Letters to The Vancouver Sun, Feb. 4, 2020: Kobe Bryant was a great person
Credit to Author: Carolyn Soltau| Date: Tue, 04 Feb 2020 02:01:19 +0000
Years ago when I was working security at the airport, the Los Angeles Lakers came through YVR. I had bought a Lakers T-shirt and was going to ask them to sign it.
A group of Lakers were approaching, and I asked if they could sign it? These players heard me but decided to ignore me and keep walking.
However, seconds later a player who was lagging behind came into sight — he made eye contact with me and smiled, and took my shirt to sign it. He also shamed the other players to sign the shirt as well. This player was rookie Kobe Bryant.
Kobe wasn’t only a good player, he was a great person.
Ron Tickner, Richmond
Randy Shore’s recent article suggests B.C.’s salmon farms turned over a new leaf through third-party product certifications. Unfortunately, some certifications become compromised and end up as greenwash.
When a substantial number of salmon farms were certified by the Aquaculture Stewardship Council, they were incubating billions of parasitic salmon lice that attack and can kill juvenile wild salmon. That’s because the certification rules were bent for B.C., through what’s known as granting local “variances” to the international standard.
Parasites have become resistant to pesticides fed to the farm fish, and B.C. companies are scrambling to control their numbers on farms. Parasites on fish farms will likely explode again this year.
I believe this story is the sign of a flailing industry trying to score PR points in the face of recent federal government commitments to transition their fish farms out of B.C. by 2025.
Stan Proboszcz, science adviser, Watershed Watch Salmon Society
I recall The Vancouver Sun acknowledging in recent years that its coverage of female sports was inadequate. It was, and it still is. Daily I glance through the sports section only to find articles about men’s sports, page-after-page, with only the very occasional item about women’s tennis, golf or hockey.
Today’s issue (Jan. 30) exemplifies the scant attention you pay to what female athletes are doing. Christine Sinclair has become the highest-scoring international soccer player in history … and where do you report this astounding accomplishment? The last page of the sports section. Really, this is pathetic.
Wendie Nelson, Burnaby
Re:Cabbies ask top court to ground ride-hailing firms
Rather than limiting the ride-hailing industry, couldn’t the taxi industry be sanctioned to provide as many taxis as the market requires without limiting customers’ pickup or drop-off points?
The taxi industry should take a page from the trucking industry in B.C. Before 1995, our province’s trucking industry was regulated by the B.C. Carrier Commission, limiting areas of pickup and delivery, as well as the number of trucks a carrier could operate.
The industry has been deregulated since 1995 and freight now moves around the province freely by those carriers who meet specific standards of safety, competitive pricing, service and qualified drivers.
John Bandstra, Delta
As one of thousands of False Creek South residents threatened by expiration of city land leases and aware of years of stalling by real estate staff under two mayors (Kennedy Stewart and Gregor Robertson), I support planning Prof. Patrick Condon’s warning against further delay of lease renewals for all of Vancouver’s co-ops, condos and non-profits on city land.
Delayed lease renewal cripples financial stability and housing security. If it’s used as a tactic, whether for bargaining leverage or to actually displace residents, it’s unconscionable. Among landlords, it would mean the City of Vancouver is in the same league as the greedy landlords of the Downtown Eastside.
Of course the mayor, council and real estate staff should strive for the “highest and best use” of city land — but by what measure, and for whom?
Bravo, Patrick Condon.
Rider Cooey, Vancouver
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