Is there no future for Attawapiskat?
Re Attawapiskat Or Bust, by Drew Hayden Taylor (NOW, April 28-May 4).
I live in a community that doesn’t flood regularly, has pure water at the turn of a tap, where medical care is nearby, good schools are within walking distance, public and private transit is readily available and, most importantly, the economy is viable. Attawapiskat has none of these. That’s why I won’t move and that’s why the residents of Attawapiskat should.
I am not advocating “to uproot at a moment’s notice” as Taylor puts it, but a slow, gradual transition to established northern communities like Thunder Bay, Sault Ste. Marie, Sudbury and North Bay, where they will have access to 21st-century amenities and can restore some hope.
Barry Schneider, Toronto
Move to big city won’t help First Nations
The people who think that Indigenous communities like Attawapiskat should just pick up and move should take a look at the damage done to Africville, Nova Scotia, back in the 1960s.
The suicide epidemic sweeping through our northern communities arises from a sense of abandonment and isolation. This feeling will not [be ended] by moving small communities of a few hundred or a thousand people to big cities where they will feel even more isolated.
Why not train youth in these communities to upgrade their own housing stock by using locally available materials? They could travel to other communities to apply their skills.
Raymond Li, Toronto
Canada just getting over our own Trump
Giving Up On America Before Trump, by Martha Porado (NOW, May 1) is a wonderful personal account of why a family would uproot and move in search of more kindness and safety. There were times during the Harper years when I doubted whether Canada was doing much better than the U.S. Canada isn’t perfect, but at least we are still trying, in our own quiet and bumbling way.
Jan Venus, From nowtoronto.com
Cop union running the show in T.O.
Re John Tory Fails Black Lives Matter Test (NOW, April 28-May 4). Neil Price’s two-part article was excellent. Nice to read a well-written article, not often available in mainstream newspapers. It clarified that I was not imagining Chief Mark Saunders’s absence in responding to BLM-TO. Does he really want police union president Mike McCormack to run the show?
Betty Ann McKenzie, Toronto
Brent Hawkes’s case reconsidered
What makes the Brent Hawkes case difficult (NOW, April 21-27) is that he may well have had consensual sex that was illegal under a law that would now be considered discriminatory. But the reality is that rarely, if ever, are the motives of males who make complaints to the police questioned.
John Kneeland, Hamilton
Film times are back
Very disappointed to see NOW drop the movie listings page. I had hoped it was just an error of some kind but see the page is missing again. Why? I am a film buff. It is extremely helpful to have movie times that I can carry with me in the subway or on the bus to refer to quickly. Yes, I see that you have them on your website, but I don’t want to have to look on my phone on a tiny screen and go blind trying to find movie times. I can do that on other websites. Please consider restoring that page in the print edition.
Steve M., Toronto
(Editor’s note: movie times are back this week in their regular spot).
Crusty over pizza
Where did you find your food critic? Has she ever had real pizza before? How much did she get paid to produce Best Pizza In Toronto? (NOW, April 21-27). Are you related to Maker Pizza? Tell your writer to educate herself before she misleads people on proper pizza. She must be from Windsor, where people think they know pizza.
Mirco Slava, Toronto
Play me like a violin
As someone who has come to music in middle age, I take exception – not out of any misplaced ambition or a desire to stay out of bars (perish the thought) – to Mark Marczyk’s wholly unnecessary condescension about the two would-be violinists he imagines in Eulogy For My Violin. (NOW, April 28-May 4). It ruins an otherwise moving story. Fortunately, the Toronto musicians I’ve met so far don’t share Marczyk’s disdain for beginners, whatever their motivation.
David Chilton, Toronto
Last thought on pot
Kudos on your feature about the medical marijuana industry (NOW, April 14-20). I didn’t know that medical marijuana was big business until I read Barbara Shaw’s piece.
As a former magazine type, I still tend to copy edit as I read. Call it an occupational hazard. I looked up your reference to “bud for the Beemer set” (referring to BMWs). I always thought it was Bimmer. It seems you can go either way, and I’m sure your copy editors debated this, but I thought I’d share this from a Bimmer club in Boston. They say Bimmer refers to BMW cars, and Beemer/Beamer is for BMW bikes. Just some food for thought.
Luba Krekhovetsky, Toronto
