Letters, Oct. 22

Creating safe sports environments

We do not do enough in youth sports to create a safe environment for all youth to participate safely and fully. Access to sports is a huge part of personal development for youth, including core teamwork and interpersonal skills, discipline and responsibility and passion.

Barriers should be removed for children and youth to be able to participate — especially girls and racialized youth. Despite being one of the strongest ways to connect as a community, sports hold a lot of privilege in who can access them and who will remain able to participate.

All youth deserve to feel a sense of belonging, have access to spaces for physical activity and to experience recreation free from harassment or discrimination from players, coaches or spectators.

However, anti-racism and inclusion in sports is not treated as an expectation, but an exception to the norm. There are families and community groups in Winnipeg that face racist remarks during games, who are not represented fairly by sports organizations, who are more likely to be perceived as “aggressive” or “dangerous” players, thus being scored unfairly, and who are much more likely to drop out of sports than their white counterparts. According to Statistics Canada, more black participants experience or witness unfair treatment than any other group. In addition, girls are more likely to drop out of sports than boys. Many coaches volunteer their time to their teams but are not always equipped with the ability to notice microaggressions during play, and many do not have the knowledge needed to protect racialized youth athletes from discrimination.

I believe there needs to be more discussion about collective accountability from adults making up these spaces about how we show up for players, and what we are truly contributing to their development.

Additionally, community sports organizations need to be accountable for providing mandatory anti-racist training for coaches and referees, and set clear expectations for spectators during sports events. Competition and community involvement should never be at the cost of a youth’s dignity or identity, and prejudicated microaggressions in youth sport are normalized to a harmful degree that affects racialized children and youth’s ability to participate equally.

Kiara Rasmussen

Winnipeg

Blow the horn for BRT

Re: Other cities build rapid transit, while we wait (Think Tank, Oct. 9); Better wait for the next bus (Oct. 15)

A strong word of appreciation for Ken Klassen and Tom Brodbeck, and the thousands of Winnipeggers who, on the street and on the doorstep, are making public transit an issue in the current election campaign.

As every major city in the world (apart from Winnipeg) has discovered, the key to effective public transit is high-speed transit corridors that take transit vehicles out of congested vehicular traffic — either via a subway or much more affordable bus rapid transit (BRT) corridors.

Despite the federal government offering billions of dollars for cities to upgrade their transit systems, Winnipeg has stalled on completing even its first BRT corridor. The southwest corridor was to be built in three phases, with the third phase running from Harkness Station (near Stradbrook Avenue and Queen Elizabeth Way) to Portage Avenue.

Though they run rapidly and efficiently on the dedicated corridor south of Harkness, once they are into downtown traffic, Blue Line buses slow to a crawl in the morass of traffic lights, car traffic and other transit routes. To make the Blue Line more predictable and truly rapid, the corridor needs to run at least as far as the University of Winnipeg. As rapid transit buses spend less time stalled in downtown traffic, buses and drivers will be freed up for other underserved routes.

One need only ride the existing legs of the southwest corridor to see what an overwhelming success it has been. At most times of the day, even long, articulated buses are full. Just as was predicted, densely populated neighbourhoods of apartment complexes are springing up all along the route. Hundreds of millions of dollars are being saved as population growth is being shifted from new developments at the outskirts of the city to established neighbourhoods with services already in place.

The city and province are about to miss the bus on the federal program for major transit improvements. It is time for us to get a move on, hop on that bus, and drive our city out of the 19th century and into the 21st.

Thomas Novak

Winnipeg

Lead the way

Re: “Reviving democracy requires engagement” (Letters, Oct. 20)

John Wiens has come forth with another robust column defining democracy. He lists respect for all, civility, inclusion and greater equality as a few attributes of a healthy democracy. Implicit in these words is sharing as a basic for a humane society.

Perhaps among the one or more per cent of conspiracy believers there are some who value a democratic view. That said, the other 99 per cent or less must endorse and put forth the values that characterize a more humane democratic system.

We know the world is full of good people. Some of these citizens ought to lead us to a more humane society.

Barry Hammond

Winnipeg

Trump unmasked

Putin has dangled billions of dollars of business in front of (U.S. special envoys) Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner but only if Ukraine surrenders.

Connect the dots. Trump intends to break Ukraine and capitulate to Putin so he can make more money. Blood money. Finally the mask is off. No more pretending on Trump’s part as to where he stands — with Putin.

Trump’s greed and cruelty shows in everything he does but this tops everything because it is clearly treasonous and despicable.

How many impeachable offences has Trump committed and what will it take to be rid of this soulless president?

Christine Krucko

Winnipeg

Midterm anticipation

I’m counting the days with excitement. Not for the Grey Cup or for Christmas, but for what could be one of the most important days in history.

When is this important and exciting day? Tuesday, Nov. 3, when the American electorate goes to vote in midterm elections. Just like at Christmas, I am counting the number of “sleeps” before the big day arrives. And just like at Christmas, our gift could be exactly what we’ve been wishing for or the dreaded lump of coal.

The dream gift would be that the American people rise up in a “blue tsunami” and drive the “red sycophants” into the political wilderness. On that day, it will be big-screen TV, bowls of popcorn, refreshments and hopefully plenty of reasons to celebrate.

Come on America, you can do it!

Wally Barton

Winnipeg

Unlikely thanks

Despite all the negativity about U.S. President Donald Trump, I feel we should thank him for doing something that in my opinion deserves credit.

Because of his actions he has, in my opinion, made Canadians more patriotic. He has brought us all together and made us proud to be Canadian. His ridiculous renaming of Lake Ontario, calling our prime minister “Governor,” and his 51st state insults just show the intellect of this narcissistic, mercurial individual. So, thank you Donald Trump for making me prouder than ever to be a Canadian.

Ken Butchart

Winnipeg