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THURSDAY, APRIL 20, 2017 • WATERLOO CHRONICLE • 9 COMMENT WATERLOO CHRONICLEWATERLOO CHRONICLE LETTERS TO THE CHRONICLE The positive lessons of baseball can be negated if there is too much emphasis on the importance of winning. "� at's why I really wanted to do a strength-based program, focusing on the positives," said Craig Gibson, head coach of Fury, a new girls' softball organization with players ages 12 to 14. "So I ask the girls and their parents to be aware of the energy they bring to wherever we're training or playing because it's about the kids. It's not about the parents." I � rst heard about Fury through team treasurer and parent Shelly Davitsky, a Grade 6 French teacher at my daughters' school, the K-W Bilingual School. Inside K-W Bilingual's historic 1867 � eldstone schoolhouse this past week, the team was making posters for an upcoming barbecue fundraiser for the Cancer Centre and Grand River Hospital. � e girls are eager to host the fundraiser to show support for the team's sponsor, Merv Redman, whose wife Diane died last summer after a battle with melanoma. "� ese girls have talent and skills and leadership and it is very exciting to be a part of it," said Merv, the pride evident in his voice. Merv launched the Merv and Diane Redman Family Fund, through the Kitchener and Waterloo Commu- nity Foundation, to support educa- tional seminars and workshops for doctors. "Diane probably got an extra year of life through education and sharing knowledge that helped her situation, so we wanted to help others in that same light," said Merv. Such altruistic and community- minded thinking is what the coach of Fury hopes to instil in the girls. Along with softball, Fury's program includes CrossFit, yoga and mindfulness. "We were parents who wanted something di� erent for our girls, a different type of program that brought together like- minded parents and girls for a tournament team rather than league play," said Shelly, who photographed the team in their striking crimson and black uniforms. Fury team manager Sandra Gibson chimed in: "We're pour- ing our hearts and souls into it, and the girls can see how laugh- ing and building friendships that will hopefully last a lifetime is all part of the fun of being on a team, and how it will make them incredible people, because that's essentially what we want for them." I told Sandra how touched I was to see Merv's wife Diane's initials on one sleeve of the team's uniforms along with a pink and black ribbon for Melanoma and breast cancer on the other. "Diane was a very special person," she replied. Merv added, "How can you not get excited and enthused about this team and what these phenomenal girls are doing? Diane played sports, she played golf, and she was all about hav- ing a positive attitude and positive frame of mind. In essence these are her girls. She would have loved this." Fury's Help Us Beat Cancer barbecue fundraiser (in support of their softball program, Canadian Tire Jumpstart Charities, and the Merv and Diane Redman Family Fund) is April 29 from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Canadian Tire, 400 Weber St. N., Waterloo. ••• Marshall Ward is a freelance writer and artist. Email is welcome at marshall_ward@hotmail.com. MARSHALL WARD MARSHALL ARTS Remember all those fine sound-ing phrases like "real change," "transparency" and "account- ability" we heard from Justin Trudeau in his successful campaign to become Prime Minister? People actually bought in to it, but now that the Liberals are governing, those wonderful qualities the elector- ate desire and indeed voted for have vanished like a morning mist -- clear- ly demonstrated by the actual behav- iour of this government. For all of his bluster and feigned love for democracy, Trudeau is con- sistently revealing his disdain for democracy and an astonishing lack of sensitivity to appearance of evil. If it's not broken promises, it's continued undemocratic heavy-hand- ed conduct such as limiting parlia- mentary debate, cash-for-access fun- draisers or so called "open nomina- tions" in ridings. We have a Prime Minister who excels in rhetoric and greatly under- achieves in actually walking the walk. Take, for example , the latest bla- tant display of heavy handed proce- dure with what the Liberals like to call "modernization" of parliamentary procedure. To their credit opposition MPs Candice Bergen (Conservative) and Murray Rankin (NDP) are doing due diligence in vigorously opposing this abuse of power after the Liberals voted down the opposition propos- al requiring support of all parties in changing parliamentary rules. By any definition this is clearly a power grab, which Bergen rightly described as "arrogant" and which Rankin said was "dressed up in polite words like modernization." If Canadians have not seen enough to disturb them in the 18 months this government has been in power, you have to wonder what it will take. But it is safe to say Trudeau and his government have already and will continue to reveal how little they are to be trusted. Gerald Hall Nanoose Bay, B.C. I'm concerned about the Kinder Morgan pipeline project because Kinder Morgan is run by ex-Enron executives -- not the most trustworthy group of individuals. I have recently learned that Kinder Morgan is petitioning to use our CPP contributions to fund this pipeline that most Canadians don't even want, and that Trudeau is considering it. What would possess Trudeau to give control of our CPP funds to people who have heavy ties to a company that swin- dled countless Canadians out of millions of dollars? Just who the hell is he working for? Christine Strangway Kitchener Bad service catches up to airlines I'm glad to see that the jig is up for the airline industry. It's unfortunate that it took a horrible episode -- a man injured while being violently dragged o� a United Airlines � ight -- to � nally activate this global conversation. Because, let's face it, airline passengers have been enduring and com- plaining for years. Shrinking seats and leg room, disappearing customer service, ballooning baggage restric- tions and fees, and the overreliance on over- booking as a business strategy have all regularly raised the ire of travellers. And as service and comfort plummet, costs keep climbing. My own personal airline horror stories include being stranded in airports with my kids for three days and nights on a single trip, sleep- ing overnight in the Cleveland airport, losing my luggage for two weeks, spending countless hours parked on airport tarmacs, missing con- nections due to scheduling errors, and eduring a barf bag-inducing last second aborted landing in Cincinnati. And then there was that night in Las Vegas. It was the best example of the worst customer service, ever. Our flight was late. We boarded the plane, only to be removed, because there was no � ight crew. Information was sparse and always incorrect. � e Air Canada ground team was ill-prepared. � ey hid behind closed doors, occasionally peeking out and giggling. � ey left an entire plane load of cus- tomers standing, waiting, for hours. When they finally emerged, it was with bad news. The � ight would not be leaving at all and we needed to contact Air Canada -- by phone -- to rebook our � ights. � is was not true. As we stood there, waiting, email mes- sages started arriving, rebooking some passengers on � ights to Toronto and Montreal, today, tomorrow or another day. Families were separated. A small child was booked to Montreal, his parents to Toronto. Tempers flared. Threats were made. Customers were insulted -- called "the crazy people" -- and we "crazy people" got angrier and angrier. We each received a 10 per cent coupon for our next � ight. Airlines have worked hard to cultivate a cul- ture of disservice. It starts with the aggressive overbooking of � ights and � lters down to their front-line workers. I will never lose the image of that Air Canada employee mocking his frustrated customers. I will never forget the fact that I have been lied to, repeatedly, by employees wearing the uniforms of many di� erent airlines. I'm a pretty savvy traveller. I've learned the tricks and I push back on their disservice. I shouldn't have to. It's important for all of us to know our rights. Find out more, here https://travel.gc.ca/air/air-passenger- rights. ••• Karen Scian is the co-founder of the Talent Business Solutions, an educator and a recovering city councillor. She is also chair of the Waterloo Public Library Board. You can email her at beinscian@gmail.com or follow her on Twitter @karenscian. BEIN' SCIAN KAREN SCIAN Trudeau demonstrates his undemocratic ways A reason behind all this FuryReal concerns about Kinder Morgan pipeline Letter policy Letters may be submitted by email to editorial@water- loochronicle.ca, and include the author's full name, place of resi- dence and contact information.