I enjoyed reading the article celebrating the 100th birthday of Victoria’s Crystal Garden.
I have many fond memories of enjoying the gardens and attending weddings and conferences there
That said, I feel it’s important to point out that memories of swimming in the Crystal Garden pool are not happy ones for all Victorians.
Your article mentions that the pool opened “to allow locals to swim in its saltwater pool.”
However, many of your readers may not know that visible minorities were not permitted to swim in the pool.
This meant that both of my parents and many of my relatives, all born in Victoria, could not swim in the pool because they were Chinese.
In fact, at that time, they were not considered to be Canadians either.
When I was growing up and whenever the Crystal Garden pool was mentioned, my father would remind me that he and my mother were not allowed to swim there.
In addition, my parents wouldn’t let us go near lakes for fear they couldn’t rescue us if needed.
To learn more about Victoria’s Chinese community’s history, come and see us at the Victoria Chinatown Museum in Fan Tan Alley.
Charlayne Thornton-Joe
Victoria
Victoria council might completely defund the Centennial Square renovation. Yes, please.
One council person still expressed disappointment. He believes this redesign will somehow help cure downtown problems.
How? He was disappointed a recent beautiful day did not draw families and children to Centennial Square. Really?
What is this obsession with this small, concrete filled, building-surrounded super-urban space that no amount of money is going to turn into anything that special?
Why is council spending so much political capital on a project that has so little to offer?
Why do they want to draw hundreds of people to this space anyway?
It’s a place for government workers to eat their lunch. At best it’s a tree-lined walkway to get from A to B with maybe some flowers.
Hopefully most on council understand families and children are understandably not ever going to see this as a recreation destination because of all the concrete, unhoused, drug use and because there already exist lots of beautiful and appropriate spaces for families.
Centennial Square became an obsession for an out-of-touch city government.
We don’t need a park downtown. We have parks, and the waterfront.
What we need is a city council focused on real problems.
This plan was ill-conceived, and inexcusably ill-timed.
Lisa Tindall
Victoria
Safety in downtown Victoria is more important than changing Centennial Square.
Taxpayers have stated their objections to council pushing for the splash park idea along with removal of the beautiful sequoia.
Now is the time for this project to be shelved. It is past time for council to get their priorities straight as to what is important for the citizens of Victoria.
Donna Craig
Victoria
The entire Centennial Square revitalization project should be cancelled because it has no social licence. The temporary reprieve given to the slaying of the sequoia tree is welcome but falls short.
Spending tax dollars on this project. which offers little public value, is a complete waste given other critical priorities. Public input has been non-existent since the initial workshops and surveys of 2017-18 were conducted.
The present design by Dialog has been rammed through by city council without dialogue.
A previous splash park installed in the square in 2008 proved dysfunctional and was shut down. To argue, as some councillors have, that the proposed new water feature and seedlings are needed to fight climate change is pure fantasy.
The wanton destruction of the square’s fountain betrays a profound ignorance of its role as the centerpiece of the square’s original design. It disregards its significance as a mid-century modern public art masterpiece recognized by the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada, former city heritage planners and the public.
This appreciation has been widely expressed in the initial feedback sessions, countless letters and a 2,300 signature petition calling for its refurbishment. All ignored.
A vision will hopefully emerge which sees the square reassume its role as an active centre of civic life. This will require new uses in the northeast portion such as a new library, cultural institution or educational campus with restaurants and cafes at ground level.
The current project is too limited in scope to be visionary and has failed to capture the public’s imagination.
If council fails to stop the project before the bulldozers arrive this fall, voters will remember the foolhardy come next election.
James Kerr
Victoria
A great big hurrah for the Health Ministry! We now have an online site so B.C. residents can get immediate and up-to-date wait times in our ERs.
Day in, day out, minute by minute we can all monitor the disaster known as wait times in B.C. ERs.
We will get hot-off-the-press confirmation that the wait times in Greater Victoria are consistently between six and 16 hours, with no sign that anything will change in the foreseeable future.
These wait times exceed by several factors all countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
U.K. research has documented that thousands of avoidable deaths can be attributed to ER delays. Greater Victoria’s wait times exceed those in U.K.
Placing physician assistants in Victoria’s ERs absolutely would reduce wait-times.
Same goes for nurse-practitioners. Masterly inaction on these measures.
Our health authorities plod on with hopelessly failed policies and no readily implementable plans, guaranteeing no improvement in this dire situation. Pathetic really.
Dr. Adrian Fine
Victoria
At the Pride Parade Sunday, the Coast Guard showed off its display ship model float. However, the ship showed the Pride flag at its stern. This is not only in bad taste, but it is against maritime protocol and tradition.
The ship should have exhibited the Canadian flag at its stern, and the Pride flag could have been flown somewhere else on the model.
Ships fly a flag at their stern, known as the ensign, to indicate their nationality. The ensign is typically the largest flag on the ship and is flown from a staff at the stern of the vessel.
It’s a symbol of the ship’s registration.
Roger Cyr
Victoria
In response to the recent letter that said Canada Day is just another day, and that the writer gets nothing out of it.
The same can be said for both Mother’s Day and Father’s Day for me, as I no longer have either parent, nor am I a parent. But I don’t get upset about it, even when I see endless commercials and store kitsch celebrating these special days.
Canada Day is not just a paid day off. We are celebrating our country’s sovereignity, which with the recent threats from across the border, is even now more important to distinguish ourselves as a separate country with our own set of values, customs and culture.
Lastly, my grandfather joined the Royal Canadian Navy at 18 and fought in the Second World War, earning the Battle of Atlantic Star and others, having seen service overseas so that the letter-writer can walk his dog, weed his garden and have dinner with his family.
My grandfather came back from the war, but many Canadians did not. Canada Day is not “just another day off with pay” for those who have employment.
It is a celebration of Canada for all Canadians to appreciate what we have.
Dar Wood
Saanich
We’re all frustrated by the heartbreaking co-issue of homelessness and addiction that’s wreaking havoc on downtown Victoria. While no plan is perfect, Victoria’s Community Safety and Wellbeing Plan is well-thought out by a panel of experts and addresses the concerns of our entire community – housed, unhoused, business.
Many people seem to believe the addictions crisis (which is a global issue, not just in Victoria) can be isolated from other societal problems and solved with incarceration, yet experts agree that this is not the answer.
One major contributor to addiction is loss of housing. Victoria’s Community Safety and Wellbeing Plan addresses the entire web of issues with the resources available at the municipal level, while calling on the provincial and federal governments to fulfil their responsibilities to make Victoria a safe, clean, vibrant city for all.
Fully acknowledging that “the decline of downtown” is the result of illegal drug use as well as homelessness, the panel of experts from policing, mental health, addictions and poverty have connected the multiple layers of the crisis on our streets.
This is why they are calling for housing, law enforcement, and mental health and addictions teams to work together to make Victoria safe for everyone.
Katherine Maas
Victoria
• Email letters to:[email protected]
• Mail: Letters to the editor, Times Colonist, 201-655 Tyee Rd., Victoria, B.C. V9A 6X5
• Submissions should be no more than 250 words; subject to editing for length and clarity. Provide your contact information; it will not be published. Avoid sending your letter as an email attachment.