Today's letters: Don't kill Ontario's wastewater testing plan

Saturday, June 8: It’s a no-brainer to test for viruses, and Ottawa experts pioneered the technique here, says one reader. You can write to us at [email protected]

Published Jun 08, 2024 • Last updated 7 hours ago • 10 minute read

Rob Delatolla is the engineering professor who has headed up wastewater surveillance in Ottawa, which was key to tracking COVID early in the region. Photo by Julie Oliver /POSTMEDIA

Wastewater testing for disease is a no-brainer

Re: Ontario’s wastewater testing program to be replaced by a federal program that is significantly smaller, June 6.

Have they lost their minds? The decision by the Ontario government to shut down a world-class waste treatment surveillance program is dumbfounding. As we continue to be under threat from COVID and other infectious diseases, Ontario is shutting down the brilliant initiative Rob Delatolla pioneered here in Ottawa to monitor infectious diseases. A straightforward, relatively low-cost means to monitor threats to our health is being summarily cancelled.

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What can we do? If Ontario won’t do it, then the city of Ottawa must step up and ensure that local hero Delatolla, and his colleagues, continue to get the funding they need to carry out the valuable work they do to protect our health. It’s a no-brainer; providing a lifeline to this lab is also providing a lifeline to this city’s health and safety.

Arieh Bonder, Ottawa

Wastewater testing trumps beer sales

Doug Ford’s ending of the wastewater surveillance program is just one more example of his blatant disregard for the actual health and welfare of Ontarians as he moves toward an election. Perhaps this is how he plans to pay for the cancellation of the Beer Store contract?

Sharon W. Moren, Kanata

High crime isn’t scaring condo sellers

Re: Lowertown’s crisis of violence is the entire city’s problem, June 4.

So high rates of crime occurring around the ByWard Market and Lowertown would scare off potential buyers of condo apartments in those areas, would they? Nope. The Realtor.ca website shows condo apartments for sale around this neighourhood are still at high asking prices.

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Any honest realtor should include a warning on every posting of any condo or property which is subject to high crime.

Jean-Pierre Vekeman, Kemptville

ByWard violence is a civic failing

The federal government department responsible for defending our country, and whose work environment includes war zones and overseas training of foreign forces, is retreating from the ByWard Market/Rideau Street area, because it is an unsafe place for its employees. The irony is overwhelming.

Moving out is not a solution. It is a testament to the failure of the City of Ottawa, the Ottawa police, the provincial and the federal governments to fulfil their fundamental responsibility to keep Canadians safe.

Sadly, property owners and residents in the area suffer the costs associated with this declaration by the government of Canada that the area — the heart of our national capital — has deteriorated to the point where employees of our military, can no longer work there.

David Keithlin, Gatineau

‘Historic’ designation needs legal teeth

Re: Rockcliffe Park named national historic site, May 28.

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Declaring Rockcliffe a national historic site might please people living in the village, but the important distinction is that “the federal designation does not bring with it any additional legal protections for the heritage elements of the neighbourhood.” In other words, it’s pretty fluffy and rather an inconsequential, feather-cappy type of moniker.

There have been houses over the years in Rockcliffe, historic and architecturally significant, that have been torn down in favour of new money or because the existing house didn’t fit into the new owner’s plans. The replacement house is usually new architecture and not in step with the traditional European / English style of architecture.

What Rockcliffe really needs if it is concerned about its historic and elegant architectural look is legislation with “teeth” that can prevent a longstanding house from being replaced by a nondescript, architectural modern oddity. Anything without legal protection is mere tinsel, similar to an honorary doctorate degree.

Douglas Cornish, Ottawa

Clean up your trash, Ottawa

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Re: Council unanimously approves three-item trash limit, May 29.

Trash along residential streets is mainly the result of people turning a blind eye to the litter on their own lawns, driveways and street fronts.

Learn to properly pack your blue box (containers inside containers, and no used furnace filters, thanks).

Jean Currie, Ottawa

Desperately seeking a family doctor

What happens when a disabled senior couple, residing in Ottawa, discovers their family doctor is closing shop?

After seven years, our physician is leaving family practice for a hospital position. Nearly 1,000 of his patients are without a replacement. I’ve written every level of government, received a response from our provincial NDP, and have been ghosted by everyone else.

I ask, are any politicians at any level without a doctor? Why have the Ontario Conservatives failed to see the crisis in family health care today? How can this senior couple gain access to the health care we need to live out our crippled lives? Does anyone care?

Desperately seeking MD,

Peter Gallant, Ottawa West

Private clinics have been helpful

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Re: Province aims to hike diagnostic imaging at private sites, June 5.

The Ontario NDP and Liberals keep warning us that we will have to use our credit cards at private clinics, but that has not been our experience. OHIP has been accepted at all the private clinics we have been in and no one ever asked for a credit card. Wait times were short and services were professional.

There is definitely a need for more places that offer diagnostic imaging services; waiting a long time for a test is not an option for many people.

Ada Hallett, Ottawa

Is it time for a Canada geese cull?

Re: Ottawa man, 68, charged with causing pain and suffering in trampling death of gosling, May 24.

There are fences along Dow’s Lake; golf courses use trained dogs; and airports use noise-making devices — and there are more and more geese every year! They are not only becoming aggressive but are befouling our public and private spaces, and it’s getting worse each year.

There is a culling of deer in British Columbia. Maybe we should consider that principle here?

David Burns, Portland

Long house arrest for car thieves

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Car theft is slowly being reduced by police forces starting to work together and discovering cars in containers at ports. One very disturbing fact from the recent arrests and warrants for some 30 car thieves is the fact the some of these criminals are being arrested for the second time in a very short period.

Could we not use ankle bracelets for extended periods of house arrest instead of short-term jail sentences so that repeat criminals could more easily be tracked down? This would be a better deterrent than reduced sentencing.

The Citizen reports that an individual was given 18 months of house arrest for posting antisemitic posters (which I agree with). I would think 24 months of house arrest for car theft would save the taxpayer money and really lower car theft.

These car theft insurance losses are being amortized back to every insured vehicle, and rates are up because the courts have not taken the matter as seriously as members of the public, who feel it in their pocketbooks.

Brian Vachon, Greely

Teach empathy about Jews and Palestinians

Re: Parents say antisemitism on the rise in city schools, May 30.

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Educators should use horrific incidents such as those described in the article as an opportunity to help the two sides understand each other.

Students who are concerned about the thousands of deaths and injuries among the two million people trapped in Gaza need to understand that many Jewish students are the victims of generational trauma caused by the Holocaust and the many pogroms that preceded it. From early childhood, they have learned about the massacres, deportations and other cruel acts inflicted on the Jews of Europe. They have been taught to fear that any Jewish death is a harbinger of millions to come. They have been persuaded that Jews will always be hated by other people and that only a strong state that is controlled by Jews can keep them safe. Traumatized by the way that the world ignored what had happened to their ancestors, many seem to have been blinded to the suffering of other human beings.

Students who are convinced that only a state controlled by Jews can keep Jews safe need to understand that what Robert Burns described in 1784 as “Man’s inhumanity to man” did not end when the Nazis were defeated. It still, in his words, “makes countless thousands mourn!”

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Just as Jewish students are still traumatized by what happened to their ancestors, many other students are incensed by what is happening in the Palestinian territories right now and traumatized by the ability of many of us to ignore the pain and suffering of millions of people.

Both groups oppose barbaric savagery and any apathy towards it; if they were able to understand each other’s feelings, they could work together to turn the area into a state where people of all ethnicities are safe and have equal rights. Jews and Palestinians can only be safe in a state that makes everyone safe.

Each hateful incident could become a “teaching moment.” It will take determined educators to exploit that opportunity.

Dave Parnas, Ottawa

Public servants are working, not pouting

Re: Public servants shouldn’t pout about partial return-to-office, June 4.

Public servants have been at work, albeit at home, since 2020.

There has been a trend within the public service of downsizing office space and desks. So it is entirely likely that a public servant will spend about an hour on a commute only to find that there is no desk for them to work at. The choice is to go back home, wasting more time and energy, or sit on the floor.

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Even though there was lots of time to remediate the buildings when they were empty, there are still federal buildings with bedbugs and bat poop.

And when the workers get to the office, what do they do? Open their laptops to engage in Microsoft Teams meetings, which they also could do quite conveniently at home.

So public servants are not pouting. They are a little tired of being portrayed as lazy and entitled.

Eleanor Abra, Ottawa

What about the possible election of Poilievre?

Re: Brace for a possible tsunami of illegal migrants if Trump is re-elected, June 4.

Tasha Kheiridden mentioned some things that might happen if Trump is elected. But she overlooked the likely election of Pierre Poilievre, which could bring the elimination of carbon pricing and setbacks to decarbonization and climate change; reductions in environmental protection; tax reductions to the rich and cuts in social services; and increasing income and wealth inequality.

We have good reason to be worried.

Michael Wiggin, Ottawa

Foreign meddling: here’s one solution

Re: Some MPs ‘wittingly’ helped foreign agents, June 3.

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The Liberal government won’t release the names of MPs and senators who have been found to be supplying foreign governments with confidential information. My solution: next election, vote for anyone but an incumbent.

Edward Farnworth, Ottawa

Liberals are right about NATO

It has become fashionable to criticize virtually every Liberal/NDP policy. Lately, it’s NATO policy. But for once I agree with their stand. Canada cannot promote peace by spending more money on weapons and retired generals.

Years ago, we were an admired middle power, focusing on peacekeeping.

It is long overdue for a foreign policy review — to return and build upon what have been our past successes: promoting peace, disaster prevention, health promotion, disease prevention and recovery.

In short, to devote our efforts to prevent wars and to deal with their horrific aftermath. And to do so proudly, not apologetically.

Reginald Warren, Ottawa

CAF has problems, but also great benefits

Re: Soldiers leaving Canadian Forces over ‘toxic leadership’, top adviser warns, May 28.

The Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) have had a lot of bad press, in many cases unjustified. I have been out of the RCAF for a dozen years now, but can relate to some of the issues experienced by CAF members today. I also have a son and son-in-law currently serving, who keep me up to date.

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The picture often presented in the media of a sexist organization, rife with racism and abuse, doesn’t square with my experience, nor that of my family members. While I acknowledge that bad things have happened to some, the brush strokes painted are far too broad and denigrate the vast majority of serving members. All members of the CAF come from a cross-section of Canadian society. If there is an issue in CAF culture, it is reflective of our society as a whole.

One aspect of your article I completely agree with is the issue of postings, housing and the impact on family. Over seven postings, finding a suitable home on a five-day house hunting trip and spending more money that we ever thought possible were supremely stressful experiences. Continually upending spousal employment, finding a doctor, child care and changing schools, it is no wonder that some elect to leave. Unfortunately, there are no easy answers.

From my experience in a recruiting detachment, applicants primarily want a job, but also want to do something different, challenging and get a chance to see the world. A dumbing down of training standards, broken old equipment and fewer training and operational deployments due to budget constraints, do not encourage them to stay. A bored soldier is an unhappy soldier.

I believe that the RCAF was good for me and a positive experience for our family. Lifelong friendships were forged and we experienced this big, beautiful country from coast to coast. Our kids grew up to be more worldly, resilient and independent and we are all better citizens for it.

Would I do it all over again if I could? You bet: “There’s No Life Like It.”

Randall (Randy) Sannes, Ottawa

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