About last week’s cover art…
I was a little shocked to see the cover art you chose for your latest issue on Decolonizing Cannabis – a bear in a war bonnet made to look like a cannabis leaf (NOW, April 19-25).
I realize that this was commissioned art created by an Indigenous artist, but I had to look that up. All I see when I look at the image on its own is a caricature, one in a long line that treats Indigenous people as animals and uses “war bonnet” as shorthand for “Indian.”
I’m not Indigenous. So this piece isn’t hurting me, personally. But going by the reaction on Twitter, at least, it is hurting Indigenous people.
I don’t think that’s what you were intending. I do appreciate that you hired an Indigenous artist to do the art for a story about Indigenous communities. That was the appropriate thing to do.
But I have to ask, was there something else you might have chosen that wouldn’t have been such a sore point for so many potential readers?
Allison Armstrong, Toronto
If mkwa was going to bring us medicine
Re Decolonizing Cannabis: Can Legalization Set Indigenous Communities Free (NOW, April 19-25).
I can’t deny that cannabis is less harmful than alcohol and might be a good thing for some First Nations to get sorely needed funds to survive within the settler state. But “decolonization” it most certainly is not.
Can you really hope to grow the Onkwehon:we garden with the master’s plants?
If mkwa was going to bring us medicine it wouldn’t be cannabis – and she sure as hell wouldn’t be wearing it in a war bonnet. In that sense, the cover image is quite suitable: white people trying to dupe us into pretending their white nonsense is decolonization.
Jay Caron, From nowtoronto.com
For Doug Ford, bad press is good publicity
The way politics seem to work for populist leaders is that even negative publicity is good publicity. Between the two articles in your recent issue (NOW, April 12-18), the name of the PC leader is mentioned 27 times (not to mention two large photos). The premier’s name appears three times. The name of the NDP and Green party leaders each appear once. You might want to reconsider your approach.
David Zapparoli, Toronto
Jordan Peterson, au contraire
Letter writer Henry Kneis states that “anyone who has listened objectively to [Jordan] Peterson… [would] realize he is not a bigot…” (NOW, April 12-18). Au contraire.
Peterson uses his position of standing in the academic world to belittle the movement of transgender people and others to self-define themselves. This practice of Peterson’s is discriminatory and is identical to those who dismissed people of colour and women when they have used new terms to self-define.
And why some of us would even take notice of Peterson’s actions and his defenders is due to an old adage: an attack against one is an attack against us all.
David Kidd, Toronto
Applause for White Guys Matter take
Re Why I Saw A Show Called White Guys Matter by Tracey Erin Smith (NOW, April 19-25). Right on, Tracey! You are a balm to those of us who strive to embrace both sides of the black-and-white social spectrum. I applaud your efforts.
Geoffrey Baines, Toronto
From Humboldt to Bruce McArthur
So the GoFundMe page for the victims of the Humboldt Broncos crash closed at over $15 million, but why nothing for the victims of Bruce McArthur? (NOW, March 29-April 4). Some of them left behind children and wives and mothers who depended on them. The families of all but two of the victims are overseas and, when the remains are one day released, might like to give a proper farewell to their loved ones. The answer to why there is no similar public sense of grief feels too obvious to say.
P. Solanki, Toronto
