Worse than the commies?

[Re: “Or maybe not,” Letters, Jan. 10] After reading the last issue of the Mirror and, specifically, after reading the letter by Shirley Groves, which your editors actually decided to publish, I’m now absolutely convinced that the Mirror is not just “anti-Zionist,” but is indeed an anti-Semitic newspaper.

I cannot believe this filth is being published weekly in 2008 in Montreal, Canada. Even in the Soviet Union, where I was born and raised, attacks of the press on evil “Zionists” were never as relentless and vile as your attacks on Israel and Jews in the Mirror.

>> Igor Gutman

Who’s the whack-job?

[Re: “Or maybe not,” Letters, Jan. 10] Some day, John Dirlik will try using facts and logic to support his diatribes against Israel instead of rhetoric. He is upset that I called the West Bank and Gaza “occupied” territories instead of “disputed.” They are both.

They have been “occupied” for over 500 years by Turks, British, Jordanians, Egyptians and now Israel. Of all these occupiers, only one did so after being attacked from them instead of attacking. Guess which? It is also a fact that they were immediately offered back to the previous occupiers on condition of true peace. The offer was rejected outright.

So the territories are in dispute. The Israeli government is on record as supporting a Palestinian state there. The dispute is where the border will be. It will never be where it was before 1967. No reason for it. That was an armistice line that lasted only 19 years. If Dirlik thinks the Western Wall will be handed back to Arab control, he is a fool. Of course by “occupied,” Dirlik includes Tel Aviv, Haifa, etc.

Finally, considering the disputing of evolution, global warming, the Nazi holocaust and Palestinian territorial boundaries the same thing and calling all of those who do “whack-jobs” could only be done by someone with first hand knowledge of what it takes to be a “whack-job”. Alas, I cannot qualify.

As for Shirley Groves’s spirited defence of Norman Finkelstein, there are not enough trees in Quebec to list all the errors he constantly makes. His arguments have been refuted with brilliance not only by her despised Alan Dershowitz, but countless others. But when you have decided that Israel is the root of all evil, there is no way to get that across.

If you want intelligent Israel hatred from a Jew, read Chomsky. Finkelstein can’t compare.

>> Ken Frankel

Down with tobacco

[Re: “Smoking ads suck,” Letters, Dec. 20] Now that the Mirror is receiving substantial advertising revenues from tobacco companies as well as bar owners who oppose the smoking ban, perhaps some light can be shed on this newspaper’s editorial policies.

I refer to your decision to publish several letters from a smokers’ advocacy group shortly after the smoking ban took effect, in which it was suggested that we don’t need this law because second-hand smoke isn’t dangerous (http://www.montrealmirror.com/2006/052506/letters.html). One can’t help but wonder if the Mirror’s new-found tobacco advertising revenue might be at least in part a way of saying thank you for publishing what can only be described as thinly veiled tobacco industry propaganda.

Cigarettes cause more deaths than cocaine, auto accidents, AIDS, alcohol, heroin, fire, suicide and homicide combined. Given that smokers rarely switch brands, the goal of cigarette advertising can only be to recruit new smokers to replace the ones who have quit smoking or died from it, and without which tobacco companies cannot survive.

The Mirror’s publishers and employees need to examine their conscience and think about whether they want to be part of an effort to perpetuate a new generation of smokers and the premature deaths that will result. I assume this blood money isn’t absolutely necessary, since the Mirror has stayed in business for many years without it.

>>Cathy Bell

Sasha conspiracy

[Re: Sasha] A trip to Toronto has brought to my attention that alternative newspaper, EYE happens to publish the same sexual advice column written by Sasha, word for word. It turns out that she doesn’t even live in Montreal, but in Toronto and sends her columns out to the Mirror for publishing every week.

Syndication is one of the strategies corporate media uses to slash costs and employ less and less talent as only one saturates the spotlight, a strategy more or less uncharacteristic of an alternative newspaper.

Why not hire a Montrealer to write for a Montrealer’s newspaper? Perhaps you need to look at yourself before mentioning issues of outsourcing, and anglo Montrealers resorting to Toronto for work.

>> Vanessa Delsooz

[Ed’s reply: Sasha started her sex reporting/advice career at the Mirror in 1994. Over time, other papers picked up her column, which shows mainly that they have a good eye for our local talent. And though she now lives in Toronto, Sasha is still very much a Montrealer at heart. You can read her reflections on Montreal/Toronto in this column that she wrote for the Mirror’s 20th anniversary: www.montrealmirror.com/2005/102005/sasha.html.

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