‘Should we laud this stop-gap funding designed to prevent some 44,000 Saskatchewanians from going hungry?’ asks Susan Gingell.
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In the July 25 Leader-Post article “Province grants $2M to struggling Saskatchewan food banks”. Social Services Minister Gene Makowsky claimed his government’s “investment will help in these difficult, inflationary times to help meet the needs of individuals in our province.”
Should we laud this stop-gap funding designed to prevent some 44,000 Saskatchewanians from going hungry? Makowsky twice uses the verb “help” to describe this government action, suggesting a benevolent and at least adequate response.
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But does is address the needs? Does it matter that 40 per cent of Saskatchewan’s food bank clients are children and youths when the national average is 33 per cent?
What about the concern of Michael Kincade, executive director of Food Banks of Saskatchewan, that families with double incomes are now accessing food banks?
Did Makowsky demonstrate real caring with his vague recognition “that there are challenges,” contextualized by claims that “we have some of the lowest costs of living in the nation” and that the new funding is “the first of its kind”?
Or does his vagueness represent a deliberate refusal to consider how his Saskatchewan Party government policies have helped produce the present crisis?
Had Makowsky talked with food bank users? Would he have heard how Saskatchewan’s $14/hour minimum wage, the lowest in the country, generates food insecurity?
Do we all need to search our hearts to ask how we can personally address the current crisis and insist on a longer-term vision for overcoming food insecurity in Saskatchewan?
Susan Gingell, Saskatoon
(The above letter was originally published in the Saskatoon StarPhoenix.)
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Aug. 6 reminds us of need for peace
On Aug. 6, 1945 the U.S. dropped “Little Boy” on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Three days later this act of mass carnage was repeated on the city of Nagasaki.
On this day, 90,000 to 140,000 civilians were wiped from the face of the Earth in Hiroshima. Three days later, 60,000 to 80,000 perished in Nagasaki. Imperial Japan was a member of the Axis powers, which included Nazi Germany and fascist Italy, that surrendered in early 1945.
Imperial Japan continued fighting, but saw its prospects as very bleak and, in April 1945, began making overtures to Western Allies regarding peace terms that would not have included an unconditional surrender.
We must remember that at the November 1943 Tehran Conference, the British, Americans and Soviets agreed that once the Nazis had surrendered, the Soviets would enter the war against Imperial Japan within two months. The date for Soviet entrance into the war was set for Aug. 9, 1945.
This history suggests there was no need to unleash weapons of mass destruction against the civilian population of Japan on Aug. 6 and Aug. 9, 1945. Aug. 6 and 9 are good dates for us to consider the importance of peace.
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Ed Lehman, Regina
(Lehman is president, Regina Peace Council.)
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