Letters to the Editor

Send your letters to editor@themanitoban.com or drop them off at 105 University Centre

Things can change

I wanted to comment on Greg McVicker’s article entitled “ Aboriginal Canadians can’t be spoken for by census results” I thought it was a great article which spoke the truth about Aboriginal Canadians and I found the picture attached to the article very depicting of how the Gov’t has been dealing with the truth about these people, they have been sweeping the problem under the carpet for years. I have been working with Aboriginal Canadians in the inner city for over 15 years and not only has it changed my life and my priorities for the better, but I have seen the devastating results we have heaped on these peaceful people. When we colonize and assimilate and take their children to schools to look and talk like us we are saying to them your culture and heritage is wrong, you need to believe what we do and look and talk like us for you to make it in the world. What can these people hold dear to their heart if they can’t pass on their heritage, stories, language and culture. It has stolen their hope. We also see the rates of suicide for those on reserve sky rocketing off the charts. The only other time in history that it has been this high was at the concentration camps in Germany. Does that not say what this is doing to them? I guess it doesn’t help by having section 67 of the Canadian human rights act that prevents Aboriginals on reserve from filing a human rights complaint, but I will keep politics for a different day. Is this not Canada and is the year not 2008? I think it’s time people wake up and smell the new millennium. I think people who go off on mission work to Africa etc to be very brave and they do good work but let’s start working in our own backyard and stop third world living conditions for our brothers and sisters in Canada. The Gov’t can keep sweeping these problems under the carpet but that doesn’t mean we have to. Let’s be proud of Aboriginal Canadians and their heritage, we can learn many great and wonderful things from them. Things can change but it takes more than one or two social work students to undo decades of shame. I believe it will be well worth it in the end.

Niki Johnstone, third year SW student

Vin Diesel approved this message

Re: Big Mother Is Watching You

 I whole-heartedly agree with the absurdity of a bill that bans restaurants from serving obese people. However, it is just as absurd to use body mass index (BMI) to measure obesity. Because muscle weighs more than fat, BMI will often classify athletes as being ‘overweight’ or ‘obese’, and classify older, sedentary adults as being in the underweight to normal range, when they may not belong there. If this ridiculous bill were ever to be put in place, the likes of Vin Diesel, the Rock and half of the NFL would no longer be allowed to eat in restaurants in Mississippi. Even when calculating the BMI of an average person, there are plenty of problems. A study done last March at Michigan State University found that even non-athletes were being grouped into the ‘overweight’ category by the BMI when other, more reliable forms of measurement categorized them as being in a healthy range. Any way you look at it, the BMI is a pretty terrible measure health.

Thanks!

Shawna Finnegan

Get the honkin’ facts right!

A letter to the editor in the February 6 issue of The Manitoban regarding parking on campus contained some inaccurate information which I would like to correct.

As indicated on the Parking and Shuttle Services website, when the outside temperature falls below -25ºC, power is supplied continuously to the electrical outlets in the parking lots. When the temperature is between -10º and -25ºC, power is cycled at 15 minutes on/15 minutes off.

Also, one does not need to go in person to Security Services to pick up a portable battery booster pack; security services staff can bring the booster to your vehicle as soon as possible, simply by calling Security Services at 474-9312.

We remind everyone to regularly visit our website (umanitoba.ca/parking) for all parking-related information and updates.

Thank you,

Norma Carswell, Manager

Parking and Shuttle Services

UMSU = dumbsu

Instead of constantly complaining about tuition being too high, I know of one foolproof way that UMSU could lower my annual academic bill by $140. End UMSU. I think I could do without a mediocre generic rock band playing at a poorly attended “Orientation” Week festivity which does more to annoy students than inspire. Out of my three years spent at the UofM, only once was I able to partake in an amazingly sub par pancake breakfast. So I say drop the Nickelback beer gardens, scratch the pancakes, and stop making posters trying to convince me that I pay too much for my education, when clearly I’m paying too much for UMSU. With the money saved we can all buy cars and overpriced coffee while many parents foot one of the cheapest tuition bills in the country.

cordially yours,

Nils Vik

environmental design, faulty of architecture

The end of fun and the beginning of safety

Dear Editor:

I found some of the comments in the opinion piece done by Dean Jensen called: “Bill C-2: the end of fun,” quite appalling. Testing for stoned drivers would be a benefit to public safety, no matter which way you cut it. This bill is in no way by any means “the end of fun” unless you consider putting other drivers at risk on the public streets a favorite past-time of yours. Go ahead and have fun smoking weed and drinking low quality beer in an ally, just keep your ass off the road.

Thanks for doing your part in getting this bill passed.

Jason Krahn