Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - January 29, 2025, Winnipeg, Manitoba Standing up to hate Re: “Drawing a line, speaking up” (Letters, Jan. 27) Thank you, thank you, thank you to Brandy Cook for her heartfelt letter about what it’s like to be the parent of a trans child in this time of Trump. The Free Press’s editorial and Scott Forbes’ op-ed also spoke about it. What we are seeing today is a deliberate effort to foment hate against an identifiable group of people, all for political gain. It’s frightening to see this hate creeping north into Canada and be- ing stirred up by certain politicians. It feels like Germany in 1933. Trump’s declaration that there are only two (immutable) genders also goes against science. Thanks to extensive research, we now know that sex, gender and sexual orientation are complex and multi-faceted, with biological, psychologi- cal, and social aspects, and there are no strict binaries. What the X and Y chromosomes say, what the body’s organs say and what we know to be true in our hearts and minds doesn’t always neatly line up. For those of us who have trans, non-binary or otherwise gender non-conforming family members or close friends, this issue is not aca- demic. It is very personal. You may think you’re not affected because you don’t know any trans individuals (actually you do, you’re just unaware they’re trans), but it should matter to everybody. Trans people won’t be the last. “First they came for transgender people, but I did nothing …” DAVID M. BERGEN Winnipeg “I will channel my pain and anger into loving harder, listening more and speaking up.” You wrote those brave and powerful words, Brandy Cook. And while the haters use their megaphones and platforms to breed hate and intolerance, please know many, with and without transgender friends and family, stand firmly behind you on the side of love and refuse to be influenced by this deplorable behaviour. DARREN STEVENSON Winnipeg Trump’s hook Any successful con starts with a good “hook.” The hook has to be enticing yet simple enough not to confuse the “mark.” Trump’s hook for Canada is simple, no tariffs, low taxes, military protec- tion. What he doesn’t tell you is that statehood does not go through the Oval Office, it goes through Congress. Further, this is not a simple process. It requires a lot of moving parts he obviously is not aware of. (No surprise there.) What Trump really wants is Canada to become a U.S. territory. Which means the U.S. now pos- sesses the country. In no way does it guarantee Canadians U.S. citizenship. Puerto Rico was (and is) a U.S. possession and those people weren’t given citizenship for more than 40 years. Not to mention treated as second-class citizens when it was finally awarded. Are there perks to becoming a U.S. territorial possession? Not as many as you think. Here’s the real reason why Trump and the Republicans will not make Canada a state. As a territory, even if Canadians are given U.S. citizenship, they will not be allowed to vote in a presidential election and they will not have representation in Congress. They can elect observers to attend con- gressional sessions, they can even propose legis- lation. But that’s as far as it goes. Which means Canadians would be subject to U.S. federal law(s) without having any real input. Any objections raised by Canadians would be, basically, ignored. So are you, my fellow Canadians, going to fall for the “hook” or are you smart enough to recog- nize a con being sold by the biggest con man on the planet? DON REED Winnipeg The tariff game There is a lot of hand-wringing regarding the tariffs threatened by Donald Trump. Much talk of dollar-for-dollar retaliation. I think that is a foolish game. Imposing tariffs on incoming goods from the U.S. just punishes the consumers and businesses in Canada even more. A better approach may be to reduce tariffs applied to goods coming in from other countries to encourage an increased in- ternational trade. Perhaps start with the 100 per cent tariff on Chinese electric vehicle imports so people can afford those urban-centric EVs that actually make sense compared to overpriced lux- ury EVs. But even that is likely unnecessary. The economy will, in time, take care of itself. Governments can really do very little to affect the economy. This has been evident for a long time. Eventually consumers and businesses will realize that the tariffs imposed by Trump (if he even follows through) are bad for business and bad for the U.S. economy. Pressure will be brought to bear and even Trump will have to change course because in our society, rightly or wrongly, the economy drives everything. ROB MCCONNELL Winnipeg Library proposal a great solution Re: Group’s library proposal a win-win (Jan. 25) Finally, a common-sense perspective on the challenges with homelessness facing the Mil- lennium Library. Public libraries across North America are experiencing these challenges. And almost every public library system has imple- mented a service much like that being proposed by the Downtown Community Safety Partnership. Searching the internet (admittedly briefly) did not find any library anywhere offering “commu- nity connections” style services. In fact, Ottawa Public Library did offer a similar service in the lobby of their downtown branch, but have since cancelled it because of problems with violent and aggressive behaviour, drugs and other problems. Today almost every library system retains a social worker(s) or partners with an independent social service agency that specializes in assisting the homeless and others. Clearly this is the best way for a public library to assist all patrons and support its staff, without adding thousands of dollars to an already-tight operating budget. As Dan Lett says, it is a true win-win. The proposal before council now is support- ed by a highly successful partnership between Manitoba, Winnipeg, Downtown BIZ, Fire and Paramedic Services, Winnipeg Police Service, and True North Sports and Entertainment, who are major stakeholders in the downtown. The DCSP proposal will not cost the library anything, and will do more than the previous “service.” If the Millennium for All group is sincere about continuing community connections in its previ- ous form, then they should do what so many other non-profits do: raise the money themselves. That’s how the Millennium Library came to be — volunteers raised millions of dollars from the thousands of businesses, families and individuals who believe in the value of the public library. True, asking the city for money is easier, but doing it yourself is far more rewarding for the people you wish to help. Thank you Dan Lett for the insightful column. GORDON TODD PENNELL Winnipeg Tragedy, then farce After reading the daily news comes looking at the relaxing newspaper comics, which help to counter some of the mental damage caused by caustic reality. Yes, the comics are totally unreal, and silly by normal adult standards, but they are so very therapeutic. It is impossible not to chuckle and sometimes really laugh at the zany drawings and captions which are so at odds with the serious important printed stories and photographs. On a daily basis, the comics provide a sane oa- sis in the desert, an antidote for some of the toxic human folly in regular news. Thank goodness there are artists with a sense of humour who can provide a visual sanity balm against the destructive doses of sobering and wrenching negativity. Comics are the ultimate painkillers. HOLLY BERTRAM 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 A6 WEDNESDAY JANUARY 29, 2025 The medium is the misleading message T HERE was a time not all that long ago when western democracies used to look down on totalitarian regimes that blocked internet access to facts those regimes found uncomfort- able. Countries such as China were criticized in the strongest terms. Here’s the U.S state depart- ment’s take: “Within China, the CCP controls the media and all forms of debate and information. The CCP also bans virtually all domestic access to international news and media outlets, threat- ens and intimidates foreign journalists who report critical stories about the CCP, and actively monitors and obstructs the flow of data through telecom networks and smartphone apps. ” But that was back when truth mattered. Truth doesn’t seem to matter any more, even in western democracies, and even finding the truth among the falsehoods is getting harder and harder to do. Take these three statements, all from social media, all from official U.S. government ac- counts, including that of U.S. President Donald Trump. Trump’s is first, from his Truth Social site: “The United States Military just entered the Great State of California and under Emergency Powers, TURNED ON THE WATER flowing abundantly from the Pacific Northwest, and be- yond. The days of putting a Fake Environmental argument, over the PEOPLE, are OVER. Enjoy the water, California!!!” Meanwhile, Elon Musk’s department of govern- ment efficiency tweeted, “Congratulations to the administration and the DOI’s Bureau of Reclama- tion for more than doubling the federally pumped water flowing toward Southern California in <72 hours. Was an honor for the DOGE team to work with you. Great job!” Meanwhile, the State of California department of water resources tweeted out “The military did not enter California. The federal government restarted water pumps after they were offline for maintenance for three days. State water supplies in Southern California remain plentiful.” Keep in mind as we said before, these are all official accounts. The truth is somewhere in there, but by all appearances, the project that both the Califor- nia water resources department and DOGE refer to was too small and too short to have been officially announced in any way, and there’s no clear record of work — the best guess is that maintenance work was done and refurbished pumps were switched back on and operated more efficiently after the maintenance was completed. But how are you supposed to get to the bottom of it? The simple fact is that no one is even trying. On one side, social media accounts are raving at Trump’s supposed power and take-charge gov- ernance, though you think a military operation at a federal pumping site might have garnered a photograph or two. (No problem: artificial intelli- gence will probably manufacture one out of thin air in the next few days as “proof.”) On the other side, people are simply laughing at Trump for fabricated nonsense. But what exactly is the difference between controlling the content that your population can see — a la the Chinese government — and simply degrading the accuracy of what anyone and everyone says by turning the entire information sphere into a drunken party bus of manufactured and often deliberately false information? The same result takes place — political indoc- trination based on what you are spoon-fed by those you believe. This is a dangerous political game being played by powerful people who see misinformation as a critical tool for gaining and keeping power. It’s getting tougher to discern the truth from carefully concocted (and sometimes sloppily concocted) “alternate truths.” If we don’t find a safe way out of this informa- tional poison pit, western nations and western democracies are doomed. EDITORIAL Published since 1872 on Treaty 1 territory and the homeland of the Métis MARK SCHIEFELBEIN / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS U.S. President Donald Trump ;