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Letters To The Editor News

Letters to the Editor

Rating: NNNNN


Fabulous Fabrizio

What a treat to find Fabrizio Filippo on your cover and to have the chance to read of his many successes (NOW, September 18-24). Working in craft service (feeding and hydrating casts and crews), it’s not uncommon to find oneself dealing with the petulant, the spoiled and the demanding, but never could that be said of our dear Fab. He’s a breed apart generous, thoughtful and, quite simply, a very nice man.

“Nice” may not be great fodder for the dangerous image, but it’s the truth nonetheless. How fabulous that his star is rising.

Christi Carmichael, Toronto

Fab worth watching

Luckily, my friends and I stuck out a rather horrific season two of Queer As Folk to be rewarded with the beauty and talent of Fabrizio Filippo. After he departed this season, I quickly wrote the network to say there was no good reason for me to keep paying the pricey fee for their channel since the only thing worth watching was now gone.

He was brilliant in Hollywood North.

I’m positive he’ll take your breath away in This Is Our Youth. That is why I am making the trek back to Toronto to see the play.

Cecile Beattie, Novi, Michigan

Buying into Liberal spin?

your liberal bias these past two weeks is surprising. Why are you buying into the self-serving Liberal spin like the rest of the media?

Alex Lisman, Toronto

Your vote doesn’t count

your article questioning the Elections Ontario ad campaign (NOW, September 18-24) missed another disturbing issue. The ads proclaim that “When you don’t vote, you let others speak for you.” It’s a nice propaganda slogan for a fundamentally bad and undemocratic system. The sad irony is that even when citizens use our current voting system, most will find their votes don’t count and their voices aren’t heard.

In Ontario, the last time we had a “majority” government actually elected by a majority of voters was 1929. Most nations switched long ago to various forms of proportional representation. Yes, voting is important, but it’s not very democratic under the current system.

Larry Gordon, Executive Director, Fair Vote Canada, Toronto

Out with the old

the assholes at elections ontario must think that no one over 30 reads NOW. Their full-page ad is not fooling anyone as to its message: don’t let old people speak for you. They must perceive seniors as a bunch of idiots.

Bill Strachan, Toronto

Knocking the NDP

For years, the new democratic party has been criticized as too stuffy and serious. Now that they’re employing props to make their points, they’re seen by critics as “desperate!” I call the capers effective visual illustrations. Who will forget that Ernie Eves’s senior assistance policies benefit the rich the most when Hampton shows us Peter Munk’s mansion in Forest Hill?

Who will forget that rates offered by public insurance companies in BC and Manitoba are less than half of Ontario’s private companies’ when Hampton offers McGuinty and Eves free air tickets to Vancouver? The critics, of course.

Tom Trottier, Ottawa

Two faces of Eves

I am so very confused! i’ve heard that if he’s re-elected, Premier Ernie Eves has promised to ban teacher strikes. Is this the same Ernie Eves who during his 2002 PC leadership campaign was quoted as being opposed to banning teacher strikes? It can’t be.

It has to be that other Ernie Eves, the one who did nothing as his party cut $525 million in 1996 from grants for elementary and secondary education, including a 50 per cent cut to funding for junior kindergarten.

Sam Hammond, Hamilton

Tree advocate’s weird leaf

According to the city’s tree advocate, Councillor Joe Pantalone, Toronto city council can’t find $490,000 to water the city’s ailing trees because there is “no money for daycare, for transit, for the homeless,” implying that these are his real priorities (NOW, September 18-24). Why, then, is Pantalone’s chief mandate Toronto’s newest and most expensive project, the $245-million Front Street Extension? How many more daycare spaces could be provided with this money?

What about the environmental assessment that found air pollution and traffic congestion would increase as a result of connecting Front to the Gardiner? No problem. Pantalone will plant a couple of trees on it.

Jeff Brown, Candidate for council, Ward 19, Toronto

Feeding the faith

I’m perplexed by the tortured logic of Rene Biberstein’s cynical swipe at the Jewish community’s concern about aggressive conversionary campaigns of Jews for Jesus (NOW, September 18-24). He’s shocked that we don’t take solace in the growing number of Jews finding a spiritual home within Judaism.

Would he say that in the midst of a city with a vaunted gourmet restaurant culture, efforts to feed those who go hungry are unwarranted?

Rabbi Michael Skobac, Jews for Judaism, Toronto

Sounding like a nutbar

As a regular now reader, I was excited to see my comments in Village Hysterics (NOW, September 11-17), until I read what was attributed to me. Jeez, guys, you misquoted me so badly, I sound like some heartless right-wing nutbar.

What I said was that my neighbour Sana who owns Pita Pan (not Peter Pan) was beaten up by a panhandler in her store because she (not “he”) would not give the panhandler a handout. All of us the community were shocked.

She weighs about 90 pounds.

What I asked the people attending the meeting to do was give money to the chronically underfunded neighbourhood charities rather than giving money directly to people on the street.

I believe that this is the only concrete way we can help homeless people get the food, shelter, clothing, etc that they so desperately need.

Claire Ihasz, Ladybug Florist, Toronto

Underworld overrated

Oh, my. I can only assume that John Harkness is smitten with Kate Beckinsale (which is surely nothing to be ashamed of) to give that piece of crap Underworld a 3-N rating (NOW, September 18-24). I watched this film with a few hundred people who were laughing out loud at the exceptionally bad acting and even worse script.

Perhaps she’s simply taking the idea that she’s a member of the undead to its logical extreme by delivering a lifeless performance.

Scott Bohaker, Toronto

Answering 9/11

re matthew michaels’s letter, Film Flam on the showing of Aftermath: Unanswered Questions From 9/11, at the Bloor (NOW, September 18-24). I’m sorry to hear you were disappointed by the presentation.

What you consider a conspiracy theory expanded into an exploration of the many, many other unanswered questions surrounding 9/11, such as the crossing of paths of the CIA and FBI as they surveilled the hijackers, the mysteriously perfect collapse of untouched WTC building 7 hours after the other towers, and the long list of parallels the current U.S. administration shares with the Third Reich.

I am truly sorry you missed all these incredible discussions.

We are having another event soon. If you are able to make it, please contact me and I will set you up with complimentary tickets.

Chris Dwyer, Organizer of 9/11 screening Toronto

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