Alive today because of Rachel Staples
Re: 鈥淭eenager rarely spoke of drug use, inquest told,鈥� June 22.
I鈥檝e been reading with interest, and heartache, of the coroner鈥檚 inquest into Elliot Eurchuk鈥檚 death. All parents can relate to the pain endured by Rachel Staples and Brock Eurchuk.
The fact that I can experience the heartache at all is due to Rachel Staples herself. Twenty years ago, she performed CPR on me after I collapsed with a cardiac arrest at the end of an eight-kilometre running race.
I鈥檓 alive today because of her generosity in continuing to keep a stranger鈥檚 heart fibrillating for 20 minutes until an ambulance arrived. Reading how she was unable to do the same for her son fills me with sadness.
We can never foresee the challenges that life throws at us, but we can and should feel compassion for the suffering of others.
Gregory Marchand
Victoria
Support given for protesters
Re: 鈥淎 protest gone bad,鈥� editorial, June 25.
Every day, I jump in my truck and feel conflicted by my contribution to the climate problem that will not affect me. Age is a bonus in this fight. An electric vehicle is an option for me. Recycling and caring about our west coast/Salish Sea are second nature to me.
When I see shallow criticisms of protesters in the letters section and even more callous editorials regarding the impact of the Pat Bay Highway marchers, I cringe in dismay at a specific perception.
A letter, like this one, is written seated on one鈥檚 behind, as the editorial was, and probably takes 10 minutes to compose and send off to print. Think about that.
Now think of the planning, caring and exuberance that it took for all those protesters, no matter their number, to stand up for what they think and hope for regarding the coast. In this case, I side with the protesters.
Max Miller
Saanich
Protest march cost others time
Re: 鈥淧ipeline protesters march up highway,鈥� June 23.
The protest turned my normal 25-minute trip into one of 105 minutes. Fortunately, I wasn鈥檛 trying to catch a flight or ferry.
The pipeline has been approved by the federal government and polls indicate that even 60 per cent of sa国际传媒 residents approve, as do a majority of other Canadians.
A protester鈥檚 sign reading 鈥淲hat part of NO do you not understand鈥� puzzles me, as the courts have made a decision in favour and the matter is closed.
Why are these people allowed to inconvenience thousands, assisted by the very authorities who should prevent these disruptive activities?
Des Carpenter
Victoria
Fake news or bad count?
Re: 鈥淧ipeline protesters march up highway,鈥� June 23.
I am curious to know if the same crowd-size-estimating service was used for this article, as was used for U.S. President Donald Trump鈥檚 inauguration rally.
The article states that about 300 demonstrators marched 22 kilometres from Victoria City Hall to Island View Beach.
After careful analysis, I was hard pressed to count no more than 135 to 150 heads in the photograph that appeared on the front page of the sa国际传媒.
Would this be a genuine error, or, as the president himself would say, a case of 鈥渇ake news?鈥�
Peter Howell
Victoria
Remember years of alienation
Re: 鈥淧ipeline protesters march up highway,鈥� June 23.
I was driving southbound on the Pat Bay Highway last Saturday when I saw the pipeline protest march in the opposite lanes. The one sign I was able to see as I passed read: 鈥淣o pipeline without consent,鈥� and it was held by an Indigenous person.
Contrary to the reporting of the sa国际传媒, my impression was that this particular protest was more about the perceived rights of First Nations than about climate change. From that perspective, the march was not a farce at all and this relatively small group of people made the national news with their message.
You can agree with that message or not, but if the protesters 鈥渁lienated the masses鈥� by clogging up some traffic on a Saturday, then a group of people who have been alienated by the masses for over a century at least had a voice for a day.
Trevor Amon
Victoria
Tourist questions pipeline protest
Re: 鈥淧ipeline protesters march up highway,鈥� June 23.
As a tourist to Victoria, I was completely taken aback by the arterial road closure caused by a pipeline protest.
The amount of gasoline wasted and exhaust emanating from idling cars was totally at cross purposes with the protesters. A march organizer is quoted as saying, 鈥渢he marchers caused some backup of cars.鈥� Instead of listening to someone with a vested interest in the cause, why didn鈥檛 your reporter ask any stranded motorist to comment on how bad the backups were? Their support for the protest would have been zero.
It is not great reporting.
Don Intihar
Bellingham, Washington
Familiar look to protests
Re: 鈥淧ipeline protesters march up highway,鈥� June 23.
While I support free speech and the right to protest, I seem to see the same faces popping up on the media whenever there is a 鈥減rotest鈥� with marching, disrupting traffic, drumming and speeches, no matter what this week鈥檚 cause is.
Could it be these folks have made protesting an end in itself, no matter what the issue?
Peter M. Clarke
Victoria
Double standard with ideologies
Re: 鈥淕rave act of vandalism against a labour hero,鈥� June 22.
The article perpetuated the double standard in how we treat one murderous 20th-century totalitarian ideology as opposed to the other.
We would be horrified by a fascist group erecting a marker with a swastika to honour their hero, while Communists doing the same thing using the hammer and sickle are given a free pass.
I place the blame for this on our school curriculum, which covers the Holocaust but glosses over the Holodomor, the Katyn massacre, Stalin鈥檚 purges, Mao鈥檚 Cultural Revolution, the killing fields of the Khmer Rouge, the brutality of the Shining Path Guerrillas and all the other mass murders that were committed under the hammer and sickle banner.
Consequently, everyone knows about Nazi concentration camps and few know about the Soviet gulags.
The extremes of the left have resulted in the same or greater horrific levels of oppression, cruelty and mass murder as those of the right.
But, thanks to the left-wing bias of academics who train our teachers and journalists, we perversely tolerate the symbols of one and not the other.
It is a mystery why labour unions would have backed the creation of a monument with the hammer and sickle proudly displayed.
Anyone with even a passing familiarity with Communist history would know that independent labour movements were ruthlessly suppressed, and it was not until Solidarity, the Polish trade union, revolted against Communist oppression that the Soviet system fell.
Peter Havlik
Victoria
It鈥檚 a job and a paycheque
Re: 鈥淒id protesters forget about coal?,鈥� letter, June 22.
You load 16 tons and what do you get? A paycheque and a sense of self-worth knowing you are contributing rather than taking.
Grant Maxwell
Nanaimo
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