About this feature

Email roastandtoast@ lethbridgeherald.com or send to The Herald, 504 7 St. S., Lethbridge, T1J 2H1. Submissions will be edited for length (maximum 150 words) and not all will be published, particularly if they are of similar content, no longer timely, in poor taste, potentially libelous, contain accusations, target specific persons or businesses or where facts cannot be verified. This feature appears each Tuesday in The Herald.

ROAST: To the mayoralty candidate who emailed everyone on his email list looking for financial donations. The generic “Hello” email took little to no effort and falls under the category of spam email that is not allowed anymore. If you think you are worthy of financial support the least you could do is put my name on the email. You found my email address somehow, was that too much effort ? Clearly a sign that the job may be too much for you.

TOAST: To Al Beeber’s Saturday, July 17th column praising the annual Street Wheelers Street Machine Weekend an event bringing enormous fun and economic benefits to our city. I paid particular attention to, and will pass along to those affected, Beebers suggestion that curmudgeons who only see spinning tires,loud exhaust and roaring engines to get some earplugs and turn off the curmudgeon machinery for just one weekend every year. Cheers to Al’s excellent report and no less the Street Wheeler organization who work tirelessly all year to bring this important event to Lethbridge.

ROAST: To government and Indigenous leaders for not working harder to eliminate the Indian Act. We all want to rid ourselves of colonialism and its hold on our country. First and foremost, we must rid this nation of the Act that took the children from their families, culture, and language and put them in residential schools and unbelievable circumstances. Former Liberal Minister of Indian and Northern Affairs, John Chretien, tried over several years to get rid of this Act.(1971-72) He failed. Why? Because the Native peoples and chiefs could not agree on benefits and becoming equal to all other non- Indian peoples in Canada. Consequently, the residential schools remained for another 25 or more years. It is time to examine all facets of this ugly situation. Lately, the Liberal Justice Minister’s ambition was to get rid of this awful and divisive Act. She failed, too. Possibly we need a new government but we truly need to get rid of the Act and begin to establish equality of all peoples in this country.

ROAST: Roast to Trudeau and his posturing over unmarked graves. Are the German children of today being blamed for the Nazi atrocities? Why are you calling us genocidal? Look the word up before lecturing about it. A genocidal country does not offer health care, education and give billions of dollars a year to the people they are trying to obliterate. Now these inflammatory words are coming back to haunt you as China says they will not be lectured to by a genocidal country like Canada when it comes to their treatment of the Uighurs. Good work, poser. Words matter.

TOAST: To all of the hospital staff on the fourth floor and ICU. You people are amazing. The way you all have looked after my wife leaves me near speechless. THANK YOU for your dedication and tireless effort.

TOAST: Toast to Mr. Beeber for his article in the Herald regarding the Street Wheelers weekend. The benefits to Lethbridge far outweigh the negatives and promotes our city. Any time that there is an event that involves a lot of people,there are a few individuals that get carried away and the police have to get involved but the large majority are responsible adults that take pride in their vehicles and appreciate the opportunity display them along with fellow enthusiasts. The noise level created for two days is no where as irritating as the racket on the south end of Mayor Magrath Drive in the evenings and mainly on the weekends. Thanks go to the Street Wheelers and the city of Lethbridge for promoting this fabulous event.

ROAST: Roast to city council for getting rid of staff and now we lose services or they will slow down more than they already are. Maybe you could have pursued a wage rollback to save the same amount of money and the community wouldn’t lose out.

ROAST: As a small business owner I am very upset over the elimination of positions made by city council. Some of my best customers have contacted me to cancel their ongoing purchases from me. All three of them have mentioned being surprised by their circumstances and all are far too young to retire. Why not be strategic and offer buy outs to those who could retire or doing this over a number of years, as I understand was an option, and shifting people around. The effects on the young families and those who supported local businesses like mine, will definitely affect our local recovery. Seems like this wasn’t well thought out and the impacts are going to be far-reaching.

TOAST: To Lethbridge Herald Classified ads, circulation staff as well as Shopper delivery people for help and kindness. They are super nice people.

TOAST: To C. Baker and T. Toth and staff at the pharmacy on 13 Ave. N for providing COVID vaccines and for their kindness.

TOAST: Utmost thanks to Constables Bruffe and Vonkeman for their excellent help on June 4. My husband has dementia and things got out of hand, and they were just wonderful.

TOAST: To the winners of the City Golf Championship 2021: Ladies Diane Buker, Men’s Justin Nagy, Senior Men’s Brian Hancock and Junior’s Gavin Kortt.

TOAST: I was participating in the Street Wheelers Friday night cruise in my 1952 truck with my two grandchildren when it stalled one block south of the 3 Avenue South intersection heading north in the left – hand lane. This caused a huge traffic jam. While many other participants drove by, and many spectators looked on, two spectators did not seem indifferent and helped us push our truck through the 3 Avenue traffic lights and into a restaurant parking lot. A big thank you to both of you. In our fast-moving, high-tech society, it is refreshing to still experience some kindness from a stranger.

ROAST: To Shannon Phillips and her failing at math in her hotels backing speech. So let me get this straight, you want to give taxpayer money to the hotel industry then you want to ask Albertans to travel in Alberta and stay in these hotels so we can pay them again. When I went to school, two plus two was four not six. How is this a good deal for Albertans?

ROAST: A roast to the road maintenance department of the City of Lethbridge. There are numerous small potholes and pavement cracks on the roads of West Lethbridge which are not being attended to by road maintenance. As tax paying citizens, we deserve better road conditions.

ROAST: Roast to city council for creating Opportunity Lethbridge which seems to be the same as Economic Development Lethbridge. Why are we funding two groups of people to do the same work? Seems like this could be a huge cost savings.

TOAST: To all of you who listened to real experts: doctors studying viruses and how they spread and evolve; scientists developing life – saving vaccines; public health officials helping us to stay out of hospital.

Well done! You evaluated their advice, and ignored unbelievable rumors and wild accusations of people with no expertise and no qualifications. You put on masks, washed your hands, and restricted your socializing. If you were an essential worker, you bravely went to work, and hoped you would not catch the virus, and bring it home to your loved ones. Finally, you got vaccinated. Twice. Congratulations. To those who have chosen not to get vaccinated: Good luck. You will need it, because that is all that will stop you from catching a virus that has not gone away. It is looking for you!

ROAST: Roast to city council and City of Lethbridge management who sit in their ivory tower at city hall collecting their fat paycheques while cutting the working class jobs. I’m wondering if you plan to leave your fancy offices to go cut the over grown grass, fix our roads, and shovel our snow? Because my tax dollars are supposed to go to those amenities which you decided to cut the staff for. I guess it was more important to spend money to come up with a new logo that looks like a toilet – just like city hall.

TOAST: Toast to Trevor, a young man who spontaneously stopped to help two random strangers that he noticed loading landscaping stones into their car as he drove past. Trevor, the gift of your youth, energy and smile not only made our day, but will always make us joyful and grateful to have met you – even for such a short time. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts, for your random act of kindness and please know that we will always share and celebrate the amazing person that you are. Each step on this new path is being built on the strength of generosity and kindness.

TOAST: I would like to say thank you to Sharon H. She works at London Road Market and she was helping me at the till this evening. Without asking, she handed me some towels to wipe my hands since I got some grease from the rotisserie chicken. It’s hard to find good help these days; keep up with your good work, Sharon!

ROAST: To the roaster who think nurses haven’t felt the pain of economic conditions. I hate to break it to you – it’s not the front – line workers making the dough, it’s the highly paid administrators and their bright ideas. Google the sunshine report to see what AHS and other large employers pay their VPs, executives and faculty types. Hope you’re laying down because you’re about to fall off your chair.

TOAST: Toast to the landscaping company for your generosity in making the excess materials from a project available for pickup free of charge yesterday. Your decision has not only helped several people move forward with their home-improvement projects, but it also opened the door to our experience with the generosity and kindness of others. Thank you.

ROAST: A huge roast to screaming children and the parents who do nothing to curtail this behavior. Laughter and the gleeful sounds of children playing are most pleasant; blood-curdling screams are not. Parents, please educate your children. The only time they should be screaming at the top of their lungs is when they are in danger. As it now stands, I would probably interpret the screaming of the neighborhood children as merely “business as usual” and wouldn’t know if they were in trouble.

TOAST: To London Road Market for smoking me the best brisket I have ever had. That David really knows what he is doing.

ROAST: I am a non-native but of a minority group. I am OK with being nice and compassionate to others. Understanding a dark history happened on our land is very important but why should we wear it like ankle bracelet and weight ourselves down with extra weights and not moving forwards?

TOAST: A huge thank you and toast to Chiloh and her amazing crew at Lethbridge Senior Citizens Organization. They operate Meals on Wheels, providing a variety of delicious hot prepared meals to people in our city that may find themselves struggling to shop for, or prepare their own healthy food options. The meals are lovingly delivered to the doorsteps of their clients by a fine compliment of volunteers who tirelessly give their time to the cause. Their service operates Monday to Friday with a choice to add extra items to help get you thru the weekends. The meals they prepare are excellent and the customer service is unparalleled. My wife and I would readily and highly recommend their services.

ROAST: Roast to Barb Penner and her letter stating her religious beliefs should play a factor in the legal choices I have for my health care. I’m also a contributor to the public purse and am tired of my tax dollars being used for public institutions that force their religious beliefs on other people. Like you say no one is forcing you to choose what type of end of life care you want so don’t be so selfish and take that choice away from other people.

ROAST: To any increase in insurance rates. Given insurance industry pay-outs are down by over 30 per cent thanks to COVID-19, I assume our rebates are in the mail. Residents in Saskatchewan have cashed their cheques.

ROAST: To the Human Resources staff supporting one of the highest paid police forces in Canada. The report on the police behavior to take down a Star Wars character is bought, paid for, and ridiculous. The lack of empathy for a sexual assault victim is disgusting. This problem is not a couple of incidents a long time ago. Lethbridge deserves better.

TOAST: To the City recycle/garbage truck driver for 16 St./15 Ave. N. area. Thank you for your help and doing an excellent job.

ROAST: To the person who wrote the roast in last week’s Roast and Toast stating that a person running for mayor should have previous city council experience! Why? Look at our current mayor Chris Spearman; he had no previous city council experience before becoming our Mayor and see what a fantastic job he has done.

TOAST: Toast to MP Rachael Harder. I toast our MP for her fortitude and solid moral convictions and vote casting. She does represent me and my household. Keep up the great work you are doing in our constituency.

ROAST: To the seniors home on 13th Street North for the meals they serve to their residents. These seniors pay good money and deserve better. What ever happened to potatoes, peas, carrots, roast beef, etc? I understand the staff take turns preparing the meals due to budget cuts.

TOAST: To the City Parks Dept. for trying to keep our parks looking good on a reduced budget. If at all possible please remove the dead and diseased trees from St Edward’s Park.

ROAST: To the city planners.

It’s time to move Henderson golf course and give back the entire park to all the people. How much does the city subsidize the golf course?

ROAST: Roast to the election ward system which is to be on the next ballot. Does everyone know that if the ward system is successful, they will vote only for the candidate(s) running in your ward? North Lethbridge may only have one Councillor, south Lethbridge – three, and West Lethbridge – four.

At the council meeting where Councillor Coffman brought forward this motion and seven others voted in favor, there were no details provided on the Ward representation. So how could they vote on it? Councillor Coffman is incorrect – the Councillors in my part of the city do not respond with my concerns – but others do. I am strongly opposed and hope others see it that way as well.

ROAST: Roast to our public library system. It’s great that we share our books across Southern Alberta but… on looking for a locally written book, I just found there are 25 copies of the book sitting in local town libraries not being used but it is not available in the Lethbridge libraries. Didn’t the Lethbridge library used to have books?

ROAST: When some PC members had a lunch on a rooftop the NDP cried foul. How dare they violate the rules? Calgary Stampede shouldn’t be happening so soon said the NDP, then they hosted more breakfasts at the Stampede than anyone else. Say one thing, do another. Hypocrites who do nothing but play political games to make us forget about their abysmal failures when they were given their one (and only) shot.

TOAST: To Michael, Cam and the staff at Henderson Lake Golf Course for putting on the City Amateur.