Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - November 15, 2025, Winnipeg, Manitoba Lack of urgency on climate Twenty years ago, I was told we are facing a climate emergency. Now, I remember the beginning of the Sec- ond World War when we faced an emergency. The world reacted quickly. We formed armies, stopped building cars and started building weap- ons. We rationed food and gasoline. In 1974 during the oil embargo, then-U.S. pres- ident Jimmy Carter set the National Highway speed to 55 mp/h and asked people to wear sweat- ers and turn down the thermostat to save energy. Those were emergencies and governments re- acted. Today, governments talk and talk and tell us there is a climate emergency. The COP summit in Brazil? The U.S. is absent, China and India’s leaders didn’t attend and instead sent delegates, many arrived in hundreds of private jets. And what do we do in the face of this climate emergency? Well, we drive the heaviest, largest SUVs and trucks that are about as aerodynamic as a parachute. We have the highest speed limits ever and we certainly don’t worry about fuel economy. Houses are also getting larger. We love to invite family and friends to our destination weddings in Mexico. We jump on cruise ships for weeks burn- ing 10 to 15 tons of fossil fuel per hour (and dump our sewage and garbage in the ocean), or fly to anywhere in the planet in a matter of hours. Elbows up. Don’t buy those oranges from California! Look over here; buy these ones from South Africa. Well, how do you think those South African oranges got here? On a large sea freight- er burning tons of fossil fuel per hour, along with all the other 60,000 freighters, tankers, container ships etc., which cross our oceans to run our economy and contribute to our businesses and investments. There are about 12,000 to 20,000 aircraft per day in our skies, burning 90 billion gallons of jet fuel per year. An Airbus 380 burns 4,660 gallons per hour. We humans can’t stop moving. Look at your city traffic, cars, trucks, buses, electric motor bicycles constantly moving, going and coming, 24 hours a day. Well, my fellow human, if you want to under- stand why the world is using so much carbon look in the mirror. You live a fantastic lifestyle that would be the envy of ancient kings and queens. Turning to green energy is the solution, but it will require billions of dollars in investments for solar, wind, nuclear, hydrogen, etc. But first we now have to commit billions of dollars in weap- ons, $60 billion-plus for submarines alone. Can- ada also wants to become an energy superpower and develop mines and pipelines. Gosh, looks like we have a climate emergency with no urgency? DON BAILEY Winnipeg Poor placement I am an infrequent bus rider, but as I age, I likely will use the bus more frequently. Presently, as I travel the city I have become more and more frustrated with bus stops on busy corners that require right turns. Why should traffic be held up for a block while traffic is collected? Could they not put the stop one block back? Buses also wait trying to main- tain a schedule. BRIAN VANOUTRIVE Winnipeg Transit tip Re: “New system not great for all” (Letters, Nov. 13) I’m writing in regard to Garfield McRae’s let- ter, which highlighted Mr. McRae’s struggle with the new transit system. As a former No. 16 rider myself, I can see how trying to get to his destina- tion, the Concert Hall, is now three buses when following a similar path to the old 16. I think this is where many folks are struggling as we’ve all had to learn a new system at the same time. With a new system, we may need to rethink our paths. For Mr. McRae in Osborne Village, I’d recom- mend he instead go to the rapid transit station in the Village (or Harkness station, if that’s closer) where he can take the FX3 line. This bus stops di- rectly in front of the Concert Hall and runs faster and more frequently than the old 16. I too have made some blunders with the new system, but as I’ve tried new routes I’m getting more confident and comfortable. I also tried the new on-request system this weekend. Pretty cool! I hope Mr. McRae is able to test this new route to see if it might be a good fit for him, and I hope he enjoys the fabulous shows at the Concert Hall this season! MEL MARGINET Winnipeg Credit to proud Canadians Re: Canadians continue to shun U.S. travel in October, costing America billions (Nov. 12) My hat goes off to all those Canadians who played a part in the $5.7-billion reduction in tour- ism dollars to the U.S. Whether it is just forgoing a weekend shopping trip to Fargo or Grand Forks, a trip to Vegas or a winter spent in Florida or Arizona, these people have made some major changes in their lifestyle to show their Canadian patriotism. Good on them. Their actions are not just an initial knee-jerk reaction, but a prolonged reaction to protest U.S. President Donald Trump’s words and actions against Canada. The reduction in tourism hits many individual America citizens hard. I am sure it will have an effect in the midterm elections. ART QUANBURY River Hills Learn from Winnipeg’s success After witnessing two classic CFL semifinal games that came down to the final seconds (or no seconds, if you’re talking about the Eastern Conference final) it’s disheartening to realize that starting next year in the CFL, you’ll never see those type of back-and-forth possessions in the final three minutes. With a 35-second play clock instead of the cur- rent 20 seconds, teams will be able to kneel and if they kill even a few seconds each play, they’ll kill off the final two minutes of the game if the oppos- ing team has no timeouts left. Saskatchewan wouldn’t have had time to kick a field goal, holding B.C. and then get the ball back to score the winning touchdown with 11 seconds left. By increasing the play clock by 75 per cent, CFL games will have fewer plays and look more like the boring ending of NFL games, which fre- quently sees teams kneeling and running out the clock once it is under two minutes. Instead of the CFL trying to become the AHL to the NFL’S NHL, why can’t the league learn from its most successful franchise and start marketing to its most obvious fan base, youth football? Get the kids interested in your team and the parents will come with them. Get young people coming to the games, give them a great game day experience and you’ll have a fan base for life. As a lifelong CFL diehard, it warms my heart to see all the young people coming out to Bomber games. Most likely their parents were Bomber fans who brought them out to games, just as they’ll bring their own children when they get older. The rule changes coming into effect next year in the CFL were created in a boardroom in Toron- to with no input from fans, players or coaches, the true stewards of the game. The Canadian Football League is older than the NFL, is way more exciting than the NFL (espe- cially the last three minutes!) and gives young Canadian football players the opportunity to as- pire to perhaps one day play professional football in their home country. We don’t need to change the game, we just need the people who run it now to learn from the success of Winnipeg and market this exciting amazing game. Long live the 55-yard line! JOHN BROWNLEE 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 NOVEMBER 15, 2025 Epstein chips away at Trump’s world D ID Jeffrey Epstein really think he could receive or extort a pardon from U.S. Presi- dent Donald Trump? Recently released correspondence from the late sexual predator seems to suggest he thought he had a shot. Epstein’s desperate attempts to enlist or threaten Trump to escape prosecution for a broad array of sexual crimes in 2019 were exposed this month after a congressional committee released 20,000 pages of emails and other correspondence between the disgraced financier and his allies. The emails and other notes strongly suggest he had dirt on Trump of sufficient gravity that the president might have to help him escape pros- ecution. Also fuelling Epstein’s hopes was the president’s history of granting pardons, which showed virtually no type of criminal or crime was off-limits. Trump has pardoned murderers, sex offenders and fraudsters who bilked people out of hundreds of millions of dollars and summarily wiped the criminal records of anyone involved in the violent Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. The New York Times recently reported at least eight people Trump pardoned in his first term have gone on to commit and be charged with additional crimes. Included is a New York man with connections to Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who was pardoned in 2019 for drug and money laundering offences, and who was just convicted of sexual assault. With a track record like that, why wouldn’t Trump have moved quickly in his first term to help someone he acknowledged had been a close friend in the not-so-distant past? Epstein has become the president’s kryptonite, an individual who even posthumously poses a grave existential threat. So great is the threat that Trump — a man who celebrates his association with criminals, and who seems to be immune from fallout from any of his numerous personal criminal and civil transgres- sions — does not want Epstein anywhere near his orbit. Trump’s instincts about the threat that Epstein poses, even in death, are spot on. Although Trump’s broad approval ratings have dipped during his second term, core Republican supporters remain blindly loyal and decidedly un- apologetic about their continued support for their spiritual and political leader. However, Trump’s refusal to meet demands to release the full FBI investigation files into Epstein’s crimes is eating away at the MAGA political coalition. An August opinion poll conducted by the Uni- versity of Massachusetts and The Conversation, an academic journal, found that the American public generally disapprove of how the Trump administration has refused to release more infor- mation from the Epstein investigation. More alarming for Trump is the fact that near- ly 50 per cent of respondents who voted for him disapprove of his refusal to release the files. Some believe Trump’s attempts to bury the Epstein story are to conceal his own involvement in Epstein’s horrendous sexual crimes. The new correspondence shows that while Trump may not have actually indulged in some of the same crimes, he may have had full knowledge of what Epstein and his abettors were doing. Is standing by idly while a predator harvested underage women for the gratification of not only himself, but a host of other rich and powerful miscreants a worse crime than others the presi- dent has admitted to, or which he has been found guilty? To many Americans deep inside his base of support, the answer is “yes.” Epstein’s suicide made the issue of a pardon moot. However, Trump’s continued efforts to conceal the full details of the Epstein investi- gation — details which may pull Trump deeper into scandal — seems destined to continue eating away at the MAGAverse from the inside out. EDITORIAL Published since 1872 on Treaty 1 territory and the homeland of the Métis ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE Jeffrey Epstein ;