Mirror accused
of nastiness

The Mirror is the most disgusting paper I have ever read. All I saw in your latest issue [Oct. 21] was sex, sex and then some blood in your weekly comic. I'm an aspiring journalist studying at Concordia and I think that your paper should be banned from the general public.

If you want to publish eight pages of ads about escorts, including explicit photos, charge your 18+ audience to pick it up at a local dépanneur. One particular ad incites girls to sign up to an escort service. How convenient for it to be located at Vendôme metro with the all-girls high school Villa-Maria right next door.

I'm willing to go all the way in finding out how you get away with the photos you publish in your paper. There is obviously a lot of work to be done with what has to do with the media projecting messages of sex and blood for money.

Thank you for opening my eyes to the nastiness you cause.

» Stephanie Bento

Not all old people dull

I read Kristian Gravenor's column "The invisible aged" [Kristian Perspective, Oct. 21] with some misgivings. I certainly agree that a culture and society needs youth and new blood. If Quebec did not receive immigrants each year, it would soon be very old indeed. I have lived in Italy where the demographic crisis is yet more acute, as some of the more Neanderthal Italian politicians fail to recognize that they need to accept that their country needs people from Africa, Asia and elsewhere.

But I found Gravenor's description of older folks rather stereotyped. Odd, since he recently wrote a column on painter Armand Vaillancourt, which also mentioned poet and chansonnier Leonard Cohen. Both of these non-dull fellows qualify for CPP. One could also think of the Buena Vista Social Club fellas, grooving until death, many old bluesmen and blueswomen, trade unionists and social activists such as Lea Roback, Madeleine Parent, Michel Chartrand and the list goes on.

Most of the young people I encounter on the bus and whom I pass by queuing to get into clubs on St-Laurent are not particularly creative and exciting either. When I went back to university as an adult student, (though far from "old"), I was shocked by the conformism and lack of social consciousness of young people. This was back in the 1980s; a new wave of activism has galvanized not only many young people but also middle-aged folks such as myself.

One can never predict what state of health one will be in when older, but I sure as hell won't be enticed into bingo halls and line dancing. I doubt I can actually retire either, but that's another question, one facing many artists and creative people, especially women.

» Maria Gatti, Villeray

Anglos belong

In his "Anglos spoiled" letter [Oct. 21], Simon Leclerc talks about the "typical anglo lack of curiosity towards other cultures." This view seems ignorant and historically dated. The anglo community here in Montreal is made up of dozens of different ethnic communities, and the anglophones I know and have grown up with have embraced and are knowledgeable about other cultures.

I also have to take issue with Mr. Leclerc referring to Quebec as any anglophone's society of adoption. Some anglos have roots here dating back 250 years. He also appears to overlook the fact that the natives were well established here long before Jacques Cartier arrived in 1535, so if this is a society of adoption for anglos, then it must also be so for francophones as well.

While Mr. Leclerc is right in saying that a francophone must conform when elsewhere in Canada, it is hardly appropriate to compare the situation in Toronto to that of Montreal. I wonder if Mr. Leclerc is aware that Montreal was majority anglophone for a period of time. While I agree that Quebec should be as French as Ontario is English, it can't be ignored that Montreal is very distinct from the rest of Quebec. Thus, while Mr. Leclerc argues that anglos are spoiled, he comes across as the same. He derides the rest of Canada for not creating an environment conducive to the promotion of French, but at the same time seems to imply that anglos should be in a similar situation in Quebec (sounds a bit like sour grapes to me). The English-speaking community here no longer poses the threat that it once did to the French language and culture. Even if it did, the main threat obviously comes from the U.S. and the rest of Canada. It should then be asked what bothers individuals such as Mr. Leclerc about the Quebec anglophone community (especially bearing in mind that great inroads have been made regarding bilingualism).

While it is definitely enriching for all anglophones to learn French and adopt aspects of québécois culture, I believe that anglophones do have a place here. If both sides could live together and not try and force their desires on the other side, then I think everyone would better appreciate and get along with each other.

» Russell Wyse

Correction:

In our Oct. 21 article on Festival SPASM, filmmaker Elie Zananiri was incorrectly referred to as "she." His true gender can be verified at the screening of his Lego stop-motion epic, Prisoner John 3: Back and Pissed, tonight, Oct. 28, 6 p.m., at Club Soda.

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