Controversial currency

Regarding "New $50 slammed as racist" [The Front, Sept.2]: not only is Famous 5 judge Emily Murphy a well known racist, she is very high on the list of prohibitionists who made almost any vice illegal because of their strict need to impose their values on others. Even though this meant lying and ignoring any science, it didn't stop them. This is sickening. The very notion that the Famous 5 did more good than harm is absolutely wrong. They encouraged racism and made cannabis illegal because it supposedly made "black men" go crazy and rape white women.

Emily Murphy had an agenda, and getting women any power wasn't on it. It was nothing but an avenue of decency she could tolerate.

» William Bradley, Kitchener, ON

Emily Murphy was a racist puritan crackpot, and we have her to thank for decades of drug-war misery, millions of ruined lives and billions of wasted dollars. If they want to put her face on a piece of paper, it shouldn't be the new $50 bill, it should be on toilet paper.

» Russell Barth, Ottawa, ON

Quebec City
homogeneity myth

Kristian Gravenor is not even remotely original when using expressions like "homogenous Quebec City" ["Quebec City Blues," Kristian Perspective, Aug. 19]. The city he seems to know so much about is probably the touristy Upper Town, which is the social equivalent of Westmount or TMR. Has he ever ventured out of Old Quebec? Does he have any friends at all in Quebec City?

Let me paint Mr. Gravenor another picture. Quebec City is packed with people originating from Northern Africa, Lebanon, Vietnam and Latin America. More visible minorities, such as Haïtians, can be seen in suburbs such as Sainte-Foy. Now, what is the common trait of these immigrants? They're from countries that have some sort of French background, and they're not afraid to speak French on a daily basis (unlike Tamil immigrants who wouldn't get much "Aide à la francisation," since the neo-liberal Charest government axed the program).

Just as it happened with the Greeks and Italians back in the '60s, these people are in the process of being so perfectly integrated to Quebec City's social fabric that Montrealers feel it's all "white." (By the way, what the heck would Gravenor like to see? People wearing ponchos, burqas, turbans, setting up sharia tribunals or eating grilled sardines, forever entrenched in their little ghettos?)

The CHOI FM affair doesn't mean Quebec City is a totally homogenous city where no immigrants ever set foot. It simply means most creative, ambitious and progressive Québécois (including many children of the aforementioned immigrants) are gone. The reason? Budget cuts. I'd like to point out that the Quebec government not only forgot to hire ethnic minorities: it hasn't hired any new blood at all for the last 15 years, which is the reason why a whole generation had to leave Quebec City in order to make a living. (On the other hand, Ottawa and Montreal, among others, have benefited a great deal from careless federal spending.)

While the CHOI FM affair reveals the sorry state of our provincial capital, what's happening in Quebec regions in general is a tragedy: depleted forests, contaminated soils, privatized rivers and, above all, entire generations of young adults gone for good, leaving frustrated ageing losers barking in the distance.

Besides that (and Gravenor's not the only one who ever read Jane Jacobs), I agree Montreal is the true capital of Quebec. But the way he blames it on Quebec City for all that's wrong in the current political system, and the way he repeatedly despises the PQ, BQ or the "separatists" every other week, makes him sound like the stupid Americans who sing "Blame Canada" in South Park. In any case, he should beware: whenever you speak to a francophone Plateau hipster, there is a 49.4 per cent chance that he or she is "not your friend," for he or she was born in one of those "small-minded" regions such as Lac-St-Jean or Quebec City.

As to the NHL Nordiques' name "celebrating the city's white heritage," how stupid is that? Actually, the name Canadiens, back in 1910, had a much more ethnic slant because it meant "Canadiens français," while the "maudits Anglais" played for the Maroons. Moreover, Montreal-born Tony McKegney - the only black hockey player of the '80s [Ed: Actually, you're forgetting Grant Fuhr, who played in the NHL from 1981–2000] played a total of four seasons with the Nordiques. And remember the Stastny brothers, Rendez-Vous '87? Our team actually had a tremendous impact on the NHL's openness to players originating from the wrong side of the Iron Curtain and non-American countries in general.

No doubt today's CHOI FM fascistic supporters are a shame. But their behaviour is hurtful enough, and as an economic exile from La Vieille Capitale, the last thing I need is another rant from an über-politically correct, 514-centric columnist. Mr. Gravenor is just like the radio hosts he denounces, and obviously he doesn't have a clue, so he'd better shut up and let us people from the regions deal with the problem.

» Pierre-Étienne Paradis

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