Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - August 10, 2024, Winnipeg, Manitoba Time for harsher consequences Re: Highway 6 remains deadly, dangerous (Aug. 8) Lately it seems that whenever a tragedy happens, such as the recent three vehicular deaths on Highway 6 and the horrific accident in Carman, Man., as well as the recent cyclist/ vehicle incidents, there are and will be calls for a full-scale investigation as to what caused these accidents, and invariably it will be human error that caused these tragedies. As long as people continue to drive distracted, tired, rushed and so on, accidents will occur. And, unfortunately, at times innocent peo- ple are the victims of other people’s mistakes. Perhaps instead of “cries” for an investigation, there should be ramp-up on the consequences of driving distracted, tired and/or rushed. ALFRED SANSREGRET Winnipeg Identifying who’s responsible Re: Robinson Treaties decision reverberates in Manitoba (Aug. 8) Unfortunately, it will once again be today’s hard-working Canadian taxpayers who will pay for reparations for past wrongs committed by greedy tycoons and mineral extraction compa- nies going back as far as 170 years ago, and the perpetrators will get to keep every cent of the profits made, while not living up to their obliga- tions for the deals they agreed to. When it comes to the profits, it all belongs to the wealthy with their political connections, but when it comes to reparations, it somehow becomes everyone’s responsibility. I expect to see our prime minister tearfully apologizing once again on behalf of all Canadians for something that we had nothing to do with. BILL PARKES Oakview Rolling stewardship way to go Re: Nuclear storage plan has merit (Letters, Aug. 8) Gordon Boyer wants to know if there is a better plan for dealing with Canada’s nuclear waste. In fact, there is. It’s called rolling stewardship. In a nutshell, once cool enough, the waste would be stored close to the surface, close to its origins, in super-hardened storage containers designed to be closely monitored so the waste can be repack- aged at any sign of a problem. Knowledge and responsibility for the task is passed down from generation to generation, and if a real solution is found at a later time, it can be implemented. This avoids a situation where radioactive con- tamination from a burial site is detected but no remedy is possible because the waste has become irretrievable. The so-called “gold standard” of deep burial has not been successfully implement- ed anywhere. It goes without saying that production of more nuclear waste needs to stop now. ANNE LINDSEY Winnipeg Looking for long-term vision Re: Transportation, the north, and the future (Think Tank, Aug. 3) Once again, Barry Prentice is providing an excellent vision to our politicians for solutions to future prosperity and transportation problems as- sociated with our province’s northland. However, will anyone ever heed his advice and vision for the future benefit of all Manitobans? It would indeed be refreshing to find a poli- tician who can see further ahead than the next election. ROBERT PATRICK Winnipeg On broken promises Re: Time to act on electoral reform promise (Think Tank, Aug. 8) Thank you, Alex Passey, for your perceptive and timely column on the urgent need for elector- al reform in Canada. I remember how excited and optimistic I was when our present prime minister promised that, were he and the Liberal Party elected, it would be the last time we would use the first-past-the-post system of electing members of Parliament. And I remember even more clearly how he reneged on that promise — a cold-blooded cal- culation that was not good for the country, but really good for well-funded lobbyists who use the opportunity to advance their own interests, like funding more oil and gas development. In spite of he and his government doing a fairly passable job of governing our country, I am hav- ing difficulty voting Liberal again. I believe I am at the point where I will not again vote for a party that counts on me voting for the next worst alternative in the upcoming election. Our present first-past-the-post method of counting votes disenfranchises voters — it puts pressure on our elected MPs to take marching orders from lobbyists rather than from the will of us, the voters. I will be voting NDP. BILL MARTIN Gimli A well-rounded education We are not born democratically responsible, we must be taught to be good neighbours and citizens. Training us for the economy, but not for partic- ipating in respectful politics, puts democracy at risk. We must have a well-rounded, questioning ed- ucation to have a balance of rights and freedoms and to make real, inclusive, mindful and caring changes. Teach civics about how politics work, how sexism and racism happen, how values can be eroded, and respect and politeness broken. Respect government services at all levels. They do help. Reject baiting and violence, as that just burns everything. DOUGLAS COBURN Winnipeg Cyclists need infrastructure Re: Safety first (Letters, Aug. 7) Pointing fingers at scofflaw cyclists while claiming to have their best interests at heart is so funny to me, because if you’ve biked in this city you see that the built infrastructure and reckless drivers are the reason why people on bikes break laws. First off, I think it’s funny that the examples given were information campaigns to tell drivers to follow existing laws — laws they know about by virtue of having their driver’s licence. The information campaigns to keep cyclists safe are to follow safety protocols that are not written into law — and they aren’t because these things don’t keep cyclists safe at nearly the rate that safe infrastructure does. Just like drivers, we know what a stop sign means — a kindergartener knows what a stop sign means. Information campaigns don’t change this. The difference is, a driver is not stopping at a stop sign to save themselves a few seconds on their commute. A cyclist is avoiding spending more time in the intersection because it is safer for them. An informational campaign isn’t going to make cyclists stop using an Idaho stop. We know the law, but we know what is safer for us. In Idaho, with the introduction of “Stop as Yield,” cyclist injuries from crashes dropped 14.5 per cent. In Delaware traffic crashes with cyclists dropped 23 per cent. Eleven states have changed this, not out of the blue but all with studies backing them up. We need to change this law that is used as the No. 1 reason people give for not supporting safe infra- structure, that “cyclists break laws,” even though studies show that drivers break more laws and with more frequency and with more life-threaten- ing consequences. When you build safe infrastructure, we are able to follow the law without risking our lives. Why waste money on an information campaign when we could spend money on things we know will actually save lives? This city needs to make up its mind: do you want cyclists to be safe or do you want them to follow the law? DARIA MAGNUS-WALKER Winnipeg LETTERS TO THE EDITOR WHAT’S YOUR TAKE? THE FREE PRESS WANTS TO HEAR FROM YOU. The Free Press is committed to publishing a diverse selection of letters from a broad cross-section of our audience. The Free Press will also consider longer submissions for inclu- sion on our Think Tank page, which is a platform mandated to present a wide range of perspectives on issues of current interest. We welcome our readers’ feedback on articles and letters on these pages and in other sections of the Free Press ● Email: Letters: letters@winnipegfreepress.com Think Tank submissions: opinion@winnipegfreepress.com ● Post: Letters to the Editor, 1355 Mountain Ave., Winnipeg, R2X 3B6 Please include your name, address and daytime phone number. OUR VIEW YOUR SAY COMMENT EDITOR: RUSSELL WANGERSKY 204-697-7269 ● RUSSELL.WANGERSKY@WINNIPEGFREEPRESS.COM A8 SATURDAY AUGUST 10, 2024 Learning what’s right from our neighbour I T can be done, and it should be done. And everyone should have realized that all along. At the very beginning of August, Saskatoon police recovered the remains of Mackenzie Lee Trottier at the Saskatoon landfill. They had been searching the site for her body for 93 days, three times longer than their search had originally been planned to take. The search had many things stacked against it: it is extremely hard to locate human remains in something as massive as a landfill, and even if you know the approximate location you should be searching, the nature of landfill levelling and backfilling may mean you are actually in the wrong place altogether. It’s described regularly as harder than searching for a needle in a haystack. The hunt can be dangerous for searchers, and the longer a person’s body has been in the landfill, the more difficult it is to find their remains. Trottier had been missing since Dec. 21, 2020, meaning that when the search started in May 2024, her body had been at the landfill for three and a half years. Still, the Saskatoon Police Service took on the task, searching the landfill primarily with police officers and using the department’s own budget. (Thursday, the provincial government in Saskatchewan announced it would pay for $1 mil- lion of the $1.5 million in search costs.) The Saskatoon search makes an interesting comparison with the reasons given for not search- ing the Prairie Green Landfill for the remains of murder victims Morgan Harris and Marcedes Myran. One thing that stands out in the Saskatoon case is that the main — and only — suspect in the case had died of a drug overdose months before police searched the landfill for Trottier. In fact, he died before police had gathered enough information to determine whether a search of the landfill was necessary. While police had already searched the suspect’s cellphone for information once, a second, more detailed search — undertaken using a search warrant after the man’s death — found that, at the time of Trottier’s disappearance, the suspect had searched for information on the garbage collec- tion schedule for his address. The police then used that information to locate the area that needed to be searched in the Saska- toon landfill. Using GPS co-ordinates, they were able to track the garbage truck that had collected waste from Saskatoon’s Mayfair neighbourhood on the day the suspect had been searching online, and the precise section of the landfill where the truck had deposited material following its collection. Remember that, by then, there was only one suspect, and he was dead. In other words, the search wasn’t undertaken because of a need to continue the investigation, but instead because it was seen as a necessity to do what it took to recover the victim’s remains. There are admittedly significant differences between the search in Saskatoon and the one that is now beginning in this province: the area of the Prairie Green landfill being searched here is much, much larger, and the waste site has significant contaminants, including asbestos, that can pose dangers for search personnel. Costs for a full search of Prairie Green are also significant- ly higher, with estimates for a full search of the area where the bodies are believed to be located running at more than $100 million. But the main reason for searching for the bod- ies is the same in both cases. You don’t knowingly and deliberately allow the indignity of leaving the bodies of homicide victims to rest in a landfill. You make every best effort to search for them. Because it is the right thing to do. EDITORIAL Published since 1872 on Treaty 1 territory and the homeland of the Métis RUTH BONNEVILLE / FREE PRESS FILES The Prairie Green Landfill. ;