Emancipation Month oddity
Although it is good that Toronto will raise the Black Liberation Flag during Emancipation Month (NOW, August 8-14), it is strange that it should do so “in the spirit and honour of Marcus Garvey” as stated on the city’s website.
Garvey designed the flag and it was adopted by his organization in 1920, but it has since come to have a much broader usage. Although Garvey was an important advocate of Black pride and the development of Black-owned and -managed businesses, he also believed that many Black people should return to Africa.
His meeting with the leader of the Ku Klux Klan in June 1922 was criticized by many African-American leaders and others.
Hopefully, in future years the city will honour someone, perhaps a Black Canadian citizen or resident, who supported a much more diverse and inclusive society than what Garvey advocated in that era.
Bruce Couchman, Ottawa
Disparaging police
The authors of Slavery Stain claim that “a billion-plus-dollar police budget targets Black poor people.” Actually, police stopped targeting Black people when carding was banned at the insistence of Black Lives Matter and other activists.
I’m sure if the authors of Slavery Stain had interviewed people living in communities plagued by shootings, they would have heard pleas for a greater police presence and implementation of measures necessary to get guns out of their communities. Carding is one such tool.
Emancipation Month should not be used as an opportunity to disparage the police who, led by a Black chief, are doing their best to keep us all safe.
Edward Zile, From nowtoronto.com
Meat essential for my immune deficiency
I have no problem with vegetarians or vegans (NOW Online, August 11), but I’m allergic to a lot of vegetables and I have a very restricted diet that actually requires protein that I can’t get from other foods because I can’t digest them. I practically survive on meat because it’s one of the only things my body can tolerate. I’m barely eating as it is because of my immune deficiency.
Jeremy Crabtree, From nowtoronto.com
Shit-talking Drake
Regarding your review of OVO Fest 2019 (NOW Online, August 6). You devoted most of your review to shit-talk Drake, a talented artist who, yes, has his failures.
You also only dedicated a couple of sentences to put the other stars in a favourable light. Can totally see you had an agenda with this article. Keep doing your thing to spread positivity.
Ahsan Rashid, From nowtoronto.com
Legalization is commercialization
Regarding Unlicensed Cannabis Dispensary CAFE Staying Alive (NOW Online, August 8).
What we have in Canada is not cannabis legalization, it’s commercialization, with the marginalized and downtrodden still persecuted by the authorities for daring to have a flower with intent to smoke.
Carl Shulgin, From nowtoronto.com
Outrageous Alberta opinions
Having picked up and read a copy of NOW Magazine on a recent one-day visit to Toronto, I must comment on Alberta’s Petro-state by Tristan Hughes (NOW, August 1-7).
The author blows his own credibility with the use of such provocative and inflammatory language as “tar sands” and “police state” to describe the situation in Alberta when both are patently false.
By what empirical evidence does Hughes claim the fossil fuel industry has an undemocratic mandate or Alberta has a democratic deficit?
Hughes is certainly entitled to his outrageous opinions, which I point out would hardly be tolerated in a police state.
Such hyperbole does nothing to convince any opposition to switch to their way of thinking.
Mike Alain, Ottawa
More questions about gun violence
Yet another terrible mass shooting in the United States has claimed the lives of 30 people.
Unfortunately, the tragedy has prompted the usual responses. Actually, it’s quite easy to sketch the typical response after these all-too- common shootings.
While we are by no means similar to America and their gun violence epidemic, it is important to ask broader questions about Canadian culture. We have certainly seen a rise in gun violence here as well.
David Delle Fave, Toronto
