Nous? Sell out?

Thank you, Mirror. Yes, thank you for selling out to the French. Why not? Money talks English, but the French have mastered that here in Montreal. Remember the Montreal Daily News? Quebecor bought that one too! Once again--thank you, Mirror. Béni soit le Mirroir.

Ed Martin

Never!

Hey guys: good work. It was filmmaker John Waters who once said, "I'm dying to sell out, but no one will buy me!" You did it, and word on the street has it for the right price. Way to go!

Michael Peterson

Hydro à-go-go

Did anyone else notice something strange about the "Hydrocontact" newsletter that came with their latest Hydro-Québec bill? I am referring to their "Les Batisseurs d'eau" contest in which, among other things, we could be the lucky winners of a trip for the whole family to see the dams and diversions of James Bay or a trip to "La Cité de l'énergie" in Shawinigan, where we can "relive 100 years in the history of hydroelectricity" and other nasty industrial pursuits.

Probably the most bizarre part of this contest is the Radio-Canada television series, "Les Batisseurs d'eau," on which the contest is "based." We are encouraged to watch how "Quebec conquered its rivers to generate hydroelectricity," how it is one of "Quebec's finest adventure stories" and how Quebec has "won an international reputation as a major hydroelectric developer."

I would have burst out laughing at this point, had the story between the lines not been so sad. Quebec has earned an international reputation all right, as a destroyer of vast tracts of subarctic wilderness and as a government which pays only passing consideration to the rights of the aboriginal peoples it displaces with its inland oceans. Hydroelectricity comes at a severe environmental and social cost, just like any other form of hydro generation.

The worst aspect of this province's energy policy is that it impacts northern residents, who are not the primary consumers (or even secondary consumers, for that matter) and whose voice is not often heard. Perhaps the Radio-Canada program paints a more even picture, but the Hydro-Québec spin on the story makes it sound like some sort of everyman's victory over the power of nature. As a resident of Quebec, I for one am not particularly interested in discovering "the people who conquered mountains, dug tunnels, diverted rivers and streams and built the gigantic structures that provide us with the comfort that we take for granted today."

I get queasy every time I see footage of the environmental impacts. Not to denigrate those who were just doing their jobs­this command-and-conquer attitude toward nature was taken for granted in the '50s and '60s--but aren't we trying to move away from this sort of thing? Not in Quebec, apparently. And finally, how does a grand prize trip to Switzerland fit into this scheme? I would have thought that a seven-day fishing trip to the LG-2 reservoir would have been more appropriate. Then again, maybe not--I forgot about the mercury contamination.

Brian Branfireun

Birds of a feather

Three cheers for Robert Pariseau (if that's his real name) [(e)mail, March 13]. I was about to respond to the Mirror but his comments were priceless. It is incredibly refreshing to hear the words of a committed Canadian francophone. Music to our ears! He illustrated how out of touch, how closed-minded the Bloc-Heads (with the obvious exceptions of Gilles Duceppe and Daniel Turp) are, and how little they know (or care) about the anglophone community in Quebec (or the rest of Canada, for that matter!).

I was hoping one of the other "full-moon" candidates like Lalonde or Biron would win the race for the leadership so they could show the rest of Canada what complete laughing stocks they are. Someone who advocates a hard stand against Canada (rather than, say, Turp's reasonable compromise which even he admits won't fly), to maybe wake up the politicians who are supposedly standing up for federalism. Not Daniel Johnson or the Quebec Liberals: they have already marginalized themselves. But maybe the federal Liberals (or Tories, etc.) may actually wake up and start saving the country instead of kowtowing to the two million or so separatists who continue to hold this country hostage (Johnson's Liberals included).

Again, bravo and hooray, Mr. Pariseau! (God knows I never thought I'd be saying THAT proudly!) Keep up the good work!

Lou Israel

Quebec Committee for Canada

Equality Party of Quebec

Nation's bedroom

Last week, Radio-Canada, the French-language equivalent of the CBC, aired a much-discussed video about the assassination some 20 years ago in Paris of a certain Mario Bachand. At the time of his death, Mr. Bachand was a member of the FLQ. There was speculation that he had been "terminated" by other members of his group during an internal power struggle. It emerged that he had become somewhat unpopular with certain colleagues after he had moved to Cuba and began living the life of a ladies' man. He was even censured for "conduct unbecoming of a revolutionary" after once returning to Havana bearing fine lingerie for one of his lady friends there.

Cuba and sleepwear were in the news again this week, when it became known that Canadian branches of Wal-Mart were selling Cuban-made pyjamas that apparently fall under the restrictions of the Helms-Burton law. The U.S. Treasury Department has leaped into the fray and is looking at its options.

I personally welcome the spectacle of political rectitude stymied by our preoccupations with what we wear to bed. It's time that we got our priorities straight. Meanwhile, I would remind the United States and its minions that, as our great chief Pierre Trudeau once put it, the state has no place in the bedrooms of the nation.

Donald McGrath