Letters to the Editor: July 13, 2024

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Students too picky

I am constantly hearing on the news that students are having a difficult time finding summer jobs. I think they are too picky on what they think they should be working at, as well as what they feel they should be paid.

Someone needs to tell them that they need jobs before they get positions. Farmers have been complaining that they have lost crops because they have no one to pick vegetables and fruits.

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Migrant workers cannot fill all of the requirements needed, and many of these jobs can be done by able-bodied young women and men.

Also, workers can work in hospitals and nursing homes doing patient care and filling positions that nurses do not have time to do.

Perhaps if parents stopped indulging their children by providing cellphones, and other luxuries, and tuitions, these students may be willing to take whatever is available to earn money.

Genevieve Grech, London

Work too slow

Look at the ongoing shelter built around the front portico of city hall where some repairs are perhaps ongoing.

This protracted effort to fix some leaks is symbolic of the slow work that happens universally in London .

I know it’s 50 year old building that may need repairs but it shouldn’t take so long to fix this city property.

R. Webb, London

Hasn’t listened yet

So Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is now claiming he’s going to listen to Canadians after his party’s disastrous defeat in Toronto.

Really? I think we’ve been speaking quite loudly for the last nine years and he seemingly hasn’t heard a thing. The only voice he listens to is his own.

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I urge all Canadians to listen closely to the way Liberals are speaking to us. They reek of desperation by demonizing Pierre Poilievre and the Conservatives.

Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland claimed that those voting for Conservative candidate Don Stewart in the recent Toronto byelection would be voting for a vision of Canada that is “cold and cruel and small.”

What, in fact, she was saying was that voters should be jumping at the chance to keep the Liberals in power.

We can still save this country, but, in order to do that, Trudeau and the Liberals have to go.

Sandy Johnston, Greely

Not so free speech

Mike Sullivan, Barb Shaughnessy and Jane Marie Mitchell were all disciplined by the administration of the city of Stratford, for speaking to council on Feb. 26.

None of us were hostile, disrespectful, harassing or vexatious. No foul language or angry shouting, and certainly no threats or violence.

I spoke about the damning closed meeting investigation, the budget, and turning the Bradshaw Lofts condo into an inn. Jane Marie spoke on the budget, and Barb on the Bradshaw issue.

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Jane Marie was given a written warning. In Mike and Barb’s case, the discipline was a three-month ban from attending any city building or contacting any city staff.

The city went so far as to intercept our phone calls and emails and redirect them to their lawyer. If we blocked our caller ID, the city refused that call completely (along with every other person with no caller ID).

Last year, council created a “safe workplace policy,” and included the public in that policy.

It is complaint-based, and the chief administrative officer and the clerk filed complaints against me for my speech to council. None of the disciplined people have ever seen the complaints.

The CAO decided on my guilt, and sentenced me to three months. There was an appeal process, conducted by the person who was the human resources director at the time.

His focus seemed to be on my use of the word “illegal” to describe council’s repeated violations of the Municipal Act. His report was also never disclosed, and the CAO denied my appeal.

When the press asked questions of the CAO and the mayor about my being banned, their response was there were “threats of violence.” Completely untrue.

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One councillor wrote to the media stating we were casting “derision and scorn” at staff. Completely untrue. Another two councillors repeated that by reposting his untruths to Facebook.

This all started with the Xinyi debacle. For two-and-a-half years, council and the mayor hid their actions from the public. We are only now learning how bad it was, through dogged action by Get Concerned Stratford, and we are learning that it continued long after. It is clear that council is not happy that the truth is coming out.

We have hired lawyers to defend our right to free speech in Stratford. The courts have already decided that municipalities cannot use a workplace policy to affect charter rights of the public. No other city does this.

We will ask the ombudsman to overturn their illegal policy, and the courts to deal with the defamation from the mayor, council and CAO and we will continue to speak freely at council meetings, as is our charter right.

Mike Sullivan, Stratford

Caring community

As I was driving home from a medical appointment Wednesday afternoon and approached the corner of Wharncliffe and Riverside. I noticed a young man walking across the intersection staggering. I turned the corner and saw that he collapsed on the sidewalk. I pulled into a nearby parking spot and ran back.

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By that time others had stopped, got out of their cars and had called 9-1-1. Following directions given us we kept the young man on his side as he was having a seizure.

By the time the paramedics arrived he was a bit better but still very unwell.

I say all this because seeing a person in need strangers without hesitation came together to help a young person in distress. A true sign of community, empathy and caring.

Stephen Elson, London

Keep lid on booze

Liquor sales in convenience stores is a huge mistake.

I worked in the liquor business for a number of years.

We were told not to take action when someone was running out of the store with booze for our own safety.

Thefts will skyrocket in convenient stores and employees will be at risk.

The main culprits were homeless young kids.

They know their chances of being caught are close to zero.

The police have more important crimes to solve.

Bill Reidhead, London

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