kar0ling

The heat is on: no more frozen bus rides, province vows From the FreeP:  "After years of headlines about frigid rides to and from Winnipeg, heat on commercial buses will be mandatory this winter, the province announced Monday." "Bus operators must examine their heat systems daily and provincial bus inspectors will conduct random stops. They will have the authority to place any vehicle that doesn’t comply out of service." I've never sat on an unheated bus from Thompson, so maybe I'm wrong and it is in fact better to have no ride than a cold ride. Just threatening operators with random inspectors and grounded buses seems like punishing the passengers, though. How about just going straight to the fine (maybe don't bench the bus unless the bus company is a repeat offender?) and making it hurt: $10,000. "If a company is caught disobeying rules, it will be fined either $174, $298 or a combined total of $472, depending on the case." “The fine...

  I can't get through a news article without wanting to react so I'm here to exorcise my need to opine.  "The NDP government has retained former federal cabinet minister Lloyd Axworthy to lead an ambitious, two-year study into the relocation of rail lines and yards that currently occupy high-value property in Winnipeg’s core, the Free Press has learned. "Sources confirmed Premier Wab Kinew will announce Axworthy’s appointment on Tuesday." It's frustrating to see projects become political footballs and thus take 10 times as long to get done as need be. Do we need endless studies? Isn't it clear that this now secondary rail yard isn't needed in the centre of the city anymore and that its presence actually harms the city? I'm shocked and frustrated that all the handwringing about replacing the Arlington Bridge has not yet to my awareness raised the subject of rail relocation! Why are we planning to build a very expensive bridge with an extremely l...

After a period of growing dis-ease, I broke up with my church in spring. In my experience, we fete new members of the church coming in the door and pretend we don’t even notice when the door closes behind those who walk out. When needed, we perfunctorily rubberstamp the withdrawal of membership, but there is no process beyond that. This troubled me long before I was considering being the one to leave. When it became clear to me during a time away from home that all I had for my church – not only the denomination, for which I long had a list of critiques, but also my local congregation, which I used to cherish as an antidote to the other frustrations – was anger, I decided “stay and fight” was no longer useful; it was time to leave. But I did not want to fade away like so many before. It is not fitting that a group that formally promises to love care for each other should close our eyes when a member walks away. Firstly, on the basis of purported care for each other’s souls, should w...