Remembering
Oscar Peterson

[Re: “The cards don’t lie,” Jan. 17] Scott C, in his Incubator column, says he was “surprised that many people had no idea that Oscar Peterson was born and bred in Montreal.”

In fact, Oscar Peterson did not grow up on Montreal’s Delise St. He grew up on St-Jacques W., when it was called St-Henri, not Little Burgundy, and when there was a neighbourhood and not pockets of the “hood.”

At one time, Oscar Peterson and the Queen were the only living persons on a Canadian postage stamp, but the world’s greatest living jazz pianist was only on for two years.

If it was not for Concordia University, there would be no mention of Oscar Peterson in the city where he was born and raised and was the most recognized (or one of the most recognized) people from Canada in the world. There should be more than Concordia’s Oscar Peterson Concert Hall named after the world’s greatest jazz pianist, who was born and raised in Montreal, Quebec.

>>Bob White

Abolish Bill C-3

[Re. “Safety first,” Jan. 17] Bill C-3 needs to be abolished completely. It is a redundant legislation as the authorities already have the legal powers they need to protect Canadian citizens, without resorting to security certificates and secret evidence.

>>Jalal Hussain

Finkelstein vs.
Dershowitz

[Re: “Who’s the whack-job?” Letters, Jan. 17] Many thanks to Ken Frankel.

Pertaining to the conflict between Alan Dershowitz and Norman Finkelstein, Frankel’s closing advice to turn to the writings of Noam Chomsky was at least partially, if accidentally, illuminating.

Writing in the New Republic on June 1, 2007, Chomsky states: “It is always intriguing to see just how far Alan Dershowitz will go in his efforts to conceal the fact that Norman Finkelstein exposed him as a vulgar and fraudulent apologist for Israeli human rights violations—carefully, judiciously, with extensive documentation.”

A representative introduction to this distraction—and as Frankel comments, it is intelligent and authored by a Jew, though the taint of hatred is difficult to discern.

>>Dylan Fraser

Two years later,
four reasons to like Alberta

[Re: “Five reasons to hate Alberta,” Feb. 2 ’06]

1. The equalization payments that go to provinces that have entirely no respect for the nation (not to point fingers at Quebec). You can label us rednecks all you want, you can dislike our politics, but you don’t seem to dislike the stream of money coming from us to other provinces. I think a little respect would be nice.

2. We shy away from over-generalizing pencil heads such as yourself who feel it necessary to simply ignore past injustices and just go along with the “Central Canada is King” concept. When I mean past injustices—even you should know about how Western farmers got screwed in the ’30s, and the NEP robbing us in the ’80s. But it’s all fine and dandy if Ontario and Quebec get cheap agricultural products and gas, isn’t it?

3. It seems lots of Eastern Canadians love Alberta, as can be seen by the continuous stream of migrants leaving jobless provinces (such as Quebec) to search out new opportunity here. We have the fastest growing economy in the country and it’s diversifying. Calgary has the second most corporate headquarters in the country (after Toronto). 4. We have put up with leaders from your neck of the woods for decades. We put up with slogans such as “Screw the West, we’ll take the rest,” and Chrétien continuously ignoring us. We put up with a non-elected senate and an executive that has more power over the federal government than we feel comfortable with. We put up with non-equal representation in the house and we even put up with federal legislation that hurts us for the benefit of Ontario and Quebec. Unlike provinces such as Quebec, which cringe at the thought of a leader coming from here.

I didn’t vote Conservative in the last election, nor do I support the provincial Tories here in Alberta. I guess I just can’t understand the hatred towards Alberta when your province receives so much in equalization payments originating from here. You can dislike the Tories, that’s cool with me. But when you start to mock my province because you’re not open-minded enough to see us for what we really are, and to make no attempt to see where we’re coming from, that pisses me off.

>> Mad in Alberta

[Ed’s note: You can read the original article here: www.
montrealmirror.com/2006/020206/news2.html]

Correction: The community concert in support of Abdelkader Belaouni will be held on Jan. 26, not the 28th, at St. Gabriel’s Church (2157 Centre).

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