Letters: Indifference to Regina’s poor, Indigenous comes home to roost

Article content

I have watched the backlash against homeless citizens of Saskatchewan with disappointment and dismay. As a community mental health worker in Regina’s inner city for more than 45 years, I have witnessed whole families wiped out by the effects of intergenerational trauma.

In Regina, many of us in our comfortable, idyllic neighbourhoods have been okay with the destructive trauma symptoms affecting our inner-city residents — as long as the outcome of the trauma remains there. Our indifference to the plight of our Indigenous neighbours is now coming home to roost.

Article content

It is becoming more visible. We call for more police so we can continue living our comfortable lives, without taking any responsibility for helping to create a truly healthy community for all. It is not police who create a safe and healthy community.

The inner city is inundated with police cruisers, but they show up after robberies, assaults and murders. We then finally find housing for the homeless in our jails, no matter the cost.

We are also able to provide PTSD/ trauma support for our first responders, but not for the citizens who are most in need of such services. First Nations elders and mental health and addiction workers have worked for years to procure sufficient funding for family trauma programming.

Collectively, we simply don’t value the lives of those who we have come to view as less than ourselves. No amount of police and courts will ever create a safe and healthy community without all of our participation.

Bob Hughes, Regina

Teachers’ merry-go-round continues

In regards to the Saskatchewan Teachers Federation (STF)/ provincial government negotiations, 55 per cent of Saskatchewan teachers voted a resounding no to the most recent contract offer. Is anyone surprised?

Article content

Article content

Teachers obviously feel that the offer didn’t include what was asked for regarding class size and complexity, which has been requested by the teachers since the beginning of these negotiations. Obviously, this thumbs down came as no surprise to the Saskatchewan Party government.

If Premier Scott Moe and Education Minister Jeremy Cockrill didn’t have a good idea that the vote was going against their wishes, would they have been so quick to say that now they are willing to go arbitration?

Interestingly, when the STF asked it go to a conciliator months ago, Cockrill said there hadn’t been enough discussion yet. Hasn’t this lack of a contract dragged on for almost a year already? This merry-go-round has got to stop.

This problem and the teachers dispute is not going away anytime fast. What can go away is for Saskatchewan people to quit being embarrassed by their government and vote them out of power in the upcoming general election.

Micheal Halyk, Yorkton

Article content

Our websites are your destination for up-to-the-minute Saskatchewan news, so make sure to bookmark thestarphoenix.com and leaderpost.com. For Regina Leader-Post newsletters click here; for Saskatoon StarPhoenix newsletters click here

Article content