August 25, 2020

Just when they thought they were out, they pulled them back in. With apologies to that memorable line uttered by Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) in The Godfather Part III, the inescapability of . . .

August 25, 2020

There have been rumblings at the federal and provincial levels of government, rumblings that have turned into whispers and more that Ottawa and Victoria are mulling a home equity tax. Governments. . .

August 25, 2020

Editor: Why is it that decent, civil and law-abiding citizens, when they take Fido for a walk, metamorphosize into arrogant, illiterate, petty criminals? As soon as they step out the front door. . .

August 25, 2020

Editor: I am writing to thank the City of Kamloops bylaws department. The department was informed late Friday afternoon (Aug. 21) that a large pile of wooden pallets was stashed on Scott Road, . . .

August 25, 2020

Editor: I enjoyed reading KTW’s survey about closing Victoria Street to motor vehicles. Kamloops should try a woonerf (living street), where cars are allowed, but pedestrians are prioritized. I. . .

August 23, 2020

In 20 years of writing about Russian President Vladimir Putin — he was completely obscure before 1999 — I have never before had reason to mention him and Saint Thomas à Becket in the same sentence.. . .

August 20, 2020

This past Monday, Belarusian strongman Alexander Lukashenko went to the Minsk Tractor Works, the country’s biggest factory with almost 15,000 workers, and did his tough-guy act: “Until you kill me,. . .

August 19, 2020

Editor: Yes, I wear a mask — not to protect myself, but to protect others. It’s not a political statement. It’s the courteous thing to do. It has been proven that they work and it is such a . . .

August 19, 2020

Editor: I don’t wear a mask in stores because I think they do more harm than good. After all, viruses are way smaller than the pores of the mask material. A mask that was able to block viruses. . .

August 18, 2020

Editor: Re: The Aug. 11 letter from Barbara Liotscos (‘Where is the compensation and/or treaty?’): The federal government is completely responsible for negotiating treaties and native land . . .

August 18, 2020

While some in the 20-something crowd seem to prefer partying to conquering COVID-19, society’s forgotten crowd — the homeless — might have something to teach us about pandemic protocols. On . . .

August 18, 2020

Editor: Why is it that something like a simple outdoor skating rink for Kamloops turns into a $5.5-million psychedelic dream of city minions? As far as I know, people wanted a couple of covered. . .

August 18, 2020

Editor: Kudos to KTW reporter Marty Hastings for the excellent coverage of Canada Hall of Fame recipient Jenny John, acknowledging her long career in field hockey (‘John scores Hall of Fame hat . . .

August 18, 2020

Editor: Gwynne Dyer’s column of Aug. 4 (‘Slavery and history’), like many of his other columns in KTW, is an appalling example of historical bigotry and moral imbecility. Dyer’s column turns . . .

August 18, 2020

Editor: I note the attempts to repair Hugh Allan Drive. I applaud the attempt to repair it. However, this type of repair doesn’t turn out well. Anyone who wants to validate my perception needs. . .

August 16, 2020

The recent spike in coronavirus cases in B.C. is not the government’s fault. I am sure there are some who would disagree with that statement and I’m sure there are data lurking somewhere to make . . .

August 16, 2020

The two-state solution is still dead. The deal to open diplomatic ties between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, announced by Israel’s Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem last week,. . .

August 12, 2020

Editor: It is time to consider year-round schooling for students in the Kamloops-Thompson school district. Year-round schooling does not mean that any one child would attend classes every month. . .

August 11, 2020

Beirut has been living with car bombs and air raids on a sporadic but continuing basis for so long that it would probably make sense to rebuild this time with shatterproof glass. The torrent of . . .

August 11, 2020

There has been much complaining — a good portion of it on social media — about the provincial government’s plans to have students attend class this fall amid the COVID-19 pandemic. While parents . . .

August 11, 2020

Editor: I am shocked at the attitude of many Kamloops retailers that do not ask their staff to wear masks. When I inquire, store managers respond that masking is “only” recommended — not . . .

August 11, 2020

Editor: Gwynne Dyer’s illuminating column of Aug. 5 (‘Slavery and history’) contains a helpful hypothesis: “Because slavery, uniquely in the world, had completely died out in Europe by a . . .

August 10, 2020

Editor: I recently encountered a woman in a green T-shirt reading “Parks.” COVID-19 makes us bold, so I asked if she worked for the city’s parks department, then told her about my concerns . . .

August 10, 2020

Editor: I think most would agree that the Kamloops Regional Farmers’ Market is a critically important community event. I write today as the former manager and a current volunteer, because the . . .

August 10, 2020

Editor: There needs to be a frequent city bylaw presence in parks — especially Pioneer Park in downtown Kamloops. Parkgoers constantly disregard the physical distancing and COVID-19 guidelines,. . .

August 10, 2020

Editor: The story about people who abuse the privilege of restaurant dining is upsetting. Eating out is a huge spirit lifter. It should not be taken for granted. In our experience (including . . .

August 10, 2020

Editor: COVID-19 has saddened so many lives, if not through illness and death, then in business closures, unemployment and the new reality of daycare. Largely unscathed were the financially . . .

August 10, 2020

Editor: In regards to furniture and garbage dumping, I walk using a walker every day down Summit Drive and under the bridge, where garbage is strewn, including a sofa, mattress, five-gallon pail,. . .

August 4, 2020

Editor: I’m pretty sure everyone has heard that old knock-knock joke where the final line goes something like, “Isabelle needed on a bicycle?” That punchline is a good question, given how the . . .

August 4, 2020

“Assessing the people of America's past by today's standards would compel us to cast the majority of our heroes as villains.” That seemed to be the line taken by Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas last . . .

August 3, 2020

“Stop calling me a moustachioed cockroach,” said Alexander Lukashenko. “I am still the president of this country.” But that doesn’t sound very presidential, does it? Lukashenko has been the . . .

July 23, 2020

If you wanted evidence that reasonably competent government — not great, not corruption-free, just not awful — produces good results in the end, here it is. Back in 1971, when the two countries . . .

July 22, 2020

Editor: Re: (‘City of Kamloops wants to lead charge into electric transportation,’ July 2): The City of Kamloops wants to “lead the way” in adoption of electric vehicles. To put the kindest . . .

July 21, 2020

Editor: Re: Todd Sullivan’s column of July 15 regarding the pledge to choose words carefully when discussing addiction (‘Take the pledge with me’): It is true that words and labels can be . . .

July 21, 2020

There is a message on my work voice-mail from a few years ago, a message I come across now and then when cleaning out the system. For some reason, I can never bring myself to delete that . . .

July 21, 2020

Editor: Health Minister Adrian Dix has announced that Kamloops will get 100 long-term care beds. I am hoping that in consultation with Interior Health, he has some, if not all, of these beds . . .

July 15, 2020

Few people outside of Poland care about the outcome of the July 12 presidential election there, but maybe they should. Andrzej Duda is practically a Polish clone of U.S. President Donald Trump, who. . .

July 15, 2020

Editor: People, not animals, are the cause of dog bites. Contrary to recent letters to the editor of KTW, there is no such thing as an aggressive breed. Studies have shown that although . . .

July 14, 2020

Editor: Thanks to Kamlops Coun. Dale Bass for her recent View from City Hall column, in which she urges us us to rethink how we deal with homelessness (‘A serious rethink is needed,’ July 7). . . .

July 14, 2020

Writers know better than most that the words chosen matter. The words we choose to use can have an impact beyond just the ideas that are being expressed. Despite the playground mantra of “. . .

July 14, 2020

Editor: Since March, my girls, Anavi in Grade 4 and Anaya in Grade 1, did online learning from South Sa-Hali elementary, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Now that the school year has ended, they . . .

July 14, 2020

Editor: I want to tell you how much I appreciate the beautiful flowers and hanging baskets I see in our wonderful city as I drive down our streets. I have always admired the job our city . . .

July 13, 2020

Editor: Neither animals nor vegetables nor minerals are polluting the globe. So, who does that leave? A couch was recently dumped along our beautiful Rivers Trail. A mattress was dumped at . . .

July 12, 2020

“Forget it, Jake. It’s Chinatown,” says an old friend to Jack Nicholson as the mother is killed, the little girl is handed over to the bad guy and the police wash their hands of it at the end of . . .

July 12, 2020

Editor: I was asked what I would say to a student who was nervous about studying at Thompson Rivers University this fall. My response came to me in the form of a letter, Dear Student, which I am . . .

July 9, 2020

On July 4 in Baltimore, protesters tore down a statue of Christopher Columbus and threw it into the harbour. According to the Baltimore Sun, the protesters who yanked it down with ropes were . . .

July 7, 2020

Editor: It’s time for someone to take a stand on pit bulls and similar dogs that have a high potential to maim or kill (‘One person dead after dog attack,’ June 29). If there isn’t now enough . . .

July 7, 2020

Editor: Is it time to consider a breed ban for certain dogs or has it been shown that breed bans do not work? Of course, the simple way of looking at it would be to consider there being no dogs. . .

July 7, 2020

Editor: When I heard a man was killed by a dog in Kamloops, my first thought was that a pit bull was involved (‘One person dead after dog attack,’ June 29). Last August, a pit bull killed our . . .

July 7, 2020

It is — and has been — the new normal for quite some time. Finding discarded drugs and drug paraphernalia in public spaces in Kamloops is not new, but having a baby come across what police . . .

July 7, 2020

About 20 years ago, KTW photographer Dave Eagles and I spent days in back alleys, along the riverbank, behind the former New Life Mission — anywhere homeless people could be found. The subsequent. . .

July 7, 2020

Editor: I wanted to enlighten Kamloopsians that U.S. licence plates do not always represent bad guys. My wife, Twyla, daughter, Landyn, and I have returned from the United States after a 26-. . .

July 7, 2020

Editor: I am gobsmacked at the city’s pathetic response to what must be a deluge of complaints about the state of our streets. The decay of asphalt on many road surfaces is an ever-present . . .

July 6, 2020

Editor: Re: Christopher Foulds’ column of July 1 (‘Statues of limitations’): It’s hard to fully pull back the curtain on historical truth, hard to let go of the shibboleths, the cultural tropes. . .

July 6, 2020

Editor: I would like to say something positive about our police force. I am 75 and was recently stuck at the side of the freeway with a flat tire. I contacted BCAA and was advised it would be a. . .

July 6, 2020

Editor: After an unfortunate accident in which I seriously cut my foot, I ended up going to Royal Inland Hospital via ambulance to have my injuries treated. From the paramedics who tended to me. . .

July 6, 2020

“We will grant BNOs [British National Overseas} five years’ limited leave to remain [in the United Kingdom], with the right to work or study,” British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab told the UK . . .

July 2, 2020

Last month, the United States imposed new sanctions on Syria — a “sustained campaign of economic and political pressure” to end the nine-year war by forcing President Bashar al-Assad to United . . .

June 30, 2020

Editor: Regarding the major expansion proposal for Aberdeen, I am wondering what sort of advertising was done for the Feb. 20 open house on Feb. 10. As an Aberdeen resident I would have been . . .

June 30, 2020

Canada — the political entity — is turning 153 today, with the pandemic resulting in cancellation of festivities that would normally generate large crowds. Instead, there will be online events to. . .

June 30, 2020

It has been an interesting school year, to say the least. School District 73 has survived and been strengthened by the reopening of Westsyde elementary, the loss of a school building and a . . .

June 30, 2020

Editor: KTW’s June 24 edition included letters to the editor from readers Brian Husband and Ian Cornish, expressing disappointment with City of Kamloops roadworks. I would like to augment their. . .

June 28, 2020

Editor: Kamloopsians don’t deserve Inks Lake, Only twenty minutes from town. Some come with their friends, their children, And parents. Some come with their dinghy. Some come with their . . .

June 28, 2020

Editor: I am wondering how many Kamloops residents are aware that in a very short span of time, thousands of their fellow citizens signed a petition to make Barnhartvale Road a safer place to . . .

June 28, 2020

As countries in Europe and North America emerge from lockdown and start trying to rebuild their devastated economies, the great concern is jobs. Unemployment in the U.S. and Canada is over 13 per. . .

June 24, 2020

U.S. President Donald Trump writes in tweets, with more exclamation marks than a 13-year-old girl’s diary. Nobody knows for sure whether his very limited vocabulary is due to concern for his . . .

June 24, 2020

Editor: Re: John Hart’s letter of June 15 (‘Now is the time to create a municipal police force in Kamloops’): Hart suggested Kamloops have a municipal police force without “military -style . . .

June 24, 2020

Editor: I don’t have a car. I ride my bicycle or my motorized scooter, so being on two wheels instead of four makes a huge difference when the roads are in pretty bad shape. There are several. . .

June 23, 2020

Editor: I am wondering how minds at city hall work. Why on earth are they wasting taxpayers’ money on repairing/upgrading the McArthur Island ring road when there are so many other road in the . . .

June 23, 2020

How long will it be until protesters loop a chain around the Overlanders statue in front of Kamloops City Hall and pull it down during an anti-colonialism rally? Is the day near when we hear . . .

June 23, 2020

Editor: Many people believe that pulling off something successfully depends on the meeting of two critical things: timing and luck. In the case of the recently re-proposed performing-arts . . .

June 23, 2020

Editor: I want to share my favourite podcast program — Hidden Brain, which is free. It recently replayed a 2018 episode about the future of newspapers, which is a timely subject. The episode is. . .