Letters to the Editor, Oct. 6, 2022

GOOD SOMETIMES DO BAD

Re “Anti-restrictions rally charges against Aylmer pastor, former politicians dropped” (Postmedia, Sept. 26): It appears that if a person can claim religious connections, then they are exempt from prosecution. The ‘Aylmer 4’ who consistently broke the law and cost the taxpayers huge amounts of money from police services when these people constantly broke the emergency laws of the pandemic for their own selfish agendas have been freed of any obligation by the Crown attorney. I find this sends the wrong message to the public and our youth in general. The lawbreakers are obviously not bad people, but sometimes good people do bad things in the name of their misguided rights, and interpreting the law to suit themselves is not what our legal system was founded on originally. Anarchy will be around the corner if every time someone breaks the law of the land, they are allowed to escape without accountability. Theirs was not the crime of the century; however, rules and order must be maintained to prevent a breakdown of our values.

Dan O’Brien                                                                                                                                                   Midland

(Yet this claim isn’t so common as you imply. We suspect there will be similar outcomes on other pandemic/lockdown related lawsuits)

CHILDHOOD OF THE PAST

Every once in a while, your mind will stumble upon an almost forgotten memory, and you are transported back in time seemingly at the speed of light. Our family moved to Kelowna in the mid-50s when ferries transported people and vehicles from one side of Okanagan Lake to the other. Our parents treated my older brother and me like free-range chickens because foxy predators and wolfish perverts were not an issue. We never had ‘be-home-at-such-and-such-an-hour’ curfews, nor were we interrogated about our activities. Looking back, Kelowna would have been the ideal backdrop for one of Walt Disney’s “feel-good” family movies. My little gang of preteens rode our bikes everywhere and at all hours. Counting the number of wheels on transport trucks going through town was one of our activities. Seeing a “14-wheeler” was a big deal. Children are now living in a vastly different world. For many kids, reality has become distractively digitized by social media companies that deliberately try to addict users to crave more and more thumb-clicking “screen time.” What a pity.

Lloyd Atkins                                                                                                                                             Vernon, B.C.

(But it is up to parents to make sure they have balance in their life)

THEY HATE THE RICH

Re “PM’s ‘luxury tax’ will hurt economy, Canucks” (Matthew Lau, Sept. 28): A luxury tax is harmful to many Canadian workers who are not rich. Someone has to service those luxury cars. Others are employed in selling luxury items. Workers in Canadian companies manufacture parts for planes and yachts. If the tax does impact sales of luxury items, it will impact the earnings of many hard-working Canadians. The tax is attractive to Liberal and NDP voters and those who hate the rich. Like many other policies imposed by this government, the impact of the tax is not taken into consideration.

Rick Hird                                                                                                                                                          Whitby

(It is rare if ever the implication of a tax is taken into consideration. They say it’s a tax on the rich because that makes the Liberals and NDP feel better about themselves. But it never works out that way)