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Letters To The Editor News

Letters to the Editor

Email letters@nowtoronto.com


Staying out of Syria is no solution

Steven Staples suggests letting cooler heads prevail in his plea for continued diplomacy in the Syrian crisis (NOW, August 29-September 4). Unfortunately, he is blinded by unrealistic and exhausted hopes.

The truth is, the world has allowed 100,000 Syrians to perish under Bashar Assad’s butchery – yet Staples insists on the “pretty please” approach with Assad’s allies Russia, China and Iran not to arm him with the means to continue the bloodbath?

The Russians and Chinese want to keep their armament industries going. They lost a $4-billion-a-year client in Libya when Gaddafi fell. And the mullahs of Tehran want Syria under their influence.

As much as I’m for what Staples wants out of this conflict, he offers no real-world solutions.

Julian Bynoe

Toronto


SFI complaints not so clear-cut

It’s disappointing that NOW would repeat misinformation from paid attacker ForestEthics in Adria Vasil’s Note To Self: The Paper Guide (NOW, August 22-28).

The poster child for the ForestEthics anti-SFI campaign is a photo of a landslide that was the result of a once-in-500-years record rainfall in Washington State in 2007. Using a photograph of this natural disaster to characterize the SFI program is grossly misleading and illuminates the lengths to which ForestEthics will go.

Like all credible forest certification standards, including the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), the SFI standard allows for responsible clear-cuts only where appropriate and when other requirements are met.

ForestEthics misrepresents the truth, citing 24 examples (over the past two years) of companies disassociating themselves with SFI however, all of them continue to source SFI fibre today. The recent ForestEthics complaint to the Federal Trade Commission is simply a repeat of the same accusation it made in a complaint to the FTC dated September 9, 2009, and the FTC took no enforcement action.

I would encourage anyone interested in learning more about the SFI Program to visit sfiprogram.org/facts for more information on our governance, conservation programs and third-party independent audits to the SFI Standard.

Kathy Abusow

President & CEO

Sustainable Forestry Initiative Inc.

Ottawa


Who’re cops really protecting?

If Toronto were honest about what it is police are doing (NOW, August 22-28), it would replace the motto “To serve and protect.”

I wonder how much bad science plays into the behaviour of police and their violent response to people like Sammy Yatim. Seems every form of protest has been psychologized and labelled by police, and this labelling targets all those who protest and brands them as dangerous.

This is far too reminiscent of the branding that went on in the former Soviet Union.

Deborah Cook

Toronto


Why so offended by Jack memorial?

Regarding Andrew van Velzen’s letter referring to the statue of Jack Layton as “nauseating” (NOW, August 29-September 4).

I’m not sure why he’s so offended by this unless he still believes the silly untruths. However, I’m more interested in knowing if van Velzen feels the same way about Ted Rogers’s statue outside the Rogers Centre. After all, Rogers received his statue for purchasing the dome for a bargain-basement $25 million.

Bill Kitcher

Toronto


Miley Cyrus, seriously

Nice try. Thirty years ago I might have [shared] Julia LeConte’s take on the Miley Cyrus controversy (NOW, August 27). But her post-feminism 101 rings pretty hollow, even these days. It’s ever more obvious that a semi-naked woman represents first and foremost sexual objectification, and rarely equality with, let alone power over, men, whether she’s Miley Cyrus or Wonder Woman.

But what struck me most about Cyrus’s performance was not so much its salaciousness as its embarrassing amateurism.

If she wants to represent anything other than the attractive offspring of a not-so-talented singer, she’d better learn to sing and dance a bit better and choose better songs. The best I can say about the performance is that she looked good, which puts her on the same level as the naked babes in Robin Thicke’s unrated video.

Claire Davey

From nowtoronto.com


NOW people are strange

I’ve been reading NOW since I came to the city, and I like a strong, overtly political alt-weekly voice.

But I’ve become disillusioned that NOW is bending more and more away from debating and discussing issues that are good for the community and spending a lot more time didactically enforcing strange and individual aesthetic rules and norms.

Take Susan G. Cole’s bizarre demand that activists flood Russia and risk prison, beatings and violence just because she feels this would be better than a boycott, or Jacob Scheier’s selfish paean that “I wouldn’t mind construction taking twice as long if bike lanes could remain usable” (NOW, August 15-21).

That’s all great, and I appreciate how much they care, but both are writing their own versions of an idealized, NIMBY-style world. Is that community journalism – opinion writers who write about their particular experience and no other?

Thanks for listening sorry for griping.

Jeremy Mesiano-Crookston

Toronto


Porter myths vs waterfront realities

Regarding the Porter ads in your magazine claiming that it’s a “myth” that “the airport is the major source of noise on the waterfront.”

My friend and I went to H2O Park on August 21 from 4:30 to 6:30 pm, and the noise from landing jets overpowered our conversation, at first intermittently, then continuously closer to 6 pm.

My understanding is that by expanding the airport and adding more jets, CEO Robert Deluce is hoping to increase the profitability of Porter Airlines so he can sell it, like he did the now defunct Canada 3000.

Be forewarned. Deluce does not care about the impact on the waterfront community.

This plan does not take into account the importance of preserving a peaceful waterfront for those of us without cottages, for whom it is a pleasant escape from the traffic, heat and noise of downtown.

Nicole Stoffman

Toronto


World-class mayors don’t arm wrestle

I just returned from Chicago. This is a city that has had some good hands on the tiller. The downtown is stunning, with new architecture that pays homage to the older buildings. The waterfront is all public land, with bike paths everywhere, including under the adjoining freeway.

People stop by the downtown park after work in their thousands, bringing a picnic and a bottle of wine to enjoy an amazing symphonic concert or some jazz provided by the city. Then they get on an advanced public transit system that takes them to one of the many great downtown neighbourhoods where they live.

The people who work on the transit system act as ambassadors for the city, not as folks whose boring day is being interrupted by paying customers. This, my friends, is a world-class city.

As a Haligonian now living in Toronto, I can say it is the only one I have seen recently.

A mayor arm-wrestling Hulk Hogan, and mixed up kids getting gunned down by our protectors ranks us somewhere below Fort MacMoney and slightly above… well, I can’t quite come up with a place right now that I dare insult.

Bruce Chapman

Toronto

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