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Letters To The Editor News

Reader Love and Hate: Harbord Village just as funky further west

Harbord Village just as funky further west

It’s unfortunate that your otherwise welcome neighbourhood spotlight on the growing bike-friendly culture of Harbord Village (NOW, August 25-31) stopped short of its western end. 

You missed two friendly neighbourhood restaurants near Ossington, Terrazza and the Roxton, which both feature funky, custom-made bike racks in addition to their attractive patios and good food.

Carole Gerson, Vancouver resident and frequent visitor to Toronto

Evangelicals take anti-gay battle abroad

Re Homophobia Goes Global, by Michael Coren (NOW, August 25-31). It’s ironic that African governments – responding to Western evangelical fundamentalists – are criminalizing homosexuality as a vestige of Western colonialism. Isn’t Christianity itself a colonial construct in Africa?

Evangelicals have lost the battle for the West. Now they are buying their way into Africa, the Middle East and the Caribbean. 

Stephen Bloom, Toronto

Israel only safe place for gays in Middle East

Now that NOW Magazine has highlighted state-sponsored homophobia and listed the countries where being LGBTQ is punishable by death or 14-years-to-life imprisonment, perhaps you should send it on to the organizers of Pride. 

Maybe their supporters will think harder about condemning Israel, the only place in the Middle East where the LGBTQ community is safe.

Judith Gorman, Toronto

“War on terror” is a propaganda tool 

Re Terror Rewind, by Scott Taylor (NOW August 25-31). “Terror” rhetoric has become the propaganda tool of the 21st century, replacing the “commie” of the Cold War. “Terror” is a more dangerous term than “commie” because it remains largely unquestioned as a propaganda tool. 

The reality is that it is impossible for ISIS to invade the United States, and the odds of being killed in a “terrorist attack” are low. The masses are controlled by their emotions, not logic. That’s really something to be afraid of. 

Mark Leith, Toronto

Sixties Scoop scars run deep 

Re Canada’s Child Soldiers, by Drew Hayden Taylor (NOW, August 25-31). All I can say to Sixties Scoop survivors is be strong and stubborn while you fight the good fight. My grandmother was sent to Indian boarding school in the U.S., and it twisted her mind permanently. 

She struggled to survive the years of abuse and neglect. It affected her children and her grand-children. But we are a lucky family in that she was so incredibly strong that she could control her torment enough to make a better life for us. What the Sixties Scoop children suffered is not so very different. 

Shelley Smith, From nowtoronto.com

Relics of the Gardiner turned into urban art

Re Hidden Toronto (NOW, August 18-24). The supports left from the tearing down of part of the Gardiner a couple of decades ago have been transformed into an interesting bit of urban art along Lake Shore East. I’ll nominate them for inclusion on your list of interesting public spaces.

Ross Henderson, From nowtoronto.com

Nothing “elitist” about cover criticism 

The fatuous response from letter-writer Chris Michael Burns to NOW’s Vegetarian Issue (NOW, August 18-24) makes the discriminatory claim that because the young white woman on the cover did not represent every shape, size and colour of humanity, it was “elitist.” Nothing elitist about using three names, though.

David Townson, Toronto

Don’t be a helmet head on helmet laws

Thanks for your persistence in helping to build and nurture a genuine bike culture. While riding his bike, my friend Bernard is “doored.” It happens so fast! (Always does.) He crashes against the unyielding pavement. Unconscious. Hospital. Months of physiotherapy. Now Bernard is healed. Guess what cracked open during the accident: head or helmet?

Leonard Desroches, Toronto

Help ODSP recipients stay connected

Ontario Works/ODSP recipients are in desperate need of internet access. Yes, you can go to your local government office or your library, but that isn’t always so easy. Transit costs are out of reach for some. 

If refurbished laptops were available to people on social services, they could go anywhere close by to access the internet via WiFi. A program like this would speed up the process of helping individuals be more productive. 

Bob Murphy, Toronto

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