Saturday, September 1, 2007

Young readers will have to do without

Vancouver Sun, Letter
Saturday, September 01, 2007


Re: Strike gets fall off to bad start at rec centres, Aug. 29

This story missed one important "inconvenience" that will affect Vancouver residents as this strike heads into fall. Starting next week, the children of the world's "most livable city" (and those from neighbouring municipalities who need specialized help) will start school without library service. Those lucky enough to have school libraries, those whose parents can take them to other municipal libraries and those who can get some help on the Internet will manage for a time. All others will simply do without.

When Vancouver city spokesmen discuss continuing this strike to protect labour negotiators from the union's "political agenda," they are denying children help learning to read. I find this shameful, and wish to join those calling for a mediated end to this harmful strike.

Vivian Schmidt