sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½

Born in the U.S., and heading back there

Re: “Fate of Philippine Mars is a sad state of affairs,” letter, Dec. 12.

I read with some amusement the writer’s complaint about a “majestic Canadian icon sporting U.S. military insignia.”

I can only assume that they are unaware that the Martin Mars was originally designed and built in California by the Martin Company for the United States Navy. It was the largest Allied flying boat to enter production, although, ultimately, only five were taken into service with the U.S. Navy in 1944.

In 1959, the four remaining Martin Mars, having been retired from service with the U.S. Navy and put up for sale as scrap, were purchased by a Canadian company, Forest Industries Flying Tankers, a consortium of sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ forestry companies.

Once the sale was completed, the four aircraft were then brought to Victoria and converted to water bombers by Fairey Aviation.

In 2007, the remaining two Martin Mars (the other two having been lost in accidents in the early 1960s) were purchased by Coulson Aviation, who, after retiring the aircraft in 2017, eventually donated Hawaii Mars to the British Columbia Aviation Museum in North Saanich and Philippine Mars to the Pima Air & Space Museum in Tucson, Arizona.

It seems fitting to me that the two remaining aircraft each represent a portion of their long and varied service, with the aircraft located in the U.S. honouring their service with the U.S. Navy and the aircraft located in sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ honouring their second career as a sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½-based water bomber.

Arlen Corp

Colwood

Wishful thinking about transportation

A Dec. 11 letter-writer stated: “We know that many people will choose to bike, walk, or roll when they have a safe and pleasant way to do it.”

No. This is the kind of fairy tale thinking we get from the mayor and city council: that if you reduce options for drivers, take away street parking, reduce speed limits and generally make driving a more miserable experience, everyone will happily jump on a bike instead and traffic will just “evaporate.”

In reality, many car drivers have no choice: parents ferrying their kids, tradespeople with many tools, older people with mobility issues, people whose employers require them to have a car.

The letter-writer’s wishful thinking is similar to city council approving construction of new apartment buildings without providing any parking, assuming that offering bike storage instead will magically make residents not need parking. It’s asinine.

No, we are not destined to be sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½’s Amsterdam, and no amount of wishful thinking from the city will make it so.

P.J. Perdue

Victoria

Get liaison officers back in our schools

sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½’s human rights commissioner and the Greater Victoria school board have insisted over the past months that there is no tangible evidence of increased gang violence and refer to U.S. studies that indicate a negative effect of police liaison officers in schools.

All this while ignoring the evidence of many (on the front lines in our schools) regarding the real concerns of gang influence in and around our local schools and a need for all students to become more familiar with the positive contributions police make to our communities.

Now we learn that Saanich police’s Major Crime Unit had “35 investigations linked to gang activity in Saanich schools” in the past couple of years.

The Victoria Family and Court and Youth Justice Committee states “there has been an ‘exponential increase’ in the number of youth dealing with threats to their well-being in the region.”

That does not include those who do not report these incidents for fear of what might happen to them.

Victoria Police Chief Del Manak has been vocal with his concerns about gang activity and how police liaison officers can and do help to make our schools safer. Now we are getting direct evidence of how our schools need to be better protected from gang influence.

Isn’t this local evidence of more value than studies from the U.S., where they have different priorities to make their schools safe?

Time to reassess the police liaison involvement in schools, and what that entails, to ensure all students feel comfortable with police liaison officers. And then get them back into our schools. The sooner the better. Students will be safer.

Dave Hockley

Victoria

Damage being done with the postal strike

With the postal strike, my daughter’s eBay store is almost completely closed. One of my friends had to leave his job because his visa paperwork is stuck in the mail.

A family member had to cancel a Christmas trip and lost some of the money paid for that because his passport is stuck in the mail.

I had to pay more to ship Christmas presents by a private company courier. I haven’t sent Christmas cards; eCards just aren’t the same.

And there are many who still depend on the postal service to deliver their cheques. Even today, not everyone uses internet-based banking services.

The courier services are getting bogged down because (a) sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ Post handles the majority of parcels being sent in sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ and (b) they depended on sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ Post for local deliveries (probably those outside the urban centres) and have had to turn to small, local courier services.

These services are also not necessarily equipped to handle the surge in packages.

I am very leery about moving to a completely private mail delivery service in sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½. We are a geographically large country with a widely dispersed population.

I am not a member of the postal union, but I don’t like how the government and sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ Post are approaching this strike.

The employer has broken the law (Federal Labour Act) by laying off striking employees. What did they gain by laying off people who were not being paid?

There seem to have been no repercussions for that. Mediation stopped and there has been no public indication that the government is going to force the two sides back to the table.

To my cynical eyes, it appears the government may be trying to kill sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ Post.

Deb Boyce

Victoria

Knights of Columbus provide ‘Coats for Kids’

In 2009, the International Order of the Knights of Columbus launched its Coats for Kids program, with a simple goal of giving children the gift of warmth in the coldest months.

This winter, Greater Victoria’s six councils are, once again, participating in this project and will be donating 360 of these colourful winter coats to First Nations, schools and other area agencies which cater to needs of children and families.

Order-wide, this winter will mark the distribution of the one-millionth coat to a child in need of warmth.

So next time you purchase a Knights of Columbus lottery ticket, burger or hot dog, attend a pancake breakfast, have your Christmas tree chipped or donate your empties, know that you are indirectly helping to fund this program — and your help is appreciated.

Paul Redchurch

past state deputy

sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½/Yukon Knights of Columbus

Government hurts low‑income disabled

The track record and evidence of the sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ NDP government’s discriminatory practices against low-income disabled citizens is undeniable.

The government ignores its own sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ Accessibility Act, enshrined in law in 2021, that requires the identification, removal and prevention of barriers to accessibility, which includes housing, but only give persons-with-disabilities recipients about one-quarter of current average shelter costs for housing and fail to provide places for them to live through the sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ Housing Registry.

They take away minuscule (0.5% in 2024) cost of living increases that sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ Pension Plan disability recipients get from the federal government, as well as potential top-ups and extra supports, making the lives of the disabled more ­difficult, while helping other BCers “get through unprecedented economic times.”

And they leave disabled people on the streets, essentially legislating them into homelessness with insufficient support and no shelter options at their income levels.

These actions are deliberate and ­discriminatory, and actively go against their own laws. It’s clear, poor disabled peoples lives don’t matter to sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½’s government.

Jennifer Heinrichs

Victoria

A little collusion, and we’re American

Here’s one way that Donald Trump’s comment about sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ becoming the 51st state could become reality.

With a little collusion between Vladimir Putin and Trump — anything is possible — the U.S pretends to be asleep on the military front, which allows Soviet troops to invade northern sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½.

Then, suddenly, the U.S. troops wake up and come to sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½’s rescue, the Soviet troops quickly retreat as per the plan, the U.S. annexes sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½, and voilà — we are the 51st state.

Who is going to stop him?

Mike Wilkinson

Duncan

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