Can we learn from the Australian example?

A note from my daughter in New South Wales on March 29: Her mother-in-law is expected to arrive from Brisbane, Queensland, in the next few days, but the city and surrounding hot spots have been under lockdown for three days. due to the outbreak of eight cases of COVID that were transmitted by the community.

Eight. At the same time, other Australian states, including New South Wales, imposed travel restrictions from Queensland.

This week, I’m sending my daughter a note reporting 4,000 new cases in BC over the Easter weekend. Response from Down Under: “Zero here”.

The lockdown is over, her mother-in-law is visiting and they go on a wine tour of the nearby Hunter Valley; all bitter for my other daughter, who had no one outside of her immediate family in her home in Ontario for a year.

Indeed, Australia does not share the same long and porous international borders as we do.

However, goods and people enter the country and anyone arriving from abroad automatically spends two weeks at the quarantine hotel.

Canadian Government and Dr. Good Bonnie Henry will be well aware of the Australian example.

It’s been more than two years since I saw my daughter and grandchildren in the Southern Hemisphere, and I’m afraid that if we don’t get tougher soon on our way to and from islands and provinces, it could be even longer.

Gery Lemon
See Royal

Dr. Henry, let me euphemism

With all due respect to Dr. Bonnie Henry, I’m sick of hearing about very serious problems called “challenges” and potentially deadly and pervasive variants called “worrying”.

Call for the shovel of shovel and instead of worrying about the public, stop minimizing and start dealing.

We need to take more action, not less. We need to take steps to stop tourism to Vancouver Island, stop the spread of transmission through arriving travelers and impose more serious consequences for people who ignore vigilance and harm others.

Things are not getting better. They get worse and it is much more than just challenging and concerning.

It’s deadly.

Palset Launa
Victoria

Go hard to stop the pandemic

I’m pretty sure people around the world are fed up with COVID-19. Countries that have leaders willing to step in, doing what is necessary to stop the spread, should be applauded.

In Canada, COVID is out of control. First our seniors, the older population, the people with compromised health.

Now the younger crowd. Still our leaders don’t take a tough stance.

If we lockdown properly, we won’t be in the middle of this pandemic swamp. Open, close, open too fast, close but not tight, open again, close again. We are all sick and tired.

Let’s get tough. The locks of this country are so tight that COVID has nowhere to go but.

You are not allowed to spread COVID if you feel entitled and do not wear a mask, cannot travel and bring back the variant. It is not good.

How many more people have to die?

Rebecca Evans
Brentwood Bay

Another day of too many cases of COVID

Like Canada, Australia is a federation with a strong central government and a similar population. And like Canadian cities, Australian cities continue to rank in the top 10 most liveable cities in the world.

But unlike Canada, Australia adopted a violent initial hardline response to a pandemic that resulted in low numbers of COVID-19 and returned to normalcy quickly.

On par with our province, the Australian state not only limits domestic travel within the country, but occasionally, travel between geographic areas within the same state – complete with road checkpoints and police enforcement.

While our government’s response to the pandemic has been laudable in the North American context, as our numbers on Vancouver Island climb to record highs, it is sometimes difficult to understand (despite constitutionality) why our province has not adapted a similar hardline tactic.

Dave Nonen
Victoria

Thunberg’s title was wrong

The University of British Columbia awarded Greta Thunberg an honorary degree.

Thunberg is an activist who demands the world tackle the effects of using fossil fuels, carbon dioxide and air pollution in general.

Current activism uses whatever confrontational activity is necessary to promote opinion on climate issues. In this case facing world leaders, world population and world opinion who oppose the fossil fuel industry.

Thunberg championed a laudable ideology that draws large crowds to this end. However, I object to this method of intimidating people for narrow ends without discussing its impact on the world economy.

Young people are deeply affected. Thunberg was well guided to deliver his address at the United Nations Assembly. The show was well-orchestrated with a bold tone that spewed violence upon the adult audience of captive world leaders.

Its main promotion is to call on the world’s young people to leave their class to join demonstration protests. It is not wrong to hold demonstrations every week that attract students from educational institutions.

Public schools and universities are educational facilities. Pulling students out is a cost to our system. Young protesters are attracted to the joy of cause without understanding the social effects and consequences.

Human ingenuity and creativity will solve climate problems. Not from the influence of foreign environmental groups who are involved in governance and our economy.

I do not support this distraction, nor do UBC have to respect the people who do it. Canada is filled with green plants that consume carbon. We are a small population that accounts for less than two percent of the world’s pollution.

We are not a problem globally. Respect our efforts, not tough speculators.

Bruce E. Hornidge
Port Alberni

The progressive council is making Victoria better

Subject: “Give high marks to the Victorian council,” letter, April 7.

I also appreciate the opinion and recent letter acknowledging the positive action taken by Mayor Lisa Helps and the progressive majority elected to the Victorian council.

These changes to make our cities more livable, walkable, and cycling – and thus more socially, culturally and economically dynamic – are long overdue. The allocation of scarce public road space is very unbalanced for the benefit of private cars and for everyone and others.

The humanitarian catastrophe of homelessness and untreated mental illness and the addictions that occur in our streets and parks is not the fault of the Victorian council. Health and housing are primarily provincial and federal responsibilities.

This catastrophe was mainly caused by decades of cuts in social programs by right-wing governments to pay for tax cuts that mostly benefit the rich.

Despite some recent increases in funding, the provincial and federal governments are still not dealing with this humanitarian crisis with the disaster response that is needed.

Of course, Victorian councilors made mistakes sometimes.

But all in all, I give the mayor and council credit for doing a great job during these very challenging times, and remaining focused on making our city more sustainable, vibrant and people-centered.

Graham Briggs
Victoria

The decision about a bike path boggles the mind

What was the thought process when the new bike path in Victoria was considered? Did Mayor Lisa Helps and councilors look at decades of data and figure out where the collision between vehicle drivers and cyclists occurred? I doubt that.

It’s mind boggling that Richardson Street and Kimta Road will be changed in any way while East Gorge Road is definitely a death trap for cyclists.

Likewise, the new bike routes for Jubilee, Oaklands and Fernwood seem to fall into the favorite category of many critics: solutions to problem solving.

Is East Gorge Road not getting the attention it deserves because no one running the show in Victoria is using it to cycle to work?

It would be enlightening for the Times Colonist to provide readers with a map showing roughly where the mayor and councilors live in relation to the approved bicycle routes.

Trevor Amon
Victoria

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