Letters & Op-Ed, February 16 2022

Pierre Poilievre, does he want to be a People’s Party leader?

For over a year, Pierre Poilievre has created opportunities to go on talk shows such as Steve Saretsky, Coastal Front, or a Surrey B.C. economic talk show, making videos and Tweeting daily all quite separate from the Conservative party.

His interviews present him as an impatient and aggressive man on a mission to present, in a bad light, those with whom he disagrees. Yes, he was in position as conservative finance minister and the pandemic has changed our social interaction. Being financially astute does need the ability to cut through excess spending with surgical accuracy but it also requires the skill to unify existing political factions. Mr. Poilievre has created a tough guy image online. I am interested in how he intends to implement the changes he says are necessary.

L. Morgan Fonthill

I am thoroughly unimpressed by your choice to publish this divisive one-sided view of what is going on in Ottawa [Notes from the front, Column Six, Feb. 9, p.1]. I had much higher expectations from our paper who has previously put corrupt government on the ropes.

Trevor Milne, vaccinated Via Voice website

The protesters are the same people who were blocking hospital entrances last year. They can justify anything to match their warped fantasies of Bill Gates taking over the world with vaccine chips. These people need psychological help.

Jeannie Via Voice website

Wow, aren’t we proud of our leaders.

Not one of them have the guts to go to bat for their constituents. Policing, is there any? There are multiple authorities in Canada: the Federal RCMP, the Hill/border police, municipal police, and OPP. Not one force has had the guts to make a solid suggestion on how to stop this insanity.

As for our leaders Trudeau and Ford, they couldn’t organize a piss-up in a brewery. Totally disgusted with our so-called “leaders.”

Joan Eby Fonthill

I love watching the Olympics. To see those young people, no matter which country they are from, being “the best they can be” makes me happy. We all need something uplifting these days. It is certainly wonderful to see our Canadians on the podium, but all of them are “Olympians”!

We have three summer Olympians from our town: Jane Haist, Tom Guinn, and Steve Bauer. So, what about Winter Olympians? Is there anyone who went to the Winter Olympics who has a connection to “us”? You bet there is! I’m just going to have to give you a bit of history to get us there.

When I went to Pelham District High School in Fenwick from 1957 to 1962, my PhysEd teacher and coach was Jane Meek. Jane’s mother and father were Mary (Lister) and Gerry Duff, who had lived in Fonthill. Her paternal grandfather was Louis Blake Duff, from down in the Hollows. Jane’s husband at that time was Bob Meek. They lived on Garner Avenue, in Fenwick, across the street from the school. Susie was their daughter. Sometimes I would baby sit Susie when her parents went out. Jane and I became friends. When Jane and her husband divorced in 1962, Jane and Susie moved to Toronto where she taught school. Jane then married Andy Gibson and they had a son, Duff, who was born in 1966. Jane passed away a couple of years later.

After Jane died I kept in touch, and often visited with her mom and dad who were devastated in the loss of their only child and of their grandchildren, whom they saw infrequently. They told me that Susie moved to Australia and Duff was doing well in school. After both Mary and Gerry died, it was hard to know what the children were doing. This was in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, before social media.

So, you ask, what’s that got to do with the winter Olympics?

Well, that baby boy of Jane’s went to the 2006 Winter Olympic Games in Torino and won a gold medal in Skeleton! When I watched the Olympics that year I saw Duff winning that gold medal. How did he get there?

Duff went to Western and the University of Calgary, where he took up hockey, rowing, speed skating and bobsled. He started skeleton at age 33. He was 39 when he won his gold medal and he is the oldest individual gold medalist in the history of the Winter Olympics.

Throughout his life, he has coached and given talks on the value of sport.

Duff is a captain with the Calgary Fire Department. Now he, just like his great-grandfather, has written a book. His great-grandfather Louis Blake Duff’s book is dedicated to Jane—“Jane Susan Duff: Her Book.” He also wrote many articles about history. Duff’s book “The Tao of Sport,” is about sport.

Duff Gibson is easily found on many social media sites.

So you see, the gold thread started right here.

Vilma Moretti Fonthill

According to recent demographic estimates, 92 percent of nurses in Canada are female. Further reports suggest there are 276,800 female nurses and approximately 24,150 males in that profession. Many of us have traditionally considered nursing to be primarily a female occupation and the predominance of those census numbers rather confirms that popular sentiment.

Another demographic claims that in 2018 there were 312,000 truck drivers in Canada and 6.6 percent (20,592) of that number were female. These numbers rather confirm the widely held opinion that driving these big rigs is predominately a male occupation. Of that number of drivers approximately 160,000 make regular trips across the Canada / USA border.

The recent implementation of the mandate that requires truck drivers that cross the border to be vaccinated against the Covid virus will directly affect 26,000, presumably unvaccinated, drivers and ultimately preclude them from crossing the border.

Nonetheless, these above figures give rise to an interesting conundrum. How does the predominance of one or other gender in an occupation affect the level of support the community, and the media, will give that occupation?

Almost overnight, nearly $10 million was raised to support the “Freedom Convoy” to Parliament Hill to protest the vaccine mandate levied against the mostly male, presumably unvaccinated, 26,000 drivers who cross the border on a more or less regular basis. Interestingly, and for the moment ignoring any controversy surrounding that fundraising effort, the Canadian Trucking Alliance and other trucking industry associations do not support this so-called Freedom Convoy. There was also some latent fear that some anti- government antagonist groups might take this opportunity to enjoin the truckers’ demonstrations in Ottawa and protest their specific causes aside from the truckers’ intentions.

The question now is where was that level of support for the nurses who were working so hard to combat this virus that has infected and affected the entire population, risking their lives in that battle? Early on in the pandemic they worked without adequate personal protective equipment (PPE) and have been continuously working long hours often under disconcerting situations.

According to some reports, some nurses have left the profession due to poor working conditions and being constantly overwrought by dire circumstances. Many claim to be exhausted due to continually being short-staffed and without adequate breaks from the stresses they face.

So the question is, where in heaven’s name was the widespread support throughout the nurses’ valiant battle against the pandemic? Where were the public demonstrations, fundraising and other supportive initiatives to acknowledge the lifesaving efforts of this mainly female contingent?

Such questioning is not intended to demean the truckers’ contributions and their rights to protest the vaccine mandate required to cross the border. It is to be hoped their Parliament Hill demonstrations do not provide a platform for other unaligned dissidents and avoid any sort of violence.

One final question. If the nursing profession were predominately male would our society treat the profession with more respect, value their services more highly, and reward them more adequately? ◆

Wow! Talk about a week full of Covid news—from continuing protest over vaccine mandates here in Ontario to the relaxing of Covid protocols taking place both in Canada and around the globe. With so many jurisdictions contemplating changes within their boundaries the Ontario government is reconsidering its own timelines for loosening Covid restrictions. There were of course changes coming Feb 21, as scheduled, but Ontario is looking to move up timelines for reopening with anticipated changes coming to masking rules and vaccine passports. One change that the government has announced is that high-contact extracurricular activities can resume immediately, although students will have to wear a mask when they are on the bench during hockey and basketball games, and also before and after playing wind instruments.

By stating that he expects masks will continue to be required both in public spaces as well as in schools for quite some time, Ontario’s Chief Medical Officer of Health, Dr. Kieran Moore, is taking a much more cautious and much slower approach to removing provincial masking requirements than his neighbours. New York State, on February 9, dropped its mask and vaccine requirements for indoor businesses with masking protocols for its schools to be reviewed in early March. Many other northern states have either just recently removed all masking in their schools or will be reviewing these mandates within the next couple of weeks.

A quick note on the freedom convoy as of Saturday morning—several border crossings remain closed at this time, with protesters for the third week in a row clogging Ottawa’s streets. My own thoughts are that obviously all border points, especially the Ambassador Bridge in Windsor, must be opened immediately, and it is time to wrap up the Ottawa protest.

One last note, even though the Federal government insists it is a handful of Canadian n’er-do-wells creating all of the havoc, an Ipsos poll conducted last Tuesday and Wednesday determined that nearly half (46 percent) of Canadians say they “may not agree with everything the people who have taken part in the truck protests in Ottawa have said, but their frustration is legitimate and worthy of our sympathy.” Younger people were more likely to hold this view (61 percent of those 18 to 34), while support dropped significantly among older Canadians (37 percent for those 55-plus).

Meanwhile back in sleepy ol’ Pelham (whew), one nice change was the reopening of Town Hall to its residents. Of course one must still be fully vaccinated to enter the building.

The planning for the Pelham Home Show continues, with the Fonthill Kinsmen still accepting vendors for the show. The last two shows have been cancelled due to the Covid pandemic so they are hoping for a full slate of vendors this year. Admission is free with gate donations going to Pelham Cares on Saturday, and Sunday donations going to Wellspring. The show is set for April 8 and 9. Hope to see you there. ◆