New CanWest
columnist debuts!

[Re: “Pondering the CanWest corpse,” Letters, Feb. 4] Dear Bohemian Drug-Addled editors of the Mirror: A while back, there was a report in the Mirror that The Suburban editor, Beryl Wajsman was making a bid with some other people to possibly take over some of CanWest’s papers. This pricked my interest because I receive The Suburban in my area every week, and I kinda like some of his views, which are in part leftwing and pretty socially conscious in many areas. But with respect to Israel...well, let me not get into that and rock the boat, because I have suddenly become a total fucking opportunist. If he becomes a media heavy, I want a nice well-paying job, while keeping true to my ideals. So I sent him the following letter today.

Dear Mr. Wajsman: There was a report a couple of weeks back in the Montreal Mirror (and two or more letters about the report since) that you and a bunch of people may take over a chain of newspapers. If you become a big powerful media mogul, I would like to know if I can have a twice-weekly column in any of your newspapers with a high circulation, to whip up the dulled-out masses into a revolutionary fury, which would ultimately overthrow both the Quebec and Canadian governments and would install myself as Green Socialist dictator over the realm for a temporary transitional period of, let’s say...40 years, until the arrival of peace, love and Utopia in our fair land?

Thanks for any response.

>>MARCO ERMACORA

Frankel happy, sad

[Re: “Pondering the CanWest corpse,” Letters, Feb. 4] I read with a mixture of hilarity and sadness the alleged response to one of my letters by Shirley Groves.

Both emotions were caused by the false quotations, innuendo, half-truths and vitriol contained therein. It was almost always off the topic of that letter. Factual logic was, alas, missing as usual. I did wonder a bit about what I must have done to her to earn such condemnation, but I will try to treat it as a compliment.

I will be nominating it for a fiction prize, but not comparing it to Herr Goebbels. I expect that as propaganda, this master of the art form would have sneered at it.

In the same issue, Chris Barry (“Boll does Darfur”) actually rallies support for a group opposing the Darfur genocide. Bravissimo! This is one of the few times anyone at the Mirror has drawn attention to international atrocities other than ones allegedly committed by Israelis.

It is further impressive because the death toll in this genocide inflicted by an Arab-run government is orders of magnitude greater than that of Palestinians caused by Israel, though not nearly as great as that of the number of Muslims killed by other Muslims.

Please keep up the good work. I would love to see more of this. Perhaps re: Zimbabwe, or the Democratic Republic of Congo, or Chechnya, or Tibet, or the continuing inter-Muslim slaughters (Pakistan, Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Gaza) etc.

>>KEN FRANKEL

Bombardier
(almost) sorry

[Re: “Pondering the CanWest corpse,” Letters, Feb. 4] Shirley Groves’ total bitch-slapping of that tiresome Ken Frankel almost made me feel sorry for the resident Israel-worshipper. Clearly, Zionists are in dire need of better-qualified apologists.

>>PATRICE BOMBARDIER

Side by side

[Re: “Gaza witness,” Front, News Jan. 28] Ehab Lotayef’s effective presentation on Jan. 27 at the Westmount YMCA, under the auspices of the Montreal Dialogue Group regarding the recent Gaza Freedom March, gives me hope that finally the age-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict will be resolved and a two-state solution found.

Let the quartet (the USA, the UN, Russia and the European Union) join their heads together and push both the Israelis and the Palestinians towards serious negotiations.

Enough is enough! The Israelis and the Palestinians deserve to live side by side and in peace!

>>JALALUDDIN S. HUSSAIN

Montreal stinks

Montreal stinks.

>>JENNY

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