Carnival of Soul

Thanks for the music during a rough period

Re: Music professor sharing the sounds of Music, May 5.

Kudos to Professor Jesse Stewart and the Citizen for sharing with the readers an inspiring story.

Music soothes the soul regardless of the odd instruments one may use, and engraves happiness in the heart. That’s why Ancient Greece had Apollo, the god of music and light; Greek mythology glorifies the importance of Greek music and instruments.

I believe we all can use happy and good news amid the unpleasant headlines around COVID-19. Thanks again to the professor and reporter Lynn Saxberg for her article.

Badih Shadid, Ottawa

Try playing a hydro box, like I did

I was happy to read your article on Jesse Stewart.  I first became aware of him at a TedX session in Ottawa a while back. He was generous enough to share some of his music with me.

Music from found objects?  Really? Yes: he started his talk by “playing” the wooden podium.  So, when I was at my daughter’s place recently, and standing in front of a hydro box, I remembered his words and tried “playing” the hydro box. I certainly am not a Jesse Stewart, but I did have fun.

W. Hugh Chatfield, Ottawa

Development and the death of our trees

In times past, we were welcomed to spring by the chirping of nesting birds. Now our welcome is the gut-wrenching sound of the chain saw.

We live in an area surrounding Byron Avenue. There are two new builds behind us. Two years ago, an out-of-province company arrived to “trim” a city designated “distinctive” maple tree. Shortly afterward, that tree, consequently now designated dangerous by city hall, was cut down and and up went a “double” in place of the single family home once there. Last Fall, the remaining tree at the back of that property is strangely dead.

Two houses down is a new multi-unit build with lights on the roof that are so bright and numerous that it looks like a landing pad for aircraft. This morning, the large tree at the back of that property was chainsawed down.

It is a sad and silent view that we and our neighbours now look upon.

Barbara King, Ottawa

Single-use zoning has forced dependence on cars

Re:Focus on how we build, not where, May 7.

Coun. Glen Gower and Véronique Bergeron’s opinion piece pointed out the problem of single-use zoning. I don’t know when this was introduced in Ottawa, but it really needs to change to stop our dependence on cars.

Growing up in New Edinburgh in the ’60s, I could walk to the grocery store on the end of my street, pass by two other convenience stores, a hair salon and a dry cleaner on my way to Crichton Street Public School. A beautiful park was two blocks away. Later, when I walked to York Street Public school, I passed near a movie theatre, bakery and hardware store.

Living on the same street now, you would need a car to get to many of these businesses. Ottawa needs to design more sustainable, liveable, physically active neighbourhoods.

Nancy Biggs, Orléans

Why doesn’t Ottawa just stop growing?

RE: Ottawa Council should reject sprawl, for the sake of the climate, May 5.

Nancy Xue proposes densification as a solution to the urban sprawl arising from growth. But no growing city has avoided sprawl. Growing up has always been accompanied by a certain amount of growing out.

Last year, the City of Ottawa declared a climate emergency and, if we are to believe the federal government, it too is concerned about climate change. Interestingly, neither the federal government nor the city seems to have considered the most blindingly obvious way to keep both sprawl and greenhouse gas emissions in check: stop promoting growth.

The federal government actively promotes Canada’s population growth through very high immigration levels (up to 360,000 annually by 2022) and the city is planning for a population increase of more than 400,000 by 2046. Given these realities, any talk of preventing sprawl amounts to little more that hot air to add to our greenhouse gas emissions.

Madeline Weld, Ottawa, President, Population Institute Canada

Build up, but build creatively, please

High density instead of sprawl is probably the way to go, but developers of tall apartment buildings should really think of building “signature” style buildings with distinctive and creative architectural façades, rather than the glut of dull-looking, tall, non-descript boxes that are currently being constructed.

Architecture is a language, but the majority of the new high-rises in this town cannot speak a word, unless the word is “yuck,” “ouch” or “yikes.” The irony of architecture in Ottawa is that the best-looking buildings are the ones that were built more than a century ago. The suburbs may have been a mistake but they are only there because of cheap gas, NCC untouchable greenbelt land, and because people couldn’t afford to live in neighbourhoods like the Glebe.

Build up, yes, but also build with style – and they will come.

Douglas Cornish, Ottawa

Citizen must delve deeper into alleged police racism

Re: Ottawa police probing origins of racist meme depicting officers, May 2.

The Citizen has failed its readers in its coverage of allegations of racism against unidentified members of the Ottawa police force. Every Ottawa police officer is now under a cloud as a result of the allegations, first made by the police chief, then implicitly accepted as true by the Citizen in two news stories. The Citizen has inappropriately used the word “racialize” to describe this alleged racism.

The Citizen should  investigate this, and investigate its own coverage.

According to the first story, a meme has been circulating in Ottawa with photos of a number of police officers accused of, or guilty of, dishonorable conduct. Most of the officers, the report says, are black, Asian, South Asian or Middle Eastern. But apparently one or two are white. Since the Citizen is coy about showing readers this image, we have no way of knowing whether there is anything racist about it.

What seems clear is that the Ottawa police department has a very serious disciplinary problem. I would be shocked if most rank-and-file officers were not embarrassed and angry at the high number of recent cases.

I would want to call out any of my colleagues who let down the police department and our city, as these officers are said to have done.

Michael Prentice, Ottawa

Removing COVID-19 restrictions is premature

In their frantic efforts to win a popularity race while implementing unpopular measures, our politicians keep stressing that we have achieved a lot against COVID-19. We need to examine that claim closely. The virus has not changed. There is no vaccine or effective treatment. According to official statistics, fewer than two per cent of us have been infected. That means that 98 per cent of Canadians are as vulnerable today as they were in January. COVID-19 has demonstrated its ability to go from “not present” to “horrific” at breathless speed. It could do that again.

The “flatten the curve” campaign was intended to delay the infection, not to defeat it. The pressure to remove restrictions is premature. If we relax what we did to postpone infections, we can return to where we were in February.

Dave Parnas, Ottawa

Cyclists on the pathways aren’t using common sense

Re: A royal treat for the city’s cyclists and pedestrians? May 5.

Ken Warren’s column about common sense on the NCC’s open pathways hit a nerve. He made sense, but limited his discussion. I walk the dog three times a day and, given the pandemic, visit, on foot, the grocery store once or twice a week. There have been times when it has been necessary for me to move onto the roadway to physically distance or just plain avoid the adults or the adults and their children riding their bicycles on the sidewalks. I get the need for exercise and fresh air and I love riding a bicycle, but are those cyclists using common sense and are they not breaking the law?

Further, the city has established bicycle lanes around the city. They certainly did along much of Scott Street. Nonetheless, many cyclists continue to use the path on the north side of Scott Street even when there are more pedestrians on the path than there are cars on the road. Are those cyclists using their common sense?

Joe Italiano, Ottawa

Here’s why Quebec has police at the bridges

Re: Letter, Quebec’s ‘risky bet’ could be a liability, May 5.

The writer expresses concern about Québec’s economic reopening. Here are some numbers that might shed a light on this issue (as of early this week).

Number of deaths due to coronavirus in Ottawa: 127.

Number of deaths due to coronavirus in the entire Outaouais region (not just the city of Gatineau): 4

Number of coronavirus cases in Ottawa: 1,504.

Number of coronavirus cases in the Outaouais region: 304.

Gatineau has already been declared a “special region” by the Québec government. The bridges are still closed between Ottawa and Gatineau. And last weekend, the police on the bridges stopped 2,000 cars going from Ottawa into Gatineau.

Given these facts, I think that the people in the Outaouais should be afraid, not the other way around.

Andrée Champagne, Ottawa

Let’s create a merged municipality of Ottawa-Gatineau

In reference to Ottawa’s medical community being accessed by thousands of Gatineau residents:

For decades Quebec City, knowing it could rely on Ottawa’s generosity to fill the gap, has mostly ignored Gatineau’s pleas for sufficient funding to build and support proper health care facilities in the community.

Since February, 2018, Ottawa has been in the planning stage, a four-to-five year process, toward building a new hospital (estimated to open in 2026) to replace the aging Civic campus of the Ottawa Hospital, to the tune of $2 billion. As well, surrounding hospitals in the Ottawa area are expanding to try to meet the needs of their own residents. But with the population of the Ottawa area expected to increase by 200,000 or more in the next couple of decades, this will be a constant balancing act.

Meanwhile, COVID-19 has reached everyone’s doorstep, and many people’s lives are at risk if steps are not taken to ensure consistent mediation of the disease on both sides.

Ottawa and Gatineau are closely interconnected with many aspects of work and social relationships. This fact cannot be ignored. Maybe it is time, to revisit the creation of a metropolis of Ottawa-Gatineau, bringing these two good neighbours together. By doing so, we will ensure the best interests of all residents, now and into the future.

Keith Sheldrick, Almonte

How could you leave out Cyclone Taylor?

Re: It’s hard to argue with TSN’s selection of Ottawa Senators’ all-time team, May 6.

I read with interest the article about TSN’s all-time Ottawa Senators team. How on Earth did Hall of Famer Cyclone
Taylor not get mentioned on this list or in the article? True, he only played two years for the Senators, but he did lead the Sens to the Stanley Cup in 1909, well before TSN’s artificial cutoff date of 1917.

Surely a hockey legend who has a street named after him, so close to the Senators’ own arena, deserves better
recognition than this. Perhaps an article might be written about him and those amazing “original Senators” teams
sometime soon?

I should add that I had the privilege of meeting Cyclone Taylor many times in Vancouver, while playing pitch and putt
golf with my Great Uncle Jack. Taylor, who was close to 90 at the time, was no-nonsense and played with a drive and
determination that clearly evoked the legendary player that he had been seven decades before.

David Rain, Ottawa

Words, words, words – and a sense of humour

The Ottawa Citizen has received many kudos during these troubled times – some for just being there, some for excellent reporting – and I would like to add another by praising the work of Adrian Powell, who is able to produce a daily crossword puzzle for your newspaper. What a brain Powell must have!

Not only does Powell’s work transport us temporally from our present worries, it educates us at the same time. Without it, I would never have known what a “thole” was – or an “ani” – or an “anorak.”

Powell also has a sense of humour, an aspect not always found in Crossword Puzzles. As an example, one recent clue read: “Rhino feature found in the Alps that challenges the laws of physics.”. The answer: ANTIMATTERHORN.

Keep them coming, Adrian. How you do it all is quite a puzzle!

John E. Rutherford, Gatineau

Thanks to the staff at the General

This letter is to acknowledge my gratitude and appreciation for the care I received from the medical staff of Nurse Station 6 West of the General Campus of The Ottawa Hospital. During my 18-day stay, my treatment was administered effectively, efficiently, with gentleness and understanding and, more importantly, with humour.

For all that, thank you.

Roland Rotondo, Ottawa