LETTERS — Penalty for dog attacks insufficient, dangerous scooters, two-tier medicine – Saltwire

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Dianna Levin of Halifax was fined $2,000 two weeks ago as a result of dog attacks from November and December 2020. She was also fined $500 for dog attacks in July 2021. The dog attacks involved both humans and dogs. Her dogs were seized and euthanized in 2021.
I believe the financial charges were not enough of a penalty. She should have been given a lifetime ban from owning animals.
Bringing a dog into your home comes with significant responsibilities. The largest responsibility is the ability to keep the public and other animals safe. Levin failed miserably on both accounts.
Our federal, provincial, municipal authorities desperately need to put in place fines and penalties that fit the crime and ultimately protect the public.
Tracy Jessiman, Bedford
It’s September. Universities are back in session and the south end of Halifax is awash in students, faculty and others involved at the university level.
Also returning is the traffic congestion, parking chaos, and the extremely dangerous habits of people blindly crossing streets, heads bowed onto cell phones, and earphones engaged.
But wait! A new and more dangerous phenomenon has surfaced! South end streets are now inhabited by “e-scooters,” self-propelled and extremely manoeuvrable with speed.
The other day, I had three young scooterists dart out in front of me while driving on South Park and Morris streets. They can appear from out between parked cars or from off the sidewalk onto the middle of the road. One person crossed on an e-scooter diagonally from Morris Street over to South Park. It scared the you-know-what out of me!
I do not know what legal status these scooters have as road vehicles, but this throws a whole new dimension of danger at motorists and “e-pedestrians” alike!
Halifax severely impacted their parking and streets with the bicycle lanes and now this? What will they want?
Between “blind faith” pedestrians and, now, scooter surprisers, we face an enhanced risk of tragedies to motorists and pedestrians.
I worry about anyone who needs to navigate south-end Halifax, especially around the hospitals and old VG site.
Oh, by the way, if you are a motorist, and happen to be in an accident with a pedestrian or scooter, be prepared to be vilified, for society will automatically judge you guilty.
Malcolm Macpherson, Valley
There is understandably much talk about the benefits of privatizing health-care services; often, the British two-tier system is turned to as an example.
I was born in England in 1948 and brought up under the British system. I have the experience of going to my doctor there in pain and being told there would be about a two-year wait for corrective surgery under the National Health Service. However, if the surgeon were to be paid a very large sum of money, he could do the surgery the next week, privately.
Essentially, the rich in Britain receive prompt care, the rest wait in line. That is not my vision of an effective health-care system.
Our Canadian system is far better but has lately been starved of resources and effective leadership. Let’s not throw the baby out with the bathwater.
Bernie Swain, Halifax

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