Leave Westmounters alone

I don't really see the point of making fun of Westmounters who get upset when a legion of jobless layabouts marched through their town on an otherwise pleasant Saturday afternoon. Although I don't live in Westmount, I totally agree with the residents who said they deserve to enjoy their wealth and standard of living in peace. Canada is, in fact, the land of opportunity. If these bums want to live high on the hill, they should do what the people who live there did: get a job!

Alex Klassen

Sticking it to Terry Haig

So Terry Haig says he doesn't like the Grand Prix ("Sticking it to the Grand Prix," June 12). Hundreds of thousands of Montrealers disagree, as do millions of Formula One fans around the world. After soccer--another sport Haig never writes about--auto racing is the number one sport in the world. It is currently the most popular spectator sport in Canada. Here in Montreal we are lucky enough to have the Grand Prix, which has the best drivers in the best cars at the peak of their form.

I think the point Haig was trying to make is that the sport is too corporate, that the cars are "billboards." As if Haig's beloved baseball isn't corporate, with multimillion-dollar athletes who make millions more in endorsements. Formula One racing is about speed, reflexes, teamwork and competition. Just because Terry Haig has never driven anything faster than a "junker" is no reason for him to put down the Grand Prix.

Angelo Rosetti

Hip hip hooray for Raining Angels

Regarding your article on Benjamin Patrick Paquette's feature movie Raining Angels ["Independent angel," May 29], I was in the audience when Ben showed remarkable courage by standing up and asking Gregory Peck to be in his movie. I also have a speaking part in Raining Angels (obtained by reading the "auditions" section of the Mirror). I applauded, with others, when Mr. Peck asked Ben backstage so that he could read the script.

It was a joy to see the completed version. Ben Paquette deserves our admiration and support for his great determination in launching this full-length feature film.

Marguerite Laflèche

Busker freedom or anarchy!

Isn't it enough that 56 per cent of Montrealers are not working? Now our mean-spirited and destructive mayor Pierre Bourque wants to deal the final death blow to those who have the will to put their talent (or even lack thereof) on the line to make a few dollars to survive and to entertain those tourists who will come to Montreal for the express purpose of seeing a vibrant, European-style city with song and music everywhere.

Now Bourque, the right-wing gardener, wants to restrict buskers to areas that he deems correct. What on earth does he know about where people go? I have never seen him walking anywhere--he rides about in his air-conditioned limousine and looks down on the sweating entertainers as if they are out there as a diversion. As a former busker, I can tell you that standing in the sun for hours and generating song and music is bloody hard work, and it is work.

Bourque has no right to discourage artists of any kind from earning their next dinner and, in the process, adding life to this moribund city, a city once proud of its French influence in its language, its cafés, its great foods and, more importantly, its politesse!

Do I hear a call to anarchy?

Ruth Gover

American still doesn't get it

Since my last letter, my American confusion about Canada has grown even greater. The Reform Party each province, including Quebec, to have total control over language. This, one would assume, is what this province wants. Yet people here look upon the growing power of the Reform party as anti-Quebec. Why?

Meanwhile, how can federalists in this province still talk about a "distinct society" clause when the election of Reform in western Canada shows that the rest of Canada (at least its western part) would veto such a clause?

And what constitutes a 50 per cent plus one vote, anyway? When the natives in northern Quebec hold their own referendum and vote No to separation, will their votes be added to the federalist vote in the general referendum here? Last time they were not.

What is in the Canadian water you people drink?

Robert Feinstein