Today's letters: Memories of an Olympian remind us how far women have come

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This athlete made Sports Illustrated too

Re: A big swing – Sports Illustrated’s debut was a risk, Aug. 24.

This article brought back memories to my wife, Jackie MacDonald, and me. We still have a copy of the first issue of Sports Illustrated, which contains a photo of Jackie from the 1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Vancouver in which she won the silver medal in the shot put.

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She continued to represent Canada in shot put and discus in the 1955 PanAmerican Games, the 1956 Olympics, the 1957 World Youth Games in Moscow and the 1958 British Empire and Commonwealth Games, where she won the bronze medal in the shot put.

Jackie kept scrapbooks of her early sports participation in basketball, competitive swimming and diving, followed by her international competition in shot put and discus, ending in 1958. In 2012, she donated the scrapbooks to the Archives of the Province of Ontario (Fonds 4662). In 2015, with the PanAmerican Games being held in Toronto, the Archives chose samples from the scrapbooks for their main exhibit.

After 1958 she competed in other sports: masters’ swimming, cycling, water polo and rowing.

Her memoir, Ladies Don’t Do That! Memoir of an Olympian, was published in 2023.

William (Bill) Gelling, Ottawa

Drug site closures leave many questions

Re: Closing this supervised drug site means more people will die, Aug. 26.

I have no quarrel with physically distancing supervised injection sites
from schools and daycares. But there are a number of outstanding
questions that have not been addressed by the premier or health minister.

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First, where would the proposed Homelessness and Addiction Recovery Treatment (HART) hubs be situated?  Should they also be distant from schools and daycares? If so, where would that be and how would the clientele of the supervised injection sites access them?  Would they be on a bus route?

Second, the timelines are unclear. One would expect that there would be sufficient overlap between the closure of supervised injection sites and the functioning of the HART centres so the injection site could arrange for their drug-using clients to be admitted. Unless these places
are going to be up and running long before the supervised injection sites
close, how exactly would referrals take place?

Third, the premier talks as if there is substantial evidence that his new centres work, but we see no such evidence.  Certainly treatment CAN work, but it doesn’t always. If a six-month overlap between the closure of supervised injection sites and opening of these centres demonstrated the desired drop in the number of overdoses and related deaths, then we could place faith in this
change. But he has no such evidence, and the community has no sense of
whether there would be any such meaningful overlap. All we know is when the
injection sites are being obliged to close.

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Premier Doug Ford shows a great deal of certainty about something which still leaves so many questions unanswered.

Mark Hammer, Ottawa

Let’s tone down the sensationalism

Without debating the merits of the Ontario government’s reasoning for closing a number of supervised drug consumption sites, let’s tone down the overblown rhetoric and sensationalizing of possible consequences.

For instance, Bruce Deachman’s column cites last year’s figures from the Somerset West drug consumption and treatment service (CTS). The centre reversed 487 overdoses, claiming 487 lives saved. It’s known that despite these safe sites, many addicts still look for and use on the streets. This is usually alone, with drugs of unknown source and quality. Realistically, some of those 487 “saved” are in reality, merely delayed deaths.  This reality would apply to any site’s yearly “saved” numbers.

This is not to say the addicted are not deserving of concern and treatment.  However, we do not treat alcoholics by pouring more booze down their throats, nor tobacco addicts by stuffing a dozen or more cigarettes into their mouths.

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Similarly, addicts deserve treatment that weans them off drugs and to be provided with the supports necessary to keep them off these substances, not simply programs that merely keep them from overdosing and prolong their addiction “safely.”

Clearly these supervised consumption sites are not effective in reducing the number of users, or drug use. If they were, they would have put themselves out of business long ago.

Mike Alain, Ottawa

Look at the causes of drug addiction, too

Thank you, Bruce Deachman, for your excellent article. Those dying are our  neighbours. Many may have once led normal lives, had families and worked. But some had a setback, job loss, family tragedy or even PTSD, and societal support or housing was not available. Loneliness or despair drew them to drugs.

While we must protest the provincial government’s closure of safe injection sites, we must also look to root causes and do a much better job of supporting those in need. Canada is a wealthy country and can do much more. Remember that the person dying from an overdose could be one of your family.

Michael Wiggin, Ottawa

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Are we really saving these lives?

Bruce Deachman makes two statements in his column on the closure of supervised injection sites that deserve closer scrutiny.

The first is his claim that since the Somerset West Community Health Centre has prevented 487 overdoses: “that’s 487 lives saved.” But is it? Yes, the deaths may have been prevented temporarily. But they haven’t really been saved. Supervised injection sites are really just palliative care.

The statistics are clear. One estimate says that the average life expectancy of a heroin addict is 15 to 20 years. A user may not die of an overdose today but he will almost certainly die of an overdose, or a contaminated drug, or exposure on a winter night, or from street violence, or from hepatitis, or simply from neglect, within a few years.

Another report says that life expectancy for Canadians has actually fallen because of drug deaths among young Canadians, an astonishing fact.

In other words, safe places to do drugs don’t save lives; they merely delay the inevitable. And while doing so, they become gathering places for drug dealers, for people passed out on the street, for petty crime. Businesses relocate.  Families move away after getting tired of having to walk their children to school so they won’t be harmed by discarded needles.

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This leads to the second contentious point in the column, that we have four “pillars” of our national drug abuse strategy: harm reduction in the form of supervised injection centres, prevention, treatment and enforcement. The first is in place. But prevention and enforcement are both essentially non-existent.  Anyone can walk streets in Ottawa and watch people openly using drugs without any effort to prevent them. Drug dealers are rarely arrested, and then released with minimal punishment — little more than the cost of doing business.

And the last pillar, treatment, is equally non-existent because we refuse to compel addiction services for addicts. Instead we treat addiction as a lifestyle choice, asserting the user’s right to privacy and strictly voluntary treatment.

A true drug strategy would not merely provide services for people to continue their self-destructive conduct in a very temporary way. We would acknowledge that entire neighbourhoods are being destroyed; anyone who has ever been to Downtown Eastside in Vancouver knows the situation there. Families are being torn apart; young people are being drawn in by drug dealers; gun violence has increased exponentially because of fights over the lucrative gun trade. People are dying. And we need to put an end to it.

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Supervised injection sites do serve an important purpose. But it is strictly a front-line purpose, a battlefield bandaging of wounds. Unless those injuries are actually treated, with serious investments and legal support for the other three pillars, nothing is accomplished.

Tom Curran, Prince Edward County

Province showing a double standard

Why is the provincial government delaying, apparently for years, the demolition of the wrecked buildings at the Corner of Main Street and Hawthorne Street, notwithstanding the requests of the neighbours? They are being used by the homeless and drug users. These buildings are directly across the street from the community centre where there is a children’s program. No one is being supervised in these wrecked, graffiti-covered buildings.

Instead, the province is putting an end to supervised drug consumption and treatment services at many sites including the Somerset West Community Health Centre. Closing the supervised sites will create more use for the unsupervised sites. No treatment options are available there.

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Heather Lewis, Ottawa

Partisan ideas won’t save people

Re: Meet the three-headed taxpayer who’s supposed to solve Ottawa’s fiscal woes, Aug. 22.

Brigitte Pellerin is correct that we are only one taxpayer. But perhaps the way the three separate levels of government choose their priorities for spending our money is what causes the problems.

Partisan decisions make unwise choices. Corporations sucking our money, and shareholders demanding ever-rising profits, are drawing our precious taxes into dubious ventures, leaving grassroots suffering and lower-income taxpayers furious and demanding no more taxes.

We need to reopen institutions to harbour people who are so deeply in the illness of addiction that they can no longer make decisions for themselves and must be treated in safety away from the dealers and poison-makers who prey on them. The police and justice system is not where people get the correct treatment or even stabilization for their illness. Prison should be for true criminals. Police forces need to focus their resources on catching the drug cartels.

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Meanwhile, before people can be properly released from these safe, compassionate institutions, a discharge plan, housing and ongoing supports must be available to deal with the inevitable relapses.

But first, all levels of government must hear us taxpayers and stop being partisan vote-seeking entities. They must work together to deal with poverty, lack of truly affordable housing, and the hopelessness that plagues our country. Immigration is not the problem. Climate change is compounding the problems because too much of our money is being spent repairing damages from extreme weather events. Governments: get your priorities in the correct order.

Carolyn Herbert, Nepean

Drop the sarcasm on Trudeau

Re: Trudeau doesn’t want you to own a home — he wants to be your landlord, Aug. 27.

I was appalled at the sarcastic, mean-spirited tone of Tasha Kheiriddin’s column. Not to mention the increasing and continual “damned-if-you-do and damned-if-you-don’t” nature of such op-ed practice as relates to the government (which, need it be said, is not “Trudeau”). Yet the Citizen published it.

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No, the federal government offering up numerous properties for sale doesn’t mean “Trudeau wants to be your landlord.” That’s nonsense. “The government is getting into the (implied to be failing) condo business,” complains the column. Well, if L’Esplanade Laurier or other large buildings are to be housing, how else will it be done? These are not small, semi-detached buildings. And yes, the rental market is very needy right now.

The federal government has “mismanaged the housing file”? Maybe Kheiriddin should talk to the premiers.

Nor does failing to put out a “shiny video” on reduced temporary immigration mean that the government is trying to hide this initiative.

Maybe just once, if columnists can’t actually support initiatives, they could at minimum take a less caustic, sarcastic tone. I’m just so tired of it.

L.J. Ridgeway, Ottawa

New homes must be built safely

Tasha Kheiriddin asked a very important question: “Will it cut corners in construction?” As the various levels of government push to build homes faster, remove red tape, etc., this is a key concern for many. To remain affordable, homes need to be properly built at the outset. To be safe, homes need to meet Code.

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Our organization, Canadians for Properly Built Homes, has been writing to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his government about the importance of housing quality — or at least meeting the minimum Code — since 2015. But, sadly, there hasn’t much interest. Buyer beware.

Karen Somerville, President, Canadians for Properly Built Homes, Ottawa

More ‘cyclopaths’ than you think

Re: Watch out for ‘cyclopathic’ rage on Ottawa bike paths, Aug. 28.

Jimm Fox’s “cyclopath” musings were both amusing and poignant. For a good idea, consider that the recreational path alongside Montreal’s Historic Lachine Canal has a gravel path alongside the two-lane bike path. An idea worth considering here along our Rideau Canal in lieu of closing off the driveways to cars.

I wish Fox had gone further to expose the growing threat of advanced e-assisted bikes on our roads. These almost universally black-hued monsters travel with the power of some motorcycles and sometimes at higher speeds. They are not bicycles in the traditional sense and should not exist under bicycle laws. Their “drivers” need to be tested, licensed and insured, and their rides registered like a motorcycle.

I realize that is asking those in charge to act proactively. Rare but possible.

Thomas Brawn,  Orléans

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