Skip to content
Join our Newsletter

Letters to the editor for the week of October 17th

Whistler girls rising
opinion_letters1

Last Friday, October 11, was International Day of the Girl and we celebrated by bringing the film Girl Rising to Whistler.

The event sold out in four days, and 80 people came to see the documentary that demands we push girl's education to the forefront across the world. This wouldn't have been possible without the support of the Squamish Lil'wat Cultural Centre, which donated its theatre and GoVoluntouring.com, which paid for the rental of the film.

It also wouldn't have come together without community leaders that helped spread the word through their own networks, and we think the rate at which this event sold out speaks to the caring and informed nature of the people who live here. It even led to us putting on a second screening on October 23, which is filling quickly:  https://girlrisingwhistler2.eventbrite.com

Global change begins with individual action. The people who bought a ticket and came to the show on Friday made an investment in a girl, and for that, we thank them all.

In addition, they have joined a movement that we hope will grow and spread like wildfire, from here in Whistler, to the villages of Ethiopia, the streets of Kabul, and the squares of Cairo.

The money they paid for their ticket will go directly to the seven non-profit partners that helped make Girl Rising, and who are supporting the women in the film, and thousands of girls like them. You can find out more detailed information about the fund and the programs it supports on the Girl Rising website here: http://10x10act.org/what-is-girl-rising/partners/ngo-partner/.

Vice president of Playground Builders, Kirby Brown, gave an incredibly emotive talk at the end of the show, touching on the ways people can help. He mentioned these organizations, in the hope that people would take a moment to look into them and consider supporting them:

• Playground Builders — a registered Canadian charity that builds playgrounds for children in war-torn areas;

• GoVoluntouring — connects travellers with volunteer vacations in over 112 countries worldwide;

• Lunapads' One4Her program — aims to improve access to education for girls by supplying them with reusable menstrual pads;

• Kiva — connects people through micro financing, with the goal to alleviate poverty;

• Change Heroes — builds schools around the developing world through a pioneering friend-funding platform;

We brought this film to Whistler because we believe that education doesn't just change the path of one girl, but the world. We live in an interconnected world, where revolutions can jump across borders and time zones.

It's an exciting time for change – thank you all.

Dee Raffo, Ki Communications and GoVoluntouring team

Whistler

Pembertonians already know what is what

I like Pemberton for its natural beauty, rural atmosphere, climate and farms.

Its proximity to Whistler, small-town community, and security make it a desirable place to live, especially for young families.

But when it comes to amenities, service, selection and value, well, frankly it sucks! We have to pay similar prices or more than Whistler and significantly more than most towns on the south coast. I often find myself driving my gas-guzzling truck to Squamish or Vancouver to get the deals, service and selection I want.

I don't think I'm alone on this, as I've seen many businesses close up over the years and there are currently many vacant retail spaces.

The annual "Best of Whistler" item in the Pique is interesting — it fosters a healthy competitive nature and provides insightful information for newly arrived seasonal workers who will call themselves locals in a matter of weeks.

(I think the) "The Best of Pemberton" competition (though) is redundant for both communities, as Whistler locals couldn't give a crap what's happening north (or south) and Pembertonians already know what's what.

I suspect that if you had a "Worst of Pemberton" list it would involve many of the same contenders.

Mike Roger

Birken/ Whistler

Set to be totally plucked

In his column last week, Max apologized to MADD before telling them they are wrong to believe "the ends (preventing deaths by drunk drivers) do not justify (all necessary) means" (Pique, Oct.10).

The latest "means" that has ruffled what feathers he has left is that our justice minister, Peter MacKay's, proposal to have unconditional random roadside checks that in essence will require drivers to prove they haven't been drinking.

Max's observation that this proposed law turns on its head the principle of "innocent until proven guilty" is correct. However, right side up the principle allows drivers to drive under the influence of anything until an accident, like the one Saturday morning, which left a young woman clinging to life in a Victoria hospital, proves the 20-year-old male driver was guilty of drunk driving.

So, with apologies to Max, as bone-headed as proposing another, more extreme law is, given the results of our increasing self-interest he judicially defends, MADD is right. In what should be our common interest in preventing deaths by drunks, we can't continue finding the drinking drivers among us by accident.

In principle, however, Max is not wrong in objecting to the introduction of another law.

Ideally, there is only one human "right" way for all individuals and thus for humanity to live. If in what seems to be a most unlikely possibility we align ourselves with this innate "right" way we wouldn't need any laws.

What has become known as individual "rights" we seem willing to defend to the point of self destruction are actually wrong ways to live. The laws we create are vain attempts to mitigate the conflict between individuals all believing we have the right to live in our own, wrong way.

So the introduction of this new law, rather than proving we are becoming more enlightened, is in fact further evidence that like the turkey on the cover of last week's Pique, humanity is getting closer to being "Totally Plucked."

Doug Barr

Whistler

Connection to nature is there

Michel Beaudry's column of October 3 (Pique, "Peering into WB's future") on Whistler Blackcomb's future plans started well, but failed to show that either Ecosign or WB don't understand the relationship of the natural environment to the developed ski area just as well as he does.

Yes, there is "an incredible growth and development of self-propelled skiing." Any inquiry into how this came about would have to at least consider the notion that the kinds of developments that have brought due fame to Whistler have catalyzed, or even brought about this phenomena.

You don't become good enough to go to the backcountry without spending lots of time on lifts in the "frontcountry." Hopefully a future world will need more of what we already have, and hopefully there will be more skiers in that future.

There is a huge amount of territory that can be used for backcountry skiing within a 160-kilometre radius that does not need to be accessed from the Whistler lifts. If you enlarge your horizon as far as the Rockies, then there are almost no limits for self-propelled skiing, in quite a long future.

A critical analysis of backcountry skiing should also examine the growing use of sleds to get skiers up, at a far greater carbon footprint per skier-vertical-foot than ski lifts have. So why be so critical of the plans to develop the local mountains, as a "nursery" for future backcountry users, as an incredible playground for those who like groomed runs, and importantly a connection to the natural world for the urban masses.  

While the connection to nature that developed skiing encourages may not be as complete as Beaudry would like, it may be all important to having an electorate that cares a whit for any of it.

The real fight for a better future for winter sports needs that electorate, and the changes in view that a few days in the mountains, even on the lifts can bring.

Pipelines, tanker traffic, anthropomorphic climate change, and a government in Ottawa that believes that the first two are not connected to the third, are problems that Beaudry should consider rather than criticizing the plans of his real allies.

Al Whitney

Whistler

Feds just don't get it

Big Oil talking heads from Ottawa are out here this month trying to push their oil to Kitimat (plan). It is easy to see Harper's gang still doesn't get it.

We don't want oil tankers the size of three football fields coming to our coast. They said (they would) even use airplanes to spot the ships through the narrow Douglas Channel.

(But) what good is that when you can't see 10 feetin front of you in fog two or three months of the year, and some of the worst weather and seas on earth (are) in the Hecate Strait. Now they are saying if pipelines (aren't a go) CN trains can take the oil to Prince Rupert — a 100 oil tankers a train, seven times a day along our rivers and lakes and valleys.

It is not just Greenpeace warning that federal safety regulators have not kept pace with the oil-by-rail boom. Since the Quebec disaster CP rail CEO Hunter Harrison has expresses concern about "1950 vintage" rails.

We've seen already the spill in Cheakamus River — thousands of dead trout and salmon. CN and CP laid off maintenance and inspection crews just as their trains will be carrying more toxic loads.

The Harper government really does feel like a third world government with its lack of regulatory oversight and enforcement and secretive ways.

Dave Bennett

Whistler

Happily employed for the season

My name is Adam Hall and I'm new to Whistler this season after flying in from Australia with no job prospects. My first port of call after arriving in Whistler was the Work BC Employment Services Centre/ Training Innovations in Function Junction, after reading up about how great their services are for anyone who seeks employment, including working visa clients and Canadian Citizens/ Landed Immigrants.

I'm writing this (letter) to hopefully shed some more light to how great its services are. For me (it) provided invaluable information on how to apply for work, especially after coming from another country, and how different things can be in Whistler.

They spent the time with me educating me on how the employment system works in Whistler. After being unsuccessful at the pre-screening application for Whistler Blackcomb I can now say that I am happily employed with a lot of the credit going to the ladies at Work BC Employment Services Centre/ Training Innovations, especially Ghazal Tohidi, who spent the time getting everything "Whistler right."

I have encouraged people (who are) in the same position, as I was, to seek out the services at Training Innovations as it has provided me invaluable experience.

Adam Hall

Whistler