No bull

The bullfight scheduled to take place in Montreal in August is an offence to any compassionate person. I am a Spanish citizen, and have spent a great deal of time and energy educating the people in this country about animal abuse in bullfighting. I was shocked to hear that Canada, a country that I once considered to be progressive, is considering hosting a bullfight.

As I understand it, the Criminal Code of Canada specifically forbids the fighting or baiting of animals. How is it, then, that your Department of Agriculture, under the direction of Agriculture Minister Lyle Vanclief, is prepared to issue an import permit to bring eight fighting bulls into Canada for this illegal activity? And why is your Department of Justice turning a blind eye to this brutal display of animal abuse?

I can assure you that there exists no true cultural celebration that involves the suffering of animals. Portuguese-style bullfighting, while perhaps sparing the life of the animal in the ring, still involves tremendous trauma and suffering for the bull. Only the truly ignorant, and those with no capacity for empathy, could enjoy such a base display of human aggression and violence towards defenseless creatures.

If the Canadian government is not prepared to enforce the few animal protection laws that you have, and so easily accepts its criminal code being violated in such a clear and flagrant way, the public should be made aware.

And having being made aware, the public should do their utmost to stop this.

--Manuel Cases
Vice President, ADDA (Asociación para la Defensa de los Derechos del Animal) Barcelona, Spain

Natives and booze

I am disappointed that Jacquie Charlton's well intentioned news brief, "Booze foils native hip hop event" [The Front, July 22] was written and edited in such a way as to misrepresent two of the three key issues I raised. This turned a challenging political critique into a shaggy dog tale, whereas the intention in approaching the Mirror had been to turn a sad state of affairs into an empowering learning opportunity.

The first issue is that of alcohol and aboriginal people. The printed version--"Alcohol, the promoters point out, has been a key ingredient in the self-destructive behaviour and abuse on modern reservations"--makes it sound like we think Native people are the victims of no one but themselves. Whereas, speaking for myself, I attributed deliberate responsibility to government, in recognition of alcohol's use to coerce land cessions and deepen the cycle of social destruction.

The second issue, omitted, concerns corporate control of our society in an insidious way rarely discussed: alcohol, sugar and caffeine are mind- and body-regulating chemicals administered not for public welfare, but for profit, in a way to deliberately create long-term dependency. This dependency is in turn impoverishing and damaging to public welfare.

With this kind of journalism, the Mirror takes the punch out of social justice movements, all the while milking their edginess for credibility by association. There is a human cost to this, borne by thousands of community group volunteers who may feel that an hour has been added to their day's consciousness-raising and organizing labour.

--Adam Gottlieb, CKUT

We'll get back to you...

I would like to suggest a new column. It would deal exclusively with the "lift and carry" fetish. Men who have this fetish enjoy being lifted and carried by women in various ways (piggyback, cradle carry, etc.).

If I were to write this column, it would consist of weekly anecdotes of being lifted and carried, with letters and contributions from the readership. Possibly pictures contributed by readers would be published.

It would dispense advice in response to questions from readers, as well. Of course, a lack of correspondence would mean a lack of interest, and the column would be discontinued.

I feel that as an alternative newspaper, you would be receptive to this, since this topic is definitely not mainstream! I know that there is interest in this, since there are some Web sites catering to this.

If you think you might be interested in having me contribute such a column, please let me know.

--Charles