Rabbit food

[Re: “Graveyard shift,” Cover, July 9] What kind of magazine editor and event promoter would put a torn-up bunny on the front of their magazine during a week when animal cruelty was a top issue for the Calgary Stampede?

>>Richard Owen

Not enough of Michael

Just because something happens off the desert island that is Montreal, doesn’t mean you couldn’t put a more local spin on it—and I’m not talking touchy-feely stories from childhood. Jackson’s music crossed cultural and racial barriers, something not many artists, especially today’s artists who are little more than a pre-packaged lip-synching product, can say.

There is one thing Raf Katigbak said in his column that I agree with though: long live the king.

>>Jackson fan

Go green,
don’t build on it

[Re: “Fighting over Jarry,” News, July 9] This is the first I’ve heard about the Montreal police’s plans to expand their Jarry Park station and I don’t know what makes me madder, the fact that they want to encroach on public space or the fact that Plateau Mont-Royal’s mayor Helen Fotopulos is backing the project.

Given her riding’s current bankruptcy status, I’m not sure Fotopulos should have the right to participate in any kind of green space committee, let alone be the Union executive member. In fact, I would be wary of any project Fotopulos backs in the coming months, since she is going to defect to the Côte-des-Neiges riding come fall elections. I would much prefer Ms. Fotopulos to concentrate on governing her own borough and working on the economic crisis there before she jumps ship to another part of town.

As for the green space, even if they built directly skyward, keeping the existing shape, they’d be encroaching on the park. No one in this city is a stranger to construction and no matter how green a construction site can be, it will still disrupt the balance of the park. Noise pollution, the tearing up of the grass and uprooting of trees is bound to happen, no matter how careful the builders and the plans are.

There’s also so little green space in the city that we need to hold onto any bit we can. There are plenty of empty (or nearly empty) buildings on that stretch of St-Laurent that could easily be converted to police administrative buildings. The city of Montreal should look past new construction to the renovation of older and abandoned buildings to house public services. These building aren’t just good for condos.

If the city really wants to make the green choice, they would renovate an existing building rather than disrupt a park. That would be a decision us citizens could be proud of.

>>Susan Dupuis

Fanatics home
and abroad

[Re: “Canwest, Zionism and Elvis,” Letters, July 2] Before Patrice Bombardier has a stroke due to all the things he imagines I say and am, let me correct his faulty reading.

I do not deny that Canwest is biased towards Israel. Izzy Asper said he would not allow his papers to take the opposite view. I imagine his successors think similarly.

However, notwithstanding that point, they print articles and commentaries, not just letters that express opposing views. Just last week, The Gazette had two op-ed comments for and against the dismantling of Jewish settlements in the West Bank.

If you want a paper that only prints pro-Israel points of view (except letters), read the Suburban. If you want one that is only anti-Israel (except letters) you are reading it now. Both are more biased than The Gazette.

As for Neturei Karta, perhaps I did not point out that these sons of pigs and monkeys (sorry, I’m confused with what many Arab leaders call Jews) met with and gave advice to Arafat before the Oslo treaty, when his brave soldiers were tossing wheelchair-bound Jewish tourists off of hijacked cruise ships, and that they appeared with Iranian leaders as they denied the Holocaust and called for Israel to be wiped off the map. I remain of the opinion that Neturei Karta are beneath disgust.

But if it helps, I have almost as low an opinion of the Jewish fanatics who enact unprovoked acts of violence against Arabs in the West Bank because they insist God has given the place to the Jews.

Finally, I am concerned with what the author might have been smoking when determining what I might worship. I try to stick to facts. The anti-Israel axis of letter writers might find that a challenge.

I certainly never worshipped Elvis. Does Bombardier gain inspiration from Mother Goose?

>> Ken Frankel

WE WELCOME LETTERS TO THE EDITOR!