Disturbing sex

[Re: “Fêting our fetishes,” Chris Barry, Aug. 2] I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry when I read “Fêting our fetishes,” yet another misguided article in the Mirror celebrating depravity in the name of diversity: in this case, the Censored Festival. 

It’s a shame that a progressive journal, one which captures this city’s zeitgeist, continues to pander to what Barry readily admits is the “pervert class.”

He should have been raising questions about why the government-funded Just for Laughs Museum was planning to host an interactive demonstration on sado-masochistic bondage and discipline, while a workshop on sado-masochistic water-bondage—a potentially life-threatening event warranting police clearance—was slated to take place at an undisclosed location. But that would have been journalism instead of de facto public relations for the XXXtreme sex-industry.

Recently, Matthew Hayes reported on the shock indie film Zoo, a documentary on the shadowy world of bestiality, in his piece “Horse and buggery,” published in the July 19th issue. 

Unfortunately, he too took the low road in this, otherwise thoughtful, piece by using clever euphemisms such as “manimal love” and “inter-species sex” to describe human-to-animal sexual abuse.

It’s also apparent that the impulse to neutralize discussion about these disturbing sexual behaviours stems from the fact that they’re endemic to various sub-cultures in the gay male world (although not limited to homosexuals), even as they call into question the mental stability of the people who embrace them.

>> Deborah Rankin

Cummins conflicted?

[Re: “Scream, sigh, simplify,” Lorraine Carpenter, Aug. 16] After browsing the columns and cover feature of your most recent issue and letting them gestate in my head for about 15 minutes, it’s quite clear that the Mirror staff are a bunch of hypocrites.

Specifically, last week’s issue features the band The Hot Springs, whose most recent album—produced by the Mirror’s resident “rock” columnist and CD reviewer—was given front-page exposure. Now, perhaps if this producer wasn’t keen on telling readers which local bands are good and which ones are not (if I remember correctly, he called Arcade Fire the new James Taylor), and if he wasn’t in a position to profit from album sales generated by his column, then there would be no conflict of interest, but there is.

Sure, it may seem to the management at your paper that the business relationship between one of its opinion makers and a local band is no big deal, but if you were to get wind of some other company engaging in a similar practice, they surely would have been labelled your “Insect” of the week.

Ultimately, Johnson Cummins can either try to profit as a producer in the music scene or he can profit from his opinions on the music scene; journalistic integirity—which your paper seems to take a moral high ground on—says he cannot do both.

>> Jonathan Sandals

[Ed’s reply: Johnson Cummins has been involved with the music business since he was a child. Since he is now in his senior years, it would be impossible for the Mirror to boycott everyone he has ever worked with. Besides, Lorraine Carpenter wrote the story.]

Israel not exceptional

Re: The ongoing Middle East discussion in the Mirror’s letters section. As an out-of-province reader, I commend the Mirror and its letter-writers for pursuing a frank and far-ranging debate on the Middle East, despite false accusations of anti-Semitism and threats to mobilize a boycott on free speech if slander alone fails to silence legitimate criticism of Israeli actions.

In a broadside over the Mirror’s bow, which launched this debate, Kenneth Weinstein recommended a racist hate site. The site’s propagandistic video rehashes an old discredited David Horowitz pamphlet claiming perpetual victimhood for Israel, determinedly blind to escalating egregious Israeli actions in Palestine and Lebanon.

Regarding Horowitz’s creed, “Why Israel is the Victim,” Israeli peace activist Ran HaCohen said: “Horowitz first ignores the present, with which he cannot cope, and while turning to the past, he is forced to invent a fairy-tale full of intentional distortions. As Israel’s crimes intensify, the price of defending it is bound to rise: more force will have to be used to oppress the Palestinians, more truths will have to be suppressed and more lies be propagated to convince us that wrong is right.”

The doctrine of “Exceptionalism-for-Israel” has already eroded precepts of human rights, international law and democracy. The blatant attempt by B’nai Brith to bully Stéphane Dion, discredit Jocelyn Coulon and manipulate the electoral process in Outremont serves to illustrate how Canadian values and fact-based analysis on the Middle East are torpedoed when foreign loyalties intrude.

The Mirror has made a significant contribution to Canadian civil society by providing a forum where every reader can discern which offerings comprise convincing serious arguments, and which constitute hypocrisy, propaganda and manipulation.

>> Marjorie Robertson

WE WELCOME LETTERS TO THE EDITOR!