I was dupe for RCMP dirty tricks campaign
Re Linda McQuaig’s Would You Trust A Secret Police Force To This Man? (NOW, March 5-11). I’m the guy Warren Hart criminalized. [Hart was a black FBI agent recruited by the RCMP to spy on black and First Nations groups in Canada in the 1970s.] I’m the one that gave him a truckload of military weapons used to set up native radicals out west. I’m the one who robbed banks and other institutions on the orders of Hart. I’m the one whose gun was used in a robbery shootout that netted me my first adult prison sentence. I was only 17. I’m the former leader of Toronto’s Dirty Tricks Gang. Hart created that gang, and I’m still living with the negative consequences.
Richard Atkinson
From nowtoronto.com
Canada on the road to global isolation
Linda McQuaig’s article recognizes that Stephen Harper has been reorganizing the RCMP into “his own private secret police force,” one that will rule without any oversight. History repeats itself, and the current hullabaloo over terrorists is just another version of the Crusades. Why would we be surprised if the RCMP became the Brownshirts of this century?
All the ingredients are simmering for a new era of isolation of Canada from the rest of the world, using fear and threats as tools for eroding our democratic rights.
Judith Harrower
From nowtoronto.com
Harper has even Conservatives conned
Conservative leader Stephen Harper is anything but conservative.
He appropriated the name to mislead Canadians when he made the deal with Progressive Conservative (sellout) Peter MacKay, a glib character who is currently minister of justice. Harper does not conserve. He dismantles and perverts democracy like none before him, at least in my lifetime, and I’m 70-plus.
Canadians have snoozed with great conviction and allowed Harper to render Canada a warmonger state that defecates on peace. He hates science. He has contempt for First Nations. He’d privatize his mother if it was profitable. Beware, Canucks.
Mendelson Joe
Emsdale
Why minorities aren’t supporting theatre
Kudos to actor Joseph Recinos for writing about the mostly Caucasian hue of Canadian theatre (NOW, March 5-11).
It’s more than lack of minority actors that’s the problem. As Recinos points out, it’s mostly white directors and producers “imposing their limited vision.” Just don’t expect this diverse society to support stories that make minorities invisible.
What about future generations?
If you’re a minority with a dream, don’t bother in Canada. The drama programs are ethnically challenged.
Naseer Ahmad
Etobicoke
Asian Caesar to turn Stratford on its head!
The sentiments expressed by Joseph Recinos about the minority deficit in theatre are germane, but let’s have some perspective here. The theatregoing public for the most part is an economically comfortable segment of society who, as do minority audiences, like to see people looking like them onstage. An Asian Julius Caesar would certainly turn Stratford on its head!
Except for ethnic-themed productions, minority audiences are usually, well, in the minority. Perhaps if that audience segment grew, producers would be compelled to feature more ethnic actors in leading roles.
But while the stage may lack leading roles for minorities, some of the hottest shows on television feature strong minority leads. Perhaps stage has a bit of catching up to do, but it is not all gloomy.
Dan Hamm
From nowtoronto.com
The myth of a Sun News revolution
According to former Sun News staffer Chris Kayaniotes, the most important story Sun News pushed was to its own staff that they were part of some “brash and at times ballsy revolutionary movement” (NOW, March 8). Sun News had a right to exist (and to compete, and to fail), but this kind of mythmaking sounds like the opposite of actual journalism.
Ian MacIntyre
From nowtoronto.com
Landlord tribunals a factor in homelessness
Your recent article by Bernie Farber on homelessness (NOW, February 12-18) barely scratches the surface.
Many low-income people are forced against their will onto the street by adjudicators at the Landlord and Tenant Board. The monstrous, unholy alliance between the board and Toronto Community Housing has caused severe illness in many vulnerable people.
Those who have been made homeless cannot adequately look after themselves. They don’t have a stove to cook meals on. They don’t have their own bathtub to bathe in or bed to sleep in.
It must be remembered that homeless shelters are not housing. These places of refuge are far from pleasant or healthy.
Rick Davies
Toronto
NOW welcomes reader mail. Address letters to: NOW, Letters to the Editor, 189 Church, Toronto, ON M5B 1Y7. Send e-mail to letters@nowtoronto.com and faxes to 416-364-1166. All correspondence must include your name, address and daytime phone number. Letters may be edited for length.
