Calls growing to curb deadly violence in Lower Mainland
Re: Surrey on edge after trio of shootings, Aug. 10
It doesn’t take a genius to figure out the root cause of the deadly violence happening in the Lower Mainland is control of the illegal drug trade. Control, fear and retaliation are all part of this nasty business.
What is even more disturbing is the family and friends of these thugs know about their criminal activity. B.C. Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth is correct in saying, “Parents and family members have the information and need to come forward.”
Until the community starts addressing the root causes, the violence will continue. Steve Gunson, Abbotsford
Make driver tests more challenging
Re: Little supports ICBC claim, Letters, Aug. 10
In his letter, Michael Quigley indicated that ICBC had claimed drivers have a lack of knowledge about the rules of the road. Did ICBC just admit that they have given driver’s licences to people who can’t drive?
We need to raise the bar on driver testing. Would you want your doctor to be a D-student?
Why would you give a inept person a pass to plow a 5,000-pound hunk of metal down the road?
I drive a five-ton truck professionally. On Wednesday morning, I saw an ICBC employee drive on a closed portion of roadway. Perhaps ICBC needs a culling of counter-productive personnel. Wil McQueen, North Vancouver
Help homeless who help themselves
Re: No to Granville rehab centre, Letters, Aug. 9
I agree with letter writer Tom Gray asking why we are giving individuals with chronic drug problems and criminal records free housing paid for by working people.
The homeless refuse to live in free shelters, demand better hotel living, and are putting up tent cities wherever they please, causing havoc for hard-working individuals.
I believe in helping those who help themselves.
What are the homeless doing to help themselves while the city and charities provide free medical care, drugs, and numerous other services?
Some choose to live on welfare as a lifestyle, so do we just give free handouts to everyone with no consequences?
At the very least we should be demanding our services will only now be provided to those who help themselves by choosing to become clean and sober. Cheryl Berti, White Rock
Let’s hope fiction doesn’t become reality
Re: Trump team sending mixed signals. Aug. 10
The current spitting contest between Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un makes me think of both Barry Levinson’s 1997 film Wag The Dog, in which an American president manufactures a war in order to draw attention away from his declining popularity, and J.L. Gribble’s 2000 novel Silent Salvo, which predicts exactly the same scenario that is unfolding now between the U.S. and North Korea.
These two stories are fiction, but it should concern the whole world when two megalomaniac leaders are determined to turn fiction into reality. Certainly history provides ample evidence of what happens to the world when autocrats believe their personal agendas are more important than the welfare of the citizens of this planet. My parents’ and grandparents’ generations managed to survive two such instances. I can only hope sanity intervenes and prevents Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un from putting my children and grandchildren through the same traumas. Ray Arnold, Richmond