Dr. Joss Reimer, The Pollyanna of Downtown Winnipeg
Season 4, Episode 1, Part 1- We are making a difference, as 2023 proved. Marty Gold thanks the audience and pledges to keep up the pace. Fan mail is reviewed, and then there’s talk about the final episodes of 2023, and the first ActionLine.ca post of 2024- the Bobby Hull retrospective with guest Peter Young.
07:40 Part 2 – A Pollyanna is a person with irrepressible optimism and a tendency to find good in everything. Also- “a sunshine-spreading orphan”.
Enter Dr. Joss Reimer. On the morning of New Year’s Eve, the local media darling started a Twitter thread:
“I work on Main street, north of the Disraeli bridge. I run or bike to work. People (usually people who do not walk around in that area) often tell me how dangerous that is.
Here is my experience:”
The Chief Medical Officer of the WRHA said she’s “never witnessed any violence apart from cars.”
“SUVs and trucks are a very real danger on all our roads”
“I’m left wondering how much the perception of danger downtown is just good old fashioned racism.”
The message from the president-elect of the CMA, the national doctors body? If you’re driving downtown to a game, concert, buffet at East India Company- YOU’RE the danger downtown. AND if you’re afraid of being mugged or carjacked? You’re a racist!
But a parody ‘Bart Kives’ account framed her “pillar of the community” comment precisely, as did others who refuted Reimer’s woke derangment.
It’s rare to see a public figure get so thoroughly slapped down for not knowing what they were talking about.
You’ll hear about Marty’s firsthand experience within 3 minutes at the Portage Place food court on Wednesday. Restauranteur Ravi Ramberran had just told CJOB: “It makes it hard for people to feel safe coming to work…this is the new normal now. I refuse to see that happen.”
Reimer, who doesn’t pay from her own pocket when windows are broken or doors are smashed, refuses to see it at all.
People asked if she’s spoken with medical staff at HSC, or with women at all, about downtown safety. For instance: on Dec. 4, Romeo Chris Miles pleaded guilty to threatening an off-duty cop- with a machete.
He got a year of supervised probation despite persistently failing to comply with court orders, assaults, thefts, robbery, break-and-enter and thefts.
Five days later he was part of a kidnapping, sexual assault and robbery of a young woman, left in a downtown dumpster.
Would Dr. Reimer say that the victim’s fear of that lifetime criminal with an IQ of 44 was “racist”?
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26.20 Part 3- Among the ‘racists’ who challenged Reimer’s gaslighting was a number of women who described averting naked men with knives, car-jackings, skywalk scares, and bear spray. One woman ‘woke’ the highly-woke Reimer up to their reality:
“I think this is an irresponsible post. You dismiss others’ safety concerns with such little regard simply biased on your own privileged experience”
“I work downtown and have for 18 years. Pre-covid was a way different vibe. People are now unpredictable…”
“if your whole point was really the jab at cars, and to point out how much you choose alternative transportation then just say it. At least then others aren’t shamed”
32:29 – Part 4- A recap of the Top 10 episodes of 2023! The list included a transit union scandal, four interviews, election news, and East St. Paul parents defending Mother’s Day.
Marty also points listeners to our Christmas Day column- which got a response from an MP and a City Councilor. He adds a concluding thought about functioning seniors in their sunset years kept in secure facilities while Miles was allowed out in public. Dr. Joss Reimer should answer questions about that, from a public health perspective.
