Ode to Robin Williams was misplaced
Norman Wilner’s salute to Robin Williams (NOW, August 14-20) was top-notch. But realizing how Robin Williams fought hard against the demons of substance abuse, I can’t say the same for the placement of an ad for a marijuana dispensary right beside his picture at the bottom of the article. Pretty dumb.
Thomas Silver
Toronto
How Marc Emery changed the world
Re Marc Emery, The Prince of Pot, To Return To Canada Today (NOW, August 12). Emery helped change the world. Alaska, Oregon and the District of Columbia (Washington, DC) all have legalized cannabis on the ballot this November. Recreational use is already legal in two U.S. states and legal for medicinal purposes in two dozen more. Vancouver has more than 30 legal cannabis dispensaries. Thanks, Marc!
J.D. Bourgeois
From nowtoronto.com
Canada’s carbon legacy to the planet
Re Line 9 Protests Heat Up (NOW, August 14-20).
Canadians are too intelligent and innovative to base our future economy on 19th-century carbon fuels. We have too much compassion and sense of responsibility to leave increased carbon emissions as our legacy to the world.
Melanie Milanich
Toronto
Doug Ford’s sorry apology
Though Bill Blair eventually got a properly worded, lawyer-vetted apology from Doug Ford (NOW, August 14), that is not going to change the fact that Ford firmly believes that Blair is an information-leaker.
Publicly swallowing humble pie doesn’t prevent someone from spitting it out again. In the old days, a duel would have settled the issue. Nowadays, a pointless “apology” is all that can be expected.
Geoff Rytell
Toronto
Civilian should lead police force
Re The 5 Real Reasons Bill Blair Was Canned (NOW, August 7-13). In 2010, Chief Bill Blair was asked on CBC Radio about a video showing G20 protester Adam Nobody being beaten by police. Blair said this video should point investigators to Nobody’s wrongdoing, not to police wrongdoing.
The fact that Blair wasn’t immediately replaced back then speaks volumes about the entrenched injustice in our city’s power structures. We desperately need a civilian chief of police, at the very least.
Boyd Reimer
Toronto
Get off BDS hate fest
Re Putting On The Pressure For Peace, by Jacob Scheier (NOW, August 7-13).
Scheier cites Noam Chomsky, who refers to “Israel’s wars.” News flash: these were not Israel’s wars. These were Arab wars against Israel for the purpose of annihilating the Israeli state.
Chomsky conveniently distorts history and reality to suit his own agenda, and people like Scheier lap it up. The BDS movement is proof of the bad faith and true intention of all who join in this hate fest.
Henia Solomon
Toronto
U.S. fighting war by proxy in Israel
Noam Chomsky argues for weapons sanctions against Israel.
But one thing that was noticed about the Six Day War by the United States was that the Egyptians, Syrians and Jordanians were using Soviet equipment, and the Israelis were using French aircraft and British ground equipment.
Here was a good way to test American equipment in actual combat, and ever since 1967, the U.S. has been doing just that, waging a proxy war with the Soviets. The Vietnam War had wound down by 1973, so the Yom Kippur War was just what the Pentagon needed.
It seems to me it’s not so much the Israel lobby but the Pentagon and the U.S. arms industry pushing U.S. weapons in Israel.
I was in the U.S. Navy in the 70s, and I well remember an Israeli freighter at the naval base in Norfolk, Virginia, with a deck-load of F-4 Phantom jets.
Larry A. Lewis
Toronto
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