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Letters to the Editor
LINDSAY
ADVOCAT E
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Adelaide Place resident supports wage increase for retirement home workers
Residents of my home at Adelaide Place have retired from many different occupations with financial resources and insurance that enables them to live here. As such a resident, I might be expected to support the message of Adrienne West, our executive director (letter, December 2020 Advocate). And I do support her, not only because she assures us of a safe and healthy life, free of COVID-19, but especially because we residents may cause extra work with many of the same ailments afflicting those in long-term care (LTC) homes. We grow old in our home, then eventually may suffer many of the same physical and mental impairments as the occupants of LTC homes.
A fine team of caregivers at Adelaide Place has made it possible for me to enjoy the last years of my long life. This experience leads me to believe that the team at Adelaide Place deserves the same compensation as the caregivers in long-term care homes. Other retirement homes may feel the same way. This financial battle against COVID-19 is funded by the federal and Ontario governments. Alan Gregory, Lindsay
Dear Premier Ford,
I can’t believe you and your government are moving to take away powers of conservation authorities to protect wetlands and fragile lands during this time of COVID-19. Many other areas are supporting environmental initiatives so that we come out of the pandemic with a healthier environment. By making this decision, you are putting people at risk of flooding by taking away this protection and by supporting unhealthy development.
I implore you to reverse this short-sighted move and leave our wetlands, forests and other ecological areas alone. Pat Warren, Bobcaygeon
Goodbye Ops Community Centre
The Ops Community Centre brought wonderful opportunities that I enjoyed while still living in the community. I don’t know if they realized what they were starting and what the impact would be on our community. The opportunity for people to step up and grow, become leaders that would inspire others. That is what a vibrant, thriving community does. It was our place, built and cared for with pride, and we called it home.
So many people stepped up in various roles. Presidents, committee members, coaches, managers for minor hockey and other groups. The ladies’ group who booked and catered various events in the hall. All the ladies, young and old, who volunteered to cook, serve and to clean up.
Who remembers roller skating on Friday nights after the ice was out? The hockey games we played in, cheered at and volunteered for. The minor hockey dances that we went to with our dates and where we danced with our parents and their friends. When we were old enough we worked the bar. The wedding receptions and showers we attended or catered to. Curling where we first learned to curl and bonspiels with friends and family. Junior Farmers dances. Volunteering in the concession stand, taking tickets for events and working the penalty box.
For some, it was a first job as a referee or the first volunteer opportunity. Learning how to serve at banquets and receptions. A mingling of youth and adults. All of it a chance to gather as a community for the benefit of us all. It was a place to meet new people, try new things and make new friends. All of it a wonderful memory and a pretty great place to safely spread your wings, to learn and grow. Thanks to all who brought an idea and this place to life. Thank you to all that worked there and made it a welcoming place. My heart smiles with the memories. So sad to say goodbye to an old friend. Anne Jackson-Ford Sherwood Park, Alberta
Pipe organ appreciation
Re: Just in Time article on The King of Instruments (December Advocate).
A wonderful musician and good friend, Morley Coombs, loved music and pipe organs. He played at many churches in Lindsay, Peterborough and Toronto. He also played the organ at Mackey Funeral Home for many years.
He loved Lindsay and was so knowledgeable of its history, especially the trains. He worked for the executives of CN in Toronto as well as the Lindsay Water Commission.
He loved pipe organs and could take them apart and put them back together. Morley was a wonderful man Judith Hayes, Lindsay
Walt Radda’s cartoon was spot on
As usual, the Radda Man’s cartoon for December slams his point home. Above the chaos of 2020 he writes, “Don’t let the door hit you on the way out.” Well drawn and said.
The Radda Man once filled truck radiators on the GM assembly line — one every minute. Now he fills our lives with insight and laughter — one every month. Thank you, (Walt) Radda. Walter Murray, Bobcaygeon
Toronto isn’t ‘cold and ruthless’
With respect to the letter to the editor “The Our Place Dilemma,” December Advocate, the letter writer refers to “the impersonal and ruthless city of Toronto.” How one can characterize a city of three million people in such broad strokes, especially one which has, for example, such obvious cultural, educational, economic and financial benefits, staggers the imagination. A realistic appraisal of any environment, urban or otherwise, would suggest areas of weakness as well as strength. The divisiveness mentioned above is abundantly clear south of the border and should be a cautionary tale for those of us who tend to focus on points of commonality rather dissimilarity in our fellow citizens. R. Mason, Omemee
Second wave wavering
Like Trevor Hutchinson in his December Advocate column, “Ford’s folly a return to form,” I have been pleasantly surprised by Doug Ford’s performance as Ontario’s premier. However, I consider Ford’s handling of COVID during this second wave to be misguided.
I’d like to think our premier has read The Great Barrington Declaration. It was published on Oct. 4 by three of the world’s top epidemiologists from Harvard, Stanford and Oxford medical research institutions. To date, this historic document has been endorsed by over 725,000 co-signatories including tens of thousands of medical doctors, public health officers and researchers. The declaration recommends a more balanced approach to pandemic public policy than our current broad-based economic and social lockdowns. The declaration proposed a plan that will continue to protect citizens who are at high risk of serious COVID infections. However, it will also protect millions of other citizens from high risks due to over a dozen categories of health-related consequences caused by lockdowns.
Weighing the advice from such reputable international experts against the advice from domestic health officials and elected political leaders must be challenging for Ford and his team. I hope that Doug Ford follows suit by being premier to all Ontario residents and follows the declaration’s fair and inclusive policy recommendations for the sake of everyone. Gene Balfour, Fenelon Falls
From the Advocate: The declaration referred to in this letter originated with the American Institute for Economic Research, which describes itself as an organization that “envisions a world in which societies are organized according to the principles of pure freedom — in which the role of government is sharply confined to the provision of public goods and individuals can flourish within a truly free market and a free society.” Although the declaration has been signed by many knowledgeable people, it has been repudiated by many others equally knowledgeable. They point to its false dichotomy between complete lockdown and complete freedom, and the fact that the declaration makes no provision to protect the most vulnerable, such as people in long-term care, who make up 80 per cent of those who have died from COVID-19 in Canada. We encourage readers to research the subject for themselves.
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