How about some new trees?

Please, City of Brandon, plant new trees bordering the Assiniboine River. Once new trees are established with roots securing the riverbank, then please remove those old skeleton dead trees dating back to previous floods. The First Street entrance is naturally beautiful except for the riverbank of dead skeleton trees.

ELIZABETH SUMNER

Neepawa

With all the attention focused on the junction of Highway 5 and the Trans-Canada, I keep wondering about the junction of highways 18 and 23 south of Ninette and north of Killarney. It is the only Manitoba highway intersection I am aware of that does not have streetlights at the intersection.

Now with the change of the intersection and the removal of the merging curve, I wonder how long until we have a serious accident. I have already noted vehicle tracks in the dirt where the merging curve used to be. If someone is not familiar with this intersection, a bad accident could happen in the dark.

BERNIE TURNER

Killarney

There is cause for celebration by Brandonites who put a stop to a malignant, ill-informed effort to ban books written to educate students on sexuality and gender identity.

However, as Deveryn Ross suggests, it is naive to believe that the issue of banning these books has been laid to rest.

As a society we are distancing ourselves from defining or accepting universal morals. Morals such as love, respect, generosity begin to have no universal standing and universal application amongst a significant portion of our society. In the name of ‘liberty’, ‘freedom’, we feel free to chose and define the morals which will guide our behaviour and define the boundaries of these morals.

Boundaries such as gender identity, race, colour, creed, language, friend, community, group. Anyone outside of those boundaries, it is rationalized, can be and should be shunned, excluded, even vilified.

To Linda Ross,

Most of what I wish to convey in response to Ms. Hackenschmidt’s presentation has been said: some eloquently, some with personal risk, some poetically.

And so, as a nonagenarian having time for learning, reflection, experience, yet fading skill, I am challenged by lives, courage and angels amongst not to be carried only by them. I am a member of Knox United Church. I was a member of PFLAG and I am a supporter of Brandon Pride.

Synthia Wright’s succinct and beautiful letter encapsulated most of what I wished I could have written. Some hurts stay with us all our lives no matter what greatness we have given to the world.

I was dismayed to learn there is so much disinformation and misinformation out there about the “15-minute city” concept.

Brandon Overdose and Area Awareness would like to take a few minutes to respond to the article in the Winnipeg Free Press on March 14, 2023 and The Brandon Sun on March 15, from Janice Morley-Lecomte, the provincial minister of health and community wellness.

I read with great interest the letter to the editor from Janice Morley-Lecomte, the minister of mental health and community wellness, in regard to prioritizing addiction and recovery services.

Linda Ross and the rest of the trustees who voted to eliminate the health-care aide program seem to be out of touch with the needs of the community.

Re: Ottawa fast-tracks weapon purchases as military commanders warn of numerous other gaps. (Winnipeg Free Press, March 9)

Let’s be “that country!” The country that really means it when we say we want the best health-care system, the best education system, top-notch law enforcement and fire departments and so on. We should take pride in how our country has been committed to, and how it has been providing public “social” program services.

On March 3, our organization learned of funding opportunities through Brandon Neighborhood Renewal Corporation’s (BNRC) Reaching Home Initiative according to a Brandon Sun article. A potential sum of $300,000 is available to Indigenous organizations through the Indigenous stream that is designed to assist community-based programming in preventing and reducing homelessness at a local level.

When Canadians vote to elect MPs or MLAs, I think they have certain expectations that the candidates have not only intelligence but common sense, and that they are interested in the position not just for personal gain, but to try to improve the lot of their constituents. They also expect moral and ethical behaviour. Reading Niigaan Sinclair’s “No Place for Toxic, Racist Behaviour,” therefore, leaves me disappointed and angry as most of those qualities were lacking, it seems, among B.C. legislators.

On Tuesday, I attended the Ward 2 meeting at the Park Community Centre. I would encourage city council to get behind this project. After hearing the feedback from residents, it appears it has not been properly addressed. The request for proposals came in and it was just set aside with what seems like poor communication back to the community centre.

I read an article in The Brandon Sun explaining that even though Canada educates enough replacement doctors, it does not as a policy hire them locally.