LETTERS
www.nanaimobulletin.com
Marijuana addiction mythology
To the Editor, Re: Trustee’s past not something to laugh off, f Letters, Dec. 15. Madeline Bruce has a lot of unknowns, but still seems to have the capacity to achieve her predetermined results regardless of her ignorance of the matter. Marijuana addiction is a myth. These teens she refers to are forced by the courts into rehab. If you have the choice, you’ll take a week of courses for an addiction you don’t actually have instead of serving jail time or getting a criminal record. Who wouldn’t take that option? Her instructions to start children off at the age of two is ridiculous, but when they turn 18, they should have the choice of what they wish to do with their lives and their bodies. School trustee Bill Bard paid the price for his involvement with marijuana to the courts, I see no need for him to give his blood to Bruce or trustee Donna Allen. The fact that he had charges was public knowledge that Allen had the opportunity to adddress during the run for the school board seat. She had her chance, now it sounds like sour grapes. Bruce should know better than she apparently does, the effects of marijuana and its therapeutic benefits. N.B. deWaal Port Alberni What do you think? Give us your comments by fax at 250-753-0788 or by e-mail: editor@ nanaimobulletin.com. Be sure to spell out your first and last names.
Now... your favourite newspaper at the click of a mouse. www.nanaimobulletin.com
Tuesday, December 20, 2011 Nanaimo News Bulletin
9
Downtown decorations too bland To the Editor, Been in downtown Nanaimo lately to see the bland, no colour, Christmas decorations on the main street? Looks like someone couldn’t decide on a colour or couldn’t afford multicoloured bulbs so they went with the washed-out look. What you see glaring in your face are tree trunks wrapped with oodles of tiny white bulbs. The light strings don’t really even extend onto the branches, so at night you don’t even know a tree is being outlined. The whitish bulbs do nothing to add pizzazz to our city core at this very special, magical, joyous time of the year. This type of lighting could be left up all year long. Other cities do. For festive ideas, Nanaimo just needed to look to the little town to the south that did. Ladysmith has become a poster city for Christmas decorating anywhere in the world. Even Langford, once the ugliest city centre on the Island, shines with one of the best light displays in Canada. What could have set our city apart, and made it dazzle, would have been to install those bulbs which can be turned any color you want at the flick of a switch. There could be multicoloured lights for Christmas, red and white for Valentine’s Day, green for St. Patrick’s Day and white for the rest of the year. All as it takes is some research, thinking, care and planning. Obviously that wasn’t the case here. Anyone got some paint? M.D. Stade Nanaimo
Facts different from propaganda To the Editor, Re: Environmental
CHRIS BUSH/THE NEWS BULLETIN
Katrina Herriot, left, visiting from Lasqueti Island, walks past shops on Commercial Street where trees and lamp posts are decked out for the holiday season.
Speak up!
You can comment on any story @ www.nanaimobulletin.com
groups unfairly represented, Letters, Dec. 13. In her support for selfstyled ‘environmental’ groups, letter-writer Liz Fox urges learning “the difference between fact and propaganda.” Both the British Courts and I agree. On Oct. 10, 2007, Justice Burton of the High Court, London, found that Al Gore’s global warming film An Inconvenient Truth contained nine factual errors. He ruled that it constituted “political indoctrination” under Section 406 of the U.K. Education Act. This ruling meant the film could not be shown in British schools without teachers “offering a balanced presentation of opposing views.” Similarly, the official Russell Review of the
first Climategate e-mails from the University of East Anglia exposed climate researchers’ “failures, evasions, misleading actions, unjustifiable delays, and pervasive unhelpfulness – all of which amounts to sub-optimal academic practice.” Yet the U.N. used Climategate “facts” to demand Canadians transfer millions of dollars to socialist countries. Direct observations are facts. Anyone in Nanaimo can look up and see we do not live under a thick sheet of ice. The global warming that melted the ice sheet at the end of the Ice Age 12,000 years ago was not caused by oil pipelines. Anyone can see tropical turtle and fern fossils in Canada’s Arctic; review the global warming of Mars; or visit Greenland’s Hvalsey Church ruins, once in a farming community which thrived during the Medieval Warm Period a thousand years ago, but was frozen out by the ensuing Little Ice Age. The Earth’s climate
has changed repeatedly over the past 95 million years. This is fact, not propaganda. Selfserving environmental groups should learn the difference. Bart Jessup Gabriola Island
Socialists show double standards To the Editor, Re: Environmental groups unfairly represented, Letters, Dec. 13. Liz Fox defends the funding of Canadian environmentalists by large American foundations. I recall her party, the NDP, crying foul when early in their first mandate the Conservative Party invited a Republican strategist to speak to their convention. Yet she’s fine with American foundations spending more than $300 million since 2000 to influence public policy through Canadian environmentalist front groups. The U.S.-based Oak Foundation for example, paid the Global Campaign for Climate Action $5
million, “To mobilize civil society and public opinion in Canada…to undertake massive public organizing”. Apparently an American colossus attempting to influence Canadian public policy is legitimate, while an American guest speaker at a party convention is not. Oh, but wait. Didn’t the B.C. NDP just have a wellknown American address their convention? A past member of the Obama administration, community organizer and self-proclaimed communist was well received and applauded by her party, once again affirming that if it weren’t for double standards, the socialists/ progressives would have no standards at all. Randy O’Donnell l Nanaimo
Columnist wrong about Islamicism To the Editor, Re: Harper’s stance not engendering pride, Appeal to Reason, Dec. 15. Ron Heusen should buy a dictionary and a few other books as well. Stephen Harper is perfectly correct in saying that Islamicism is the primary source of terrorism today; but not Islam. There is a difference between the two and the fact is that there is a fanatical sect of terror that hides behind Islam, but is not Islam. There is also another aspect of Islamicism that is equally as effective, but not as spectacular, nor as well-known, because it is much more subtle. It is known as citizenship jihad, because its objective is to have as many Muslims as possible become citizens and then change the existing laws to suit them. It’s already happening in Europe. Paul D. Good Nanaimo
Commercial Food Equipment Design • Fabrication • Installation
Dishwashing and Ventilation Systems
Public Welcome! From all natural foods and baked treats to dog gear and toys, Bark & Fitz has it all. Grooming Available.
Our Showroom Hours Are: Monday to Friday 8:00 am - 4:30 pm 7431 Industrial Road Lantzville, B.C. www.jemcofood.com
250-390-3224
(250) 933-2222
4B-6338 Metral Drive, Nanaimo (Across from Superstore)
Email: nanaimo@barkandfitz.com