Deal with the past honestly
Our grandfather fought in the same Galician SS division as Hunka, and is a close relative of Roman Shukhevych. Our family has been discussing the recent incident in Parliament, and we all had the same reaction — we were embarrassed by Parliament’s applauding of Hunka, but weren’t surprised at all that it happened.
Canada welcomed Ukrainian fascists with open arms after the Second World War, and since then there have been groups that unapologetically honour nazi collaborators.
Some Ukrainian-Canadian organizations have been heralding nazi war criminals such as Roman Shukhevych and Stepan Bandera as heroes for decades, and have stubbornly refused requests from Jewish and Polish groups to take down monuments celebrating them.
Now with public attention and an embarrassment on the international stage, we hope this brings some change within the Ukrainian-Canadian community.
The glorification of the Galician SS division and UPA needs to end.
Tomas and Kieran Szuchewycz
Winnipeg
Further questions
Re: How Parliament works (Think Tank, Oct. 2)
The more troubling question is not simply why the Speaker would call an enemy combatant in the Second World War, a member of an SS volunteer unit , a “Canadian hero,” but why apparently every member of Parliament in the ovation having no educational background in the Second World War and nationalist groups in Canada considering a member of an enemy combatant group a “Canadian hero.”
This is apart from the question of why the individual was allowed to reside in Canada.
Norman Rosenbaum
Winnipeg
Awaiting better school days
Re: Schools and disinformation (Think Tank, Oct. 2)
Matt Henderson, chief superintendent of the Winnipeg School Board, wrote a brilliant article explaining what educators in Manitoba do concerning the Family Life Curriculum. That column should be posted on every school website for every parent to read. However, it comes after Premier Heather Stefanson and other right-wing politicians, in Canada have politicized the issue by re-interpreting it as “parents rights,” a particularly cynical and fallacious and divisive crime against both education and civilized society.
There is no doubt that Manitoba, its schooling system and families, will be better off, safer, and happier when “Hockey Mom’ is no longer able to insult the citizens of this province with her ignorant and disgusting statements and attitudes.
Shane Nestruck
Winnipeg
Thank you to Matt Henderson for the thoughtful, positive article on the present school situation!
If parents are really concerned about supporting their kids, they must start by supporting teachers, who have a very difficult time in this current climate to consider the needs of the many children and their diverse backgrounds.
Hateful rhetoric and angry protests are no way to teach positive values to children.
Spending time getting to know the teachers and offering help and support in any way possible, will go a long way to strengthening relationships!
Ruth Dyck
Morden
Reminder of campaigns past
Re: No longer the party of Duff Roblin (Think Tank, Sept. 30)
In his customary incisive and acerbic manner, Charles Adler opines about the present nature and behaviour of the Manitoba Progressive Conservative Party (PC). However, he does not go far enough in his remarks about his point which postulates that current supporters of the PCs “are embarrassed by what they view as cheap and trashy.”
On a weekend errand to the University of Manitoba to collect two rare books dealing with 12th-century matters on the relationship between human nature and the cosmos, I happened to observe — with astonishment and visceral objection — the e-billboard encouraging voters to ‘Stand Firm Against the $184 million Landfill Dig’. Oh, how our own ‘microcosmos’ of Manitoba is bearing witness to just how debased humanity can become wherever the lust for political power stands above human decency.
It seems that even after centuries, we do not understand human dignity and our responsibility to protect it.
I thought that PCs had reached an all-time low in the 1993 federal campaign which insinuated that Jean Chretien’s facial paralysis somehow made him unfit for the office of Prime Minister of Canada.
That ad campaign was arguably moral when compared to putting a price tag on the lives of murdered Indigenous women, and attempting to use such a tragic situation to drive a political wedge and curry favour with voters.
For those of us who have thoroughly read the feasibility study which, by the way, set a wide spectrum for both costs and the related personal safety issues, there is no other response than recognizing the PCs ad campaign is at the very least repugnant and insensitive.
If there is any evidence that the Manitoba PC caucus is fully supportive of this position on the search of the landfill, and the election-year ad campaign, no adjectives come to mind expressing this new political low. We have an obligation to search for our women; at any cost.
May we be reminded that the federal conservatives were decimated in that election 30 years ago; reduced to just two seats in the House of Commons from 154 at dissolution. Perhaps history will similarly deliver in 2023. Not just ‘au revoir’…..but ‘plus jamais’!
John Murray
Winnipeg
Student safety real priority
Re: Islam and the issue of parental rights (Sept. 30)
The supposed “issue of parental rights” is a thin cover for prejudice masquerading as concern. All religious and cultural communities have socially conservative elements; the mere existence of (or knowledge about) LGBTTQ+ people does not in any possible way attack or threaten “straight” families.
Blindly parroting someone’s ignorant mischaracterization of “biological males… accessing a women’s washroom” is not journalism, it is the worst sort of ‘both sides’-ism. Do better, Free Press.
It’s particularly galling to see this apologia for transphobia and homophobia on the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. The real “parental right” would be to have children safe in school and come home alive.
Dr. Sowmya Dakshinamurti
Winnipeg
Put climate first
Re: Defence spending reduction of $1 billion not a budget cut: minister (Sept. 30)
Why do housing and affordability, as mentioned in the article, come ahead of climate planning when people place the climate as their top concern?
The Globe and Mail informs me that the climate crisis is more important than housing and affordability. Yet in our October election, we hear more about housing and affordability than about climate. Why this confusion? As Greta Thurnburg told us in 2019 “You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words.” She noted most politicians appear to care more for growth than for people.
Humanity is not using its superior reasoning toward a proper goal of learning to live with nature’s wisdom. Rather, our goal is getting richer and with making life easier for ourselves. As Dwight Eisenhower noted in 1953, the cost of one modern heavy bomber would build a brick school in 30 cities. Is security worth more than education?
We have the technology to solve most of today’s climate problems, but we choose big houses and imported food rather than reducing CO2. Is this where reasoning is taking us?
Hopefully an election will take us to the important problem of global warming. Elect a climate concerned person if one can be found
Barry Hammond
Winnipeg
