Maher Arar’s a case of bad luck
The sidebar to Matthew Behrens’s Torture Blowback (NOW, August 28-September 3) states that Maher Arar “was detained and tortured in Syria based on inflammatory allegations by the RCMP.”
At the O’Connor Inquiry, RCMP officials involved in the case testified they told the U.S. that they didn’t know either way whether Arar had terrorist affiliations.
This was good enough for the paranoid post-9/11 Americans, who sent Arar back to where his flight originated, in Lebanon. More bad luck returned him to Syria.
But that bad luck really began when he landed in New York City on a stopover, rather than Montreal, where he should have arrived, quietly, safely and un-harassed.
Ian Scott
Toronto
Dunlap activists can’t see forest for the trees
The aerial photo that illustrates John Bacher’s Forest Fight Above Toronto (NOW, August 28-September 3) is misleading.
Of the 71 hectares of the main David Dunlap Observatory property, more than half has been protected.
This outcome is the result of an OMB mediation between the developers as owners of the property and the Town of Richmond Hill, York Region, the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority and the DDO Defenders.
The Richmond Hill Naturalists chose not to participate. Their refusal to acknowledge these positive gains brings into question their credibility.
Wilhelm Bleek
Richmond Hill
Billboard ban loved in São Paulo
Thank you for Dave Meslin’s Outdoor Advertising: The New Invasive Species (NOW, August 28-September 3). São Paulo, Brazil, banned all billboards in 2007 and loves the result. Check the video at banbillboardblight.org.
Diane Beckett
From nowtoronto.com
St. Royals sound more than “jumbled blur”
What a bummer to read Julia LeConte’s review of the St. Royals show at the Mod Club (NOW, August 28-September 3)!
Not her recounting of the night’s layout, which was accurate, or her commendations of the band, which were apt and well-deserved but her dismissal of the prototype Adamson E12 sound system as a “jumbled blur.”
From my perspective onstage as monitor engineer, summing 31 separate mic and line channels together is, LeConte would surely agree, an immense task – especially with that many live horns and arrangements with such dynamics.
There is more to the sound system than just speakers.
Eric Stecki
Toronto
LCBO a real piss off
Re Familiar Whine (NOW, August 28-September 3). The LCBO’s monopoly on the retail beverage sector in this province is one the few topics that really pisses me off. No, we’re not well served. We’re very badly served by the LCBO monopoly. Time to end it.
William Mougayar
From nowtoronto.com
Why Israel keeps firing
Since letter-writer G.R. Sherwin wants us to imagine why Hamas keeps firing rockets (NOW, August 28-September 3), I would like NOW’s readers to imagine why Israel has closed the border to a population that has stated and demonstrated its determination to destroy Israel.
Yes, life is difficult in Gaza. Violence is not going to make it better. On the contrary, violence has brought us to this impasse. The more rockets Hamas fires, the less Israel will be willing to trust the people of Gaza.
David Palter
Toronto
No extras for extras on Sandler set
I just walked off the set of Pixels, the new film Adam Sandler’s producing and acting in.
What parking was available for extras cost anywhere from $30 to $50, while extras earned $11.47 an hour.
The fare offered for breakfast included freeze-dried coffee, powdered milk and a really crappy egg sandwich.
It used to be on movie sets the extras ate the same food as the main actors. I’m not sure exactly what happened, but I guess everybody in the film business has turned into assholes.
Lloyd Hart
Toronto
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