STM is Big Brother!

[Re: “STM is not Big Brother,” Letters, Jan. 28] The question is not whether the STM has informed passengers of inspections—they have—the question is whether the STM has the right to do the inspections in the first place. What’s more, do they have the right to directly arrest passengers?

If not, what rights do they have to detain passengers pending a formal arrest by the SPVM? Whether someone is a conspiracy theorist or not has nothing to do with the fact that most passengers are unaware of these rights.

>>MATTHEW HISCOCK

I lived in Montreal for more than 15 years and the STM is clearly inefficient, slow and virtually useless. One may as well walk. In fact, even in winter, I usually did.

Ultimately, I wish to point out that the whole system of inspections, tickets and watching for turnstile-jumpers is dumb. Why not have the same system as in Kaohsiung, Taiwan or Hong Kong, China? You have to return your token/card into the turnstile to get out. There are cameras and surveillance/information booths at both ends of the station. Problem solved. The system in Montreal is antiquated and dunderheaded.

>>THOTH HARRIS

I’m saddened to see that letter writers Mr. Hilton and Mr. Black would have no problem bending over for the STM. However, the rest of us who, yes, were well informed ahead of time, are still appalled at being delayed going to work by this nonsense.

It’s about the image it projects: a few days ago, six or seven STM police were forming a line and stopping people randomly at Berri-UQÀM. Sorry, but it did look exactly like a police state. And for what? So they might catch a few idiots who ripped the STM off of a few dollars? Doesn’t seem like the smart and friendly way to go about things. So Mr. Hilton and Black might want to ponder this while they’re busy making inane Orwellian jokes.

>> ERIC LEMIEUX

Pondering the
CanWest corpse

[Re: “Wajsman bids for Gaz?!” News, Front, Jan. 21] There might be a silver lining in the cloud forecasting the possibility that Suburban editor Beryl Wajsman could extend his publishing talents to a chunk of the CanWest corpse. As the current driving force behind the tabloid that dubbed Concordia “Gaza-U” and once eulogized a settler who slaughtered 29 Palestinians in a Hebron mosque as having “loved Israel more than life itself,” Wajsman will find it challenging to package his new acquisitions as bias-free.

An additional benefit is that even Ken Frankel would be forced to concede the Gazette is now Zionist-inclined. Quite a departure for the media-monitoring sleuth, who still adamantly insists there’s “not a shred of evidence” CanWest is either one-sided, or that the Conservative government is in any way pandering to it.

True, accusing our politicians of such crass opportunism is indeed malicious and outrageous. It was only Harper’s compassion that prompted him to slash funding for Kairos, the ecumenical group that helps victims of rape in Congo and investigates human rights violations in Indonesia but had the temerity to criticize Israel’s occupation. And it was solely Harper’s humanitarianism that saw Canada the only country in the world vote against a UN resolution wanting to stop Israel’s carnage in Gaza.

Having once judged Israel as “the only country on Earth deserving of one,” Frankel is clearly untainted by any trace of partisanship when he swears by CanWest’s objective Mid-East reporting. It is irrelevant that Izzy Asper accused the entire world media of anti-Semitism, dropped journalists who didn’t tow his Zionist line and financially promoted revisionists who deny Islam’s 1400-year connection to Jerusalem. If Sarah Palin can consider Fox News “fair and balanced,” surely Ken Frankel can pronounce the National Post a paragon of neutrality.

My only reservation with his otherwise impeccable analysis of media and of Harper’s self-proclaimed Christianity is Frankel’s fear that “Christian is becoming a ‘nasty’ word like Zionist.” While his concern for Christianity’s reputation is heart-warming, it is not mainstream faith being criticized but the fundamentalist sect of Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson and, apparently, Stephen Harper. The literal reading of scripture by such Christian-Zionists compels them to regard homosexuality an abomination, the Earth created in six days and their Messiah’s return only possible with a triumphant Israel. Hence their barely concealed homophobia, contempt for climate change and slavish support for the Jewish state.

Harper’s cheerleading for Israel may delight CanWest-appointed editors from Halifax to Vancouver, but media support is an incidental bonus that surely never crossed his mind. To suggest otherwise, as Frankel informs, is irrational malevolence worthy of Nazi propagandists. At least with Wajsman at the helm, those accusing CanWest of pro-Israel bias won’t have to suffer comparisons with Goebbels.

>>SHIRLEY GROVES

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