemic, and almost a third of the employed population in Victoria, and more than that in most other cities, was working from home.
Ted Relph
Victoria
Nativity scene is missing Christ Child
Well, the Grinch or his twin brother is alive and well in Oak Bay.
I believe that it was sometime overnight on Tuesday that the image of the Christ Child was taken from the Nativity scene on my front lawn — even though the scene was fully illuminated. There was no damage — just the abduction.
This was an original piece of my art which I created a few years ago to replace its predecessor — which had previously been stolen. What kind of moron does that sort of thing and how come I’ve been hit twice?
One spends one’s time, talent and resources to brighten up the neighbourhood, in keeping with the festive occasion, only to have some knucklehead burst the balloon.
Oh well, whoever took Jesus probably needs Him more than I do and “NO” I don’t plan on paying a ransom.
Paul Redchurch
Victoria
Assistance in dying is not compassion
In Canada, we are on the verge of making Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) more accessible to those who are suffering from mental illness. When MAID was first made into law in 2016, many of us said that it was the “thin edge of the wedge” into a door that would never close and that expansion of the criteria would be inevitable.
We were scoffed at. However, that door is about to be blasted wide open and many of us could never have predicted the rapidity with which this has escalated.
MAID is not compassion. It masquerades as compassion; but it is not. Suffering has a purpose in this life. It is a part of our collective humanity and always has been.
If you are considering MAID under the present or the new criteria, please consider this first. Perhaps you are lonely, in pain, you feel you are burden to those who love you and that no one needs you around. I would put it to you that there is someone who needs you.
You don’t know this person yet, you will meet them in the future. Maybe the future is tomorrow. This is the person whose hand you will take, whose tear-filled eyes you will look into and to whom you will say: “I have been where you are. I made it to the other side. I’m going to share with you how I did it.” Then you will tell them how to make it through that day and the next day.
This is what compassion and empathy really look like and the only teacher of these qualities is suffering. It takes effort though, more effort than simply putting a needle in someone’s arm. Are we willing to do this work for one another? This is what human beings, decent human beings, have done for one another since time immemorial.
I believe that Canada is filled with decent human beings. Can we all please come together as a human family and speak up to oppose these new measures that will turn our country into a merciless and indifferent dystopia?
Please Canada, can we do this now?
Patricia Cuthbertson
Victoria
Make landlords use a rental agency
I understand how stratas that currently restrict rentals might be concerned that unruly tenants and absentee landlords could cause additional headaches and expense.
One way in which stratas could mitigate their concerns might be a bylaw making landlords use a strata-approved rental management agency.
Professional management agencies are much better at screening potential renters and at dealing with problems when they arise. Also, the 10 per cent management fee might deter some of the less conscientious landlords.
As a sometimes absent landlord myself I have found that a good professional agency is a blessing to both landlords and tenants alike.
Martin Hill
Sooke
Government should help private bus line
Re: “Let government run the bus service,” letter, Dec. 29.
The writer states that the scheduled routes of Tofino Bus and 91原创 Island 91原创or, which have been suspended, should be taken over by the government.
Does the writer really believe the government will do a better job at managing this? I believe the bus company most probably has several buses, several drivers, and several mechanics to ensure safe operations of this and other routes they provide service to.
B.C. Ferries are subsidized by the taxpayer in the “low” passenger season, so why not scheduled passenger bus service?
I am sure that $1.15-million grant that the company received from the government was to help the bus company stay afloat during COVID. Can you imagine having a bus company during the height of COVID, and trying to navigate a mandated social distancing law?
This provincial grant was not intended to be used for daily operations. The fact is for a time there were no operations at all.
Best solution in my opinion, is for the government to subsidize the route or routes that are being temporarily suspended, much like B.C. Ferries, which has been likened to an extension of a highway.
Steven Shingles
Colwood
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