Letters, Aug. 20

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 20/08/2020 (1768 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Berger betrayal 

The Berger peat processing plant featured in The Clipper Weekly (Aug. 6, 2020) and in The Carillon (Aug. 13, 2020) will be a large-scale industrial operation that conflicts with the adjacent well-established residential properties (40-plus years). This is contrary to Sec. 106(1)(b) of the Manitoba Planning Act and to Sec. 9.4.15(b) of the RM of Springfield development plan, which preserve the rights of existing property owners from negative impact to their properties.

The Manitoba Water Rights Act was also set aside when Berger’s two industrial wells were developed without the required transducer monitoring for interference in the neighbouring wells.

Berger’s environmental approval application, submitted June 23, 2020, stated that construction would commence once their licence was approved. In fact, construction began late 2019 and was followed by major piling work in early 2020.

When the closest residential property owner asked the municipal planning office for an explanation, he was told they could not disclose, even when directly asked, if this was a Berger project, and further, he was told that there would be no involvement with the public as “there are no restrictions on agricultural land.”

Springfield council, Berger, and Friesen Drillers show a disregard for the quality of life that is the right of prior established property owners: to be protected from such disruptive industrial developments. The whole thrust of the RM’s development plan process was to prevent this kind of conflict by directing these kind of developments to the areas designated for them.

Council allowed the Berger project to be rammed through in closed meetings, thereby circumventing due process. Mayor Tiffany Fell’s assertions that council has been transparent and did nothing wrong are patently untrue.

This is having a crushing impact on those closest to the Berger development by creating needless anger and deep distrust that shreds the ‘good neighbour’ basis of orderly community development.

Darryl Speer

Oakbank, MB

Water is the source of life

RM of Springfield mayor Tiffany Fell has publicly stated that Springfield is not business-friendly. I agree that there is a small percentage of residents who don’t want any progress. However, that percentage increases significantly when it involves a business that could potentially impact our water supply. CanWhite Sands Corp. out of Calgary wants to mine 3.5 million tons of silica per year out of a site near Vivian. Mayor Fell is excited to have jobs provided in that area, but at what expense?

If the aquifer becomes contaminated from hauling out sand through the water, 64,000 people could have their drinking water contaminated. This decision should not be made by Springfield council alone when it impacts residents from other municipalities.

Water is the source of life and needs to be protected. That doesn’t mean being unfriendly to business in general. It means that the impact of a particular business on its citizens should be considered ahead of jobs. I admit many companies have been turned away from Springfield in the past due to a small percentage of vocal residents with petty reasons (not in my back yard) but this issue represents the drinking water of 64,000 residents.

Karen Lalonde

Oakbank, MB

Clothed or otherwise 

If you are a sophisticate, an intellectual, a theologian, or a philosopher, don’t buy Michael Zwaggstra’s latest book, The Naked Man Flees. Zwaagstra explores Bible stories that are rarely highlighted in standard Sunday School fare, and provides us with a curriculum of 40 stories that could very well be used for instructional purposes. The book is written for ages 10 and up, in a fatherly style that befits the author’s time of life. The proverbial “Seek and you will find” applies to Zwaagstra’s exposition. The stories in the Bible can be instructional, inspirational and indicational in terms of choices made. The book can be read clothed or otherwise, seated, or on the run. Well worth a Sunday afternoon.

Gordon Dyck

Steinbach, MB

The ugly side of Bill 19

Re: “Quarry fight reveals undermining of democracy” (Manitoba Co-operator, Aug. 10, 2020). Democracy was paid for by the blood and casualties of veterans and those who paid the supreme sacrifice; those who now lie in graves in distant lands, far from their loved ones, family, and their homeland.

Our cemeteries in Canada, Europe and throughout the world are marked with crosses of Canadians, who fought the tyranny of governments in faraway places. They believed in the cause and their fight for democracy.

Now, that same cancer of tyranny has found its way into Manitoba’s government and Bill 19. The evidence is clear. The democratically elected municipal councillors in the RM of Rosser have decided not to approve the quarry development.

However, the unelected Municipal Board, plus Bill 19 and the blessing of the province, can force these developments through.

As a veteran, I ask, what happened to “democracy”?

Our democracy doesn’t need more education. However, it is apparent that our Pallister government needs to address its failures in recognizing the true meaning and application of democracy.

John Fefchak

Virden, MB

Concentrate on true oppression

Dr. Dennis Hiebert raises the issue of white supremacy in his letter to the editor, “All lives matter (dis)misses the point” (The Carillon, July 16, 2020).

In a March 2018 letter about white privilege, Hiebert mentioned Peggy McIntosh, an associate director at Wellesley College. I think she is the one who made up the rubbish concept of “white privilege” back in 1989. You know it’s a farce when one of her points of white privilege is having bandages that match the colour of her skin. That’s what I call scraping the bottom of the barrel.

Hiebert goes on about this so-called white privilege again in his more recent letter. This white privilege nonsense gets worse. Back in 2017, University of Illinois professor Rochelle Gutierrez claimed teaching math perpetuates “unearned” white privilege. She urged her colleagues to be aware of the “politics that mathematics brings.”

From the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC), a member of the Smithsonian Institute stated white racial identity in America has “created a culture where non-white persons are seen as inferior or abnormal.” According to the NMAAHC, various aspects of whiteness include planning for the future, delayed gratification, valuation of time as a commodity, emphasis on scientific method, aesthetics, competition, decision-making, self-reliance, politeness, nuclear family with children, and the Protestant work ethic. I thought all these aspects were brought about from a Christian worldview. These aspects are what a nation should strive for I would think.

It’s indescribably chilling when on CNN in June a Minneapolis city council president, Lisa Bender, says calling the police on burglars is basically white privilege. This has completely gone off the rails. CNN anchor Alisyn Camerota asked if burglars are trying to break into your house in the middle of the night, who are you going to call if the police are completely defunded? Bender replied that the question was coming “from a place of privilege” due to the fact you own your own house. So, when we are being victimized by burglars or a home invasion, the proper response is to take solace in the fact that you are privileged enough to own a house?

But the worst part of white privilege is the victim culture it creates. At the University of California in 2018, Black Lives Matter protesters heckled Candace Owens, an African-American author, who was speaking there. She called out the hecklers for showing that they are some of the most privileged people in the world. What is so oppressive about being a university student in one of the freest and richest countries on Earth? “You are not living through anything right now; you are overly privileged Americans” she retorted.

We should concentrate on true oppression, like abortion or being a Christian in Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Iran, or China. How about the oppression of Afrikaner farmers in South Africa, who are being killed daily? Or the situation in Hong Kong, where freedom is completely snuffed out? Yet here in the West we complain about so-called white privilege.

Hiebert writes about Western colonialism. Today the worst aspect of Western colonialism is bullying Third World countries to accept LGBT right and abortion. Interesting that in Hong Kong the ant-China protesters were waving U.S. and British flags, but no Communist flags. Hong Kong people know which countries, or more importantly which foundations of governance, are the best on earth.

Stanley Reitsma

Carman, MB

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