30 km/h speed limits a good start
Re The Quick, The Safe And The Cyclist, by Mike Layton (NOW, July 2-8).The real-world situation is that demographics are changing and so are the transportation system and our environment. If we want to encourage walking and cycling establish safer, quieter streets and improve air quality and our health, we need to do something about it. Reducing speed limits is part of that strategy.
Dave Ferguson
From nowtoronto.com
So many people honking behind me
Personally, I always adhere to the speed limit, or about 10 km/h slower, except on highways. So if the speed limit were 30 km/h, I would obey it. I’d do that now if it weren’t for so many people honking behind me.
Hereward Pooley
From nowtoronto.com
Vegans are humanitarians, too
I totally loved On The Front Lines With Pig Save (NOW, June 18-24) but want to respond to letter-writer Dan Cowan’s Four-Legged Animals Over Two-Legged (NOW, June 25-July 1).
Nowhere in this article do I see any suggestion that these activists are not humanitarian, nor any suggestion that they value a pig’s life over a human’s.
Being an animal rights activist is by nature also being a humanitarian. Human beings would all benefit from ending animal slaughter and consumption.
As the article mentions, “Greenhouse gases from meat and dairy put more carbon into the atmosphere than all the world’s cars, trains, ships and planes combined.”
I hope Cowan will consider that switching to a vegan diet would be a positive addition to his current humanitarian work!
Kieran Heilbron
Toronto
Paul Newman review a hit job
Norm Wilner’s review of Winning: The Racing Life Of Paul Newman (NOW, June 18-15) is a transparent BS hit job.
How about actually reviewing the movie and leaving his baggage and bias out of it?
Michael White
From nowtoronto.com
Israel denial
It’s increasingly difficult to stomach the commentary of Bernie Farber on racism and Canada’s denial of genocide against its native people (NOW, June 25-July 1).
As an established supporter of Israel, he is a foremost denier of Israel’s practices against the Palestinian people, universally acknowledged except by certain nations for political and economic reasons. The question: is NOW Magazine going soft on Israel?
Lawrence Pushee
Toronto
No dearth of injustices for lefties
That was quite a letter you published from Judith Deutsch (NOW June 4-10), in which she complains about the many other terrible injustices which must be added to the finding of cultural genocide against First Nations. She is outraged by the “UN-sanctioned war against North Korea,” leaving me to wonder how many NOW readers believe South Korea would be better off ruled by the Kim dynasty than it is as a democratic and prosperous nation. And of course, “Israel’s siege against the Palestinian people,” who have been laying siege to Israel since its formation in 1948 and continue to do so, with, of course, the full support of Noam Chomsky. If we’re not careful, Israel may wipe out ISIS as well. Look out.
David Palter
Etobicoke
A little honesty on racist carding
I liked the personal carding piece by Neil Price (NOW, June 18-24). I also respect former city councillor Gordon Cressy, whom Price rightly praises for his public commitment to end carding. Price’s article is an honest acknowledgement that it is African-Canadians, particularly young, courageous black men and women, who should take credit for speaking out and standing up to the police for being stopped or arrested for “driving while black” or just walking along the street. “Carding” is really a corporate media euphemism for racist policing.
Don Weitz
Toronto
Eldon Comfort, 1912-2015
Many years ago I attended my first Ten Days For World Development (now KAIROS) meeting in a church in Brampton. There, I met Eldon Comfort (NOW, July 2-8), who was a member of the Acton-Brampton Ten Days committee.
Curious about Ten Days, I asked Eldon how long he had been involved with the organization. He paused. “Oh five, 10, no maybe… all my life.”
This simple answer told me so much about his lifelong commitment to social justice, equality, care of our world and its inhabitants, and peace.
I would continue to meet Eldon at peace rallies, protest marches and church workshops dealing with justice issues. I remember the Friday overnight bus to the G8 meeting in Quebec City in the 90s, where we marched, protested and were tear-gassed. And the Saturday night that followed, when we were given the floor to sleep on at Laval University.
On the long bus ride home on Sunday afternoon, we were regaled by Eldon reading his pertinent and amusing limericks about the whole experience.
Judith Jones
Toronto
