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Letters To The Editor News

Letters to the Editor

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Bob’s one big booboo

It’s sad to see someone as passionate and committed to changing the world as Bob Hunter pass on with so much still left to do (NOW, May 5-11).

Bob was a beacon of light for environmentalists and all activists, and he will be missed. I hope his inspiring life’s work will ignite a fire of dreams in many of us budding young activists!

But he tarnished his own star and I lost a little respect for him when he decided to run for the Liberals in a by-election. The Liberals have horrible environmental policies and are known for sticking up for polluters, not the environment!

Only Hunter knows why he didn’t run for the Greens or even try to get the NDP nomination. It showed opportunism – a lack of good judgment, at best – and that is inexcusable and mind-blowing. We’ve all made regrettable mistakes. That was his.

Adam Disotell

Toronto

Fido flip-out

Hurrah!! I hate Fido, too! (NOW, May 5-11). They convinced me to buy a phone over the telephone instead of in-store, and I found out later I was charged more. The phone and the service suck beyond measure. When I called to complain, I was told very firmly that customers are not allowed to speak to floor managers at the call centre. I cancelled three times and still received bills, and now they want the $200 cancellation fee for a phone that was never used .

Jessica Humphreys

Toronto

Cheated by Cheadle

I want to raise some thoughts about two issues that came up in the interview with Don Cheadle (NOW, May 5-11). First, there is no such thing as race. When we say “race,” we are actually talking about population groups. With this in mind, perhaps the best way to deal with racism is to start eliminating the whole concept of race. We would have to start changing the language we use in order to change our conceptual view of people and how we categorize ourselves.

This also ties into what Cheadle said about political correctness, that “the whole PC ideology is fake, a watering down of what we’re feeling and thinking.” I disagree.

How we describe our feelings and thoughts, and those feelings and thoughts themselves, are shaped by the particularities of our language, culture and social values. We do not necessarily want to censor ourselves, but nor do we want to tolerate hatred.

How will our society ever eradicate racism and hatred without rethinking the exclusive terms and concepts within which we think and act?

Dennis Nytra

Toronto

Graffiti retreat

I am shocked and dismayed to hear about the city’s new anti-graffiti crusade (NOW, May 5-11). It sickens me to see the ignorant moralizing and blatant misrepresentation being propagated by some Toronto city councillors and certain members of the police.

Nicholas DeGroot

Toronto

Enroning the El Mo

Re Everybody hz (NOW, April 28-May 4). It is Sarah Liss’s prerogative and responsibility as a journalist to present both sides of an issue, but she has been reckless with the reputations of the El Mocambo.

I explained to her that the mass deletions on 20hz were the work of the former owner. Research based on IP tracking and server use prove that. We worked through the entire night of the attacks to proof our server and software, repair damage and prevent further unauthorized access to the site. The only content that my staff and I deleted was the hateful barrage of obscenity.

Whatever her private prejudices might be, Liss failed to meet the minimal standard of presenting my point of view. Instead she chose to support the portrayal of the El Mocambo as the Enron of the indie scene.

Her gratuitous mockery and misrepresentation of my personal beliefs was an additional attempt to impress her coterie of cynical and self-aggrandizing wannabes and neverwillbes, whose bottom-feeder instinct is to trash anything they don’t understand.

Mother Teresa may not satisfy everyone as a role model, but surely to God she is a cut above the guttersnipes whose asses Liss so ardently wishes to kiss.

Abbas Jahangiri

Toronto

One pretentious loser

I have to thank you for featuring Miguel Jacob in My Style (NOW, May 5-11). You see, my friends and I love to make fun of pretentious losers who think great fashion and personal style are directly proportional to price tags.

This guy should get together with Brian Gluckstein. I’m sure they could create a line of something ridiculous and ugly for the Bay.

Good lord, he even looks loud and mismatched in black-and-white!

Lindsay Forde

Toronto

Clearing the air on Israel

Letter writer Blair Kuntz’s charge that the Canada-Israel Committee “has no hesitation defending the crimes and torture against Palestinians” (NOW, May 5-11) is a complete fabrication. The remainder of his letter is a gross distortion of what the CIC represents.

To be clear: the CIC supports genuine reconciliation between Israelis and Palestinians in a two-state formula as envisioned by the internationally accepted road map peace plan.

Paul Michaels

Director of Communications, Canada-Israel Committee

California screamin’

Thanks for mentioning a personal favourite, California Sandwiches, in your guide to T.O.’s Top 25 Meal Deals (NOW, April 28-May 4). But you failed to mention that its list of sandwiches includes a fabulous eggplant Parmesan with powerful addictive qualities.

Two big complaints about the place, though: One is its refusal to lift a finger for recycling. An appeal to the owner was met with indifference. “What can I do?” he said. Has the guy never heard of those trash-can lids with a small hole in the centre for bottles and cans? The other is the refusal to lift a finger for cleanliness. No matter how slow the place is, I’ve never seen the staff wipe down the tables. It’s disgusting to sit at tables full of crumbs and spills from other customers.

David Frisch

Toronto

Kyoto swarming

Imagine my surprise to find that NOW had placed my article on the Kyoto plan opposite my friend David Suzuki’s, with a headline about “discord” over Kyoto (NOW, April 28-May 4). In fact, our two articles track very closely. I could not write what was good without lamenting the failure to force the biggest polluters to make their fair share of reductions. David could not write what was bad without mentioning that now we had a plan we should get on with implementing.

You are inventing discord when your only evidence is nuance. This does a serious disservice to your readers, especially those who may only have had time to skim your misleading headline. And it hurts public understanding of a complex issue.

Elizabeth May

Executive Director

Sierra Club of Canada

Native rant

If Drew Hayden Taylor wants his eyes to be brown (NOW, April 21-27), he should invest in some coloured contact lenses. Perhaps he is afraid he might have some of that colonial blood flowing in his own veins? Actually, the lack of reader response to his blatant hatred is surprising.

Maryanne Peters

Toronto

Anti-Catholic claptrap

It’s a good thing that Andrew Cash didn’t enter law enforcement as a career. His inane inability to deduce is beyond logical! Obviously, this person has an axe to grind against the Roman Catholic Church (NOW, May 5-11), using big tobacco as an example to show how “desperate” the Roman Catholic Church is to attract new members. Just to let you know, the Church is still alive and vibrant. Maybe attendance levels have fallen since the 50s and 60s, but churches haven’t had to close. The Church will persevere. The truth is, garbage such as this article should come with a warning label!

Paul Macdonald

Etobicoke

Fat slag a little thin

Speaking of not trusting main stream media, I guess the same goes for alternative media. The article Adbusters Fat Chance (NOW, April 14-20) asks, “Why are networks reluctant to show ads that tell you what McDonald’s already has – that its burgers are 52 per cent fat?”

The piece later clarifies that “52 per cent of the calories in the burger come from fat.”

There is a difference, and I’ll just hope it’s an unintentional oversight rather than a deliberate misrepresentation. Since fat contains twice as many calories as protein or carbohydrates, it’s really not that shocking.

David Mason

Islington

Jazz blackout

According to Bernard Webber, the staff at Jazz.FM all know of the “contribution of black artists and composers to the origins, development, continuance and relevance of jazz music” (NOW, April 28-May 4). Isn’t that akin to talking about the “contribution” of Jesus Christ to the “origins, development, continuance and relevance of Christianity?”

M. NourbeSe Philip

Toronto

Spare us the starlets

So what’s with the snarky pop cult gossip in the Tip Sheet? Coldplay listed as “Mr. Paltrow and co.,” Black Crowes referred to as “Kate Hudson’s plus one.”

What exactly do the starlet wives of these musicians have to do with performance listings, except to lower you to People/Us/Enquirer patronizing? Or is that what you call “alternative” journalism?

J. Cowan

Toronto

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