LMNOP: Rapper with a bad rap

I read with great interest Alastair Sutherland's article concerning the sordid case of KC LMNOP ["Photo Police hits new low with rapper rape case," Media Circus, March 12]. I am writing from Paris and, for the love of god, I ask you to help KC.

This must be the first time that any columnist has shown any common sense on this issue. I know the artist well because I work for him. When you pass hours, days, months and now almost two years as I have, by his side, how can you accuse him of rape?

He has more important things to do: he's a man who has chosen to make something of his life. His work is his raison d'être, and though people take him for a bad boy because he does gangsta rap, he actually preaches non-violence. In fact, the message he delivers in France is, 'Stop imitating American bad boys and have your own personality, be independent, be master of your life.' What's so horrible about that? His language is harsh, but it's real.

As far as his court case is concerned, KC wanted to erase any doubt from people's minds by continuing the proceedings, which I think is perfectly legitimate on his part. But the whole thing blew up in his face. However, if the judge had truly taken the time to listen to the album, he would have understood that KC is the defender of women in the very masculine world of hip hop.

In France, we have started a petition in the hopes that people will be convinced of his innocence. Most importantly, why is the judge judging the album, when KC has been unjustly convicted of a rape he did not commit? KC is only expressing what he thinks, and what the public thinks. This is a very bizarre situation that smells like a conspiracy, and I'm weighing my words carefully here. God's justice be done.

--MC Cameleon

Anti-gay and pro-lesbian, all rolled into one

It was with pleasure that I read Sammy Marouflin's letter ["Gay community a perpetrator of isms", (e)Mail, March 26] on the subject of the gay community.

I agree with those comments and must add one of my own. One of the most flagrant examples of hypocrisy is committed by tons of right-wing, bigoted, heterosexual men who denounce homosexuality as being unnatural and worthy of contempt. Yet many of the same men will go to female strip clubs and will watch with pleasure two nude female dancers putting on a lesbian show. Many conservative, rich businessmen also subscribe to female escort services and then ask for two women to put on a lesbian show.

Can these people not know what they are doing? Why do they not apply the same standards of behaviour to both sexes? And why do others not point this out more often to these bigots and expose them? It is these bigoted kind of men who start wars, subjugate women and push many gay men to commit suicide. This hypocrisy is truly fetid.

--Frederick Muster

A political career for Celine Dion?

Jean Charest is not motivated by the courage of his convictions, but by the opportunism of his ambitions.

Charest no longer fights for ideas. He sells himself in exchange for a title that, thanks to yo-yo polls (rising and falling based on his position before the cameras, rather than his political position), sparkles in his eye.

Charest thus moves over to join the enemy he has fought so vigorously. He's even getting endorsements from his longtime rival, Jean Chrétien. Is this a dream? The Quebec Liberals, desperate for a leader, will now choose popularity over ideas. It's a farce.

Worst of all are the journalists who meticulously calculate the percentage of votes that such-and-such a party would have if so-and-so were leader, instead of analyzing the message behind the man and the essence of his ideas. While you're at it, Mr. and Mrs. Political Analyst, can you tell me how many votes Celine Dion would get if she were leader of the Reform Party of Quebec?

Jean Charest is deceiving everyone into not perceiving his lack of integrity and loyalty. But, then again, who cares about that.

--Pascal Henrard