Letters to the Editor: Is reason and tolerance too much to expect?
Credit to Author: The Vancouver Sun| Date: Sat, 25 Jan 2020 02:00:40 +0000
Re: Douglas Todd’s column on Stereotyping Religions, Jan. 18.
In 1976-77, my late father, Rev. Alastair MacLeod, was the elected president of the United Church of Canada in B.C. He was also chairman of a group called Interfaith Forum.
Each month, people from many faiths — Christian, Jew, Muslim, Sikh, Hindu, Buddhist, etc. — would meet to compare their varied religious beliefs.
Each month, they would rotate, with one religion being given the lead to discuss the tenets of their faith and rules for living. They usually found substantial common ground.
However, my father saw that the attacks on the speakers most often came, not from the other faiths, but from the conservative wings of their own religions — and the attacks were often vicious.
He said that after these sessions, he sometimes wanted to cry in despair.
We can all live and work together, if only we can have some reason and tolerance. But maybe that is too much for some. So sad.
Ian MacLeod, Richmond
In the coming weeks and months, the Vancouver School Board will decide the fate of the Culinary Arts Program in the city’s schools. The proposal to cut aspects of the program and contract-out others should be very alarming to students, parents, the community, and industry alike.
The proposed changes include eliminating educational opportunities provided by teaching cafeterias, removing access to healthy and nutritious meals by closing non-teaching cafeterias, and eliminating the jobs of numerous dedicated and long-term staff members.
The cuts are couched in terms of cost-savings, but when did we lose sight of the fact that education is not meant to be a money-maker. Education is an investment in our children, our communities, and the future. For many, these programs provide a pathway toward employment in the food service and hospitality industries, which require an estimated 21,000 skilled workers by 2021.
The labour movement is raising the alarm about these destructive proposals. The International Union of Operating Engineers, which represents most impacted workers, has also noted that these proposals were not mentioned during their recent round of collective bargaining. This amounts to a case of bargaining in bad faith and means that the perspectives of those doing the work in question were lost during the early stages of this discussion. The same can be said of the voices of parents, students, teachers, chefs, and unions representing other staff in the schools. Instead, the working group that produced these proposals was composed entirely of VSB management personnel.
Somehow, while these important programs are being targeted, private cafeterias continue to be subsidized by taxpayers. This is despite failing to follow the Guidelines for Food and Beverage Sales in B.C. Schools that are intended to ensure healthy and nutritious food for students.
What we need now is not an array of cuts and reductions, but a bold vision to re-invigorate and expand the culinary arts program in order to truly meet the needs of all stakeholders. The trustees have an important decision and, potentially, an exciting opportunity ahead of them.
Stephen von Sychowski, president, Vancouver and District Labour Council
Harry and Meghan would not be pursued, bullied, and spied upon if not for the fact that we, the general public and the media we support, have made them celebrities. It is our own fault that they need security from us. Therefore, I think it’s appropriate that the taxpayers pay for their security.
Chris Bitten, Vancouver
Re: “Winter tires shouldn’t be mandatory, critics say”, Jan. 18.
When we can’t find housing for hundreds of homeless people throughout the Lower Mainland, where will we find storage for the tens of thousands of snow tires for the non-winter months?
My observation is that too many motorists drive at speeds not appropriate for road conditions, with or without snow tires.
The province should bring back photo radar vans (in addition to intersection speed cameras) to curtail this speeding. These vans were very effective in the late 1990s.
D. B. Wilson, Port Moody
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