Montreal: charming
and inspiring

Hi, Montrealers,

I was just visiting your amazing city to see some Fringe shows. I have to tell you how impressed I was with the citizens of Montreal. The people of your city are amazing.

Being from Toronto, I am not used to the feeling of community. Admittedly and shamefully, my French is horrid. Why they let us stop taking it in Ontario by the 9th grade is beyond me - it's our terrible loss. The brilliant people of your city impressed me so much with the way they can switch back and forth from French to English, and nobody I encountered was bothered by my lack of French. Everyone I encountered was friendly, helpful, sympathetic to my lack of language skills and just darn inspiring.

I love your city, and Toronto should be ashamed of itself for all of its self-important, xenophobic, rude, cold, distant personality. Montreal inspired and changed me. Thank you so much for being, in my opinion, Canada's most fantastic city. Merci Montreal!

» Erin Murphy

Montreal: deviant and lazy

This is in response to all you bleeding hearts who keep whining and moaning for illegal immigrants and the like in Montreal [Letters, June 9 & 16]. It seems these days that being white, heterosexual, in a monogamous relationship and keeping the original sexual organs you were born with is no longer acceptable, or "normal."

I am so fed up with having to tolerate junkies, religious fanatics, sexual deviants and minorities who refuse to adapt to our culture. The way this world is going, you have more rights and support being a blood-sucking parasite than a working-class white person.

Now, before you start labelling me racist or a right-wing extremist (though I couldn't care less, anyway), there's another point I'd like to bring up. Do you think for one second, the majority of trash you want to help really gives the least shit about you and your noble efforts? They don't like you and are laughing in your face! They would never offer a helping hand to you. When will you open your eyes and realize this?

Oh sure, they will thank you and cry on your shoulder and tell you their families are suffering, and then they'll use that money and support for their own kind. Look around, there are more immigrants than anything else, and, believe me, they are better off than you and me. They support each other secretly, and then they play the pity hand.

I'm sure I'm ruffling feathers here, and I'm not denying the fact that there are people who are honest and grateful to have come to Canada. That's alright, so long as you bring the proper attitude to adapt to our culture and all that it offers. Don't come here to suck off the government and people's charity, come here with the intent to further your education or to participate in the work force.

How often do you see Canadians imposing their values and customs in foreign countries? It's about respect, and too many people do not know the meaning of the word. How many times can I be called racist or intolerant because I refuse to fight for their right for them to practice their religious rites or to give them money while they panhandle? This is not only directed at immigrants, but also to junkies and all the lazy fuckups who refuse to go to work and prefer to harass you on every street corner demanding change and cigarettes. Screw you - I work six days a week, and I have nothing to show for it but pride and a clear conscience.

I'm bloody tired of having to accept weak, devious, self-pitying parasites who, in the end, do not want to help themselves and simply want a free ride. For example, let's take taxpayers' money to build clinics for junkies so they can continue killing themselves in a clean environment. What a joke. We should give them syringes with cyanide in it and solve the problem once and for all.

Then you've got street gangs shooting at each on crowded street corners or in bars, thinking they are so tough, while forcing young, white girls to sell themselves while they fill our city with crack. Ship them off to Compton or South Central L.A. and we'll see how long they last.

This city is going to hell in a hand basket and I hope to get out of here before it's too late. I am a native Montrealer born of European parents and I love my city. But maybe when Montreal becomes like the projects, all you bleeding hearts will realize that aiding and encouraging cockroaches creates an infestation you can no longer control. It's just too bad, because for the honest few who appreciate the help, the rest of the rotten become stronger.

Good luck, Montreal. Let's just hope we can eventually put a stop to this downward spiral before the damage becomes irreparable.

» H.G.

Corrections:

In our June 16 issue, the title of Claude Tousignant's tryptych, currently on display at Concordia's Leonard and Bina Art Gallery, should have read "Codicille." Also, Dana Michel's the greater the weight will be shown at the Bain St-Michel on June 24–25, but Upstream and Blurred Shutters, the Fringe show from which it is an excerpt, won't.

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