What else did John Ralston Saul say?

You offered a very interesting menu in your article with John Ralston Saul ["Interpreting the urban landscape," Nov. 20]. The Mirror is starting to offer those kinds of stories again. Good!

But the plate did not deliver the menu. A walk with Mr. Saul in the St-Henri area must have been more productive, must have had more inputs. I once spoke with Mr. Saul for 10-15 minutes in Toronto a while ago and, when he speaks, it does not take him hours to share a few words.

I somehow like hockey and sociological links to this city's culture. I don't mind squeegeers and know it's a reflection of the struggle to make a living in Montreal. But those topics were peripheral and your paper should have stuck to one target instead of serving three appetizers. Things began to be very interesting when Mr. Saul spoke about Montreal, its luft, its international potential, the tensions and, of course, the neo-liberalism.

Your article should have been on two pages with more quotations. I'm still hungry, but the appetizers were good.

­René Girard

"Newfie" = "Nigger"

Regarding the short article last week in which John Crosbie is called an "über-Newfie" ["The heavyweight speaks", Nov. 20]. I don't care what you want to say about John Crosbie, but I thought you should be aware that most Newfoundlanders find the term "Newfie" rather insulting, in much the same way that the people in question would not think it acceptable for you to use such terms as "nigger," "polack" or "paki."

It seems rather commonplace for people from mainland Canada to insult people they know nothing about, and you are encouraging this through your carelessness and ignorance.

­L. White

Up with soccer

I have a comment for Terry Haig, with reference to his recent column in the Mirror ["Down with witless clatter," Nov.13].

Terry: If you want to watch a major sport that doesn't keep stopping for commercial breaks, try soccer. There are big bucks involved there too, but at least the game comes first and not TV. Maybe that's why it's the most popular sport in the world.

­John Bourassa-Dutton

Terrorism or
partitionism?

Just as Marco Ermacora ["Never dare a terrorist," (e)Mail, Nov. 6] spoke with Raymond Villeneuve, I have spoken with McGill Professor Steven Scott--whom Ermacora claims is the worst of the partitionists.

Professor Scott doesn't take up violence, threaten people, destroy public property and deigns to suggest problems are best solved through logical discussion and, if necessary, through the courts. Personally, I feel the real partitionists are the separatists, and Villeneuve and his cohorts are the greatest threats to social stability and to what's left of Quebec's prosperous economic elements.

Villeneuve, under the cloak of insane political logic, suggests that people who oppose his views should be killed, injured or forced to leave Quebec.

When Professor Scott discusses partition, he speaks for a large coalition of English and French Canadians, who oppose revolutionary and violent tactics which plan to remove them from their country.

No one really wants the army to enter Quebec. We just want Montreal to be the prosperous city it was before the Liberals and PQ brought in the language laws and separatism became a mainstream issue.

­Isaac Judah

Your newspaper's article on Raymond Villeneuve ["Terror comes of age," Oct. 30] was pretty accurate when it described him as a "killer," "fascist," "madman" and "FLQ terrorist."

Mr. Villeneuve describes himself as "an activist for a political cause." Further on he states that if Quebec becomes independent and portions of Quebec decide to remain part of Canada "there will be bloodbath." He also says "we will chase them out of here, we'll send them home where they belong." I ask: where will that be? Most Quebecers were born here in Quebec.

Let us remind Mr. Villeneuve that the English defeated the French on the Plains of Abraham outside Quebec City back in 1759. The French were conquered and the French culture of Quebec would have disappeared long ago, had the British not realized that the Catholic Church was able to control the people of Quebec better than any army. Mr. Villeneuve should realize that it was only by the "Grace of God" that the French Canadian culture of Quebec was not eradicated.

­Paul Morin

Correction

In last week's listings, we incorrectly indentified Robyn Sarah as Robin Smith. Sarah--not Smith--read from her new book Promise of Shelter at Chapters on Nov. 25. We apologize for the error.