You can save this article by registering for free here. Or sign-in if you have an account.

How do you cripple a church?

Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada.

Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada.

Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.

Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.

Father Darren Kawiuk is finding out in real time how the city steamrolls through established neighbourhoods to push the grand schemes of mayors and “urban visionaries.”

A loyal Winnipeg Sun reader suggested that I get in touch with the Saints Peter and Paul Ukrainian Catholic Parish, which operates a beautiful church at 390 Marion St. and a parish event centre just east of it. It offers service in Ukrainian and English and has served residents of St. Boniface for 75 years, but now faces being dismembered limb by limb by city planners.

We’ve watched this for the past two years, and Father Darren’s experience is a carbon copy of the dirty tactics used to bamboozle residents, businesses, and service providers in affected neighbourhoods.

One trick in the modus operandi is to distribute plain Jane postcards that use vague urbanist terms like “active transportation” and “complete streets” to promote Open Houses. (The city communications wing continually challenges the directive set out by the City Auditor in 2012 to use common language and lay out in plain English what major changes are planned.)

When promotional material doesn’t mention “bike lanes” and “reduced parking” and “turning restrictions,” the people who might have objections or questions don’t catch what’s coming. That’s if they get the postcard at all. The church didn’t, but a nearby BIZ member clued in Father Darren.

Father Darren went online and saw the proposed design would plunk a bike lane in front of church facilities. He and the Parish President went to the Open House in March 2023 and “it wasn’t very informative.” They mentioned to a staffer that they had a concern about what was shown to be plunked outside their front doors, and a senior official was hauled over.

Get the latest headlines, breaking news and columns.

By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc.

A........

© Winnipeg Sun