Landlord denies being bad

In its edition of June 24, 2004, the Mirror published an article entitled “Bad landlords,” in which certain residential landlords, including myself, were qualified to be some of the dodgier landlords, as well as landlords who use dishonest techniques to get rid of troublesome tenants.

The purpose of this letter is to denounce and correct the falsehoods that were said about me in the above-mentioned article.

Before the article of June 2004 was published, I was never contacted by the journalist, Mr. Kristian Gravenor. Therefore, I never had a chance to respond to the false allegations that were published about me, namely:

(i) That I strongly encourage the departure of tenants who have enjoyed less-than-high rents;

(ii) That I cut the electricity of tenants who were less than interested to leave;

(iii) That I provide poor heating to my tenants;

(iv) That, now that most of the $400-a-month-tenants are gone and were replaced by others paying higher rents, the electricity and heating problems appear to have disappeared.

All of these so-called facts and insinuations are total falsehoods, and are not and/or cannot be supported by any published evidence.

I find it totally irresponsible for a journalist or a newspaper to write, and for a newspaper to publish, such an article about a person without contacting the person who is the subject of the article to obtain his version.

This kind of journalism can be qualified as being bad journalism. We should be expecting more from journalists and newspapers in our free and democratic society, which values the protection of everyone’s reputation.

The fact of the matter is that I am, and have always been, a good landlord who has always been respectful of the rights of my tenants. I have never used any dishonest tricks or techniques in order to discourage the departure of my tenants. I am a well-respected businessman, and I am always acting honestly and in a respectful manner with all of my tenants.

In today’s highly mediatized world, it has become very easy to attack a person’s reputation with falsehoods, and what the Montreal Mirror did towards me in its article is such an example.

That is why I felt it was important for me to denounce this situation, in order to defend my rights, and, at the same time, everyone’s right to the protection of his or her reputation.

» Mehrzad Peyrow

Unenlightenment unsettling

This is a response to the recent wave of radical right-wing conservative hatred that has been surging through the Mirror’s Letters section over the last few weeks.

I am referring, more specifically, to the letters of H.G. [“Montreal: deviant and lazy,” June 23] and Aurom Osipov [“Montreal: cultural cesspool,” June 30].

These guys are some real pieces of work. It is unsettling to think that there are still people like them out there.

I’m not religious, but I actually pray that these people’s jobs are six-day-a-week ones as assembly line workers or some other menial functionaries, because it’s terrifying to think that minds as unenlightened as theirs may be responsible for making decisions that could even remotely affect other peoples’ lives.

What is it that makes them so sure they would not be in the same position as the people they would criticize if their life circumstances had been a little different?

The truth is, they have no evidence of this. And until they do, I suggest they do us all a favour by shutting up and not making hasty judgements of people they know nothing about.

Until they have mastered their own lives, they have no right to bitch about other people. And if they have mastered their own lives, I don’t think they’d be wasting precious time blaming others for their own unhappiness. Instead, they’d probably want to help their fellow human beings in any way they could.

» Skyler Oxley

Criticizing the cops

Re: “Puritanical cops” [Letters, June 30]: It seems to me that MUC police are increasingly becoming like computer technicians. If they are too stupid, lazy or just can’t be bothered to solve your problem, they change the screensaver.

Cops can’t be bothered to actually catch drug dealers or thieves, so, to make it look like they do something, they give parking and jaywalking tickets.

They stop you if you honk but not if you almost run over a pedestrian.

It doesn’t seem to bother the cops at all that the citizenry have less and less respect for them based on the way they act.

They forget they’re there to serve and protect the public, not just ticket them so they can have more money to pay more cops to ticket more people.

Also, Montreal cops really need to learn how not to talk down to everyone. We know they have the power. They have the gun.

» Jody Emond

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