Not schizophrenic

This letter is directed to the person who wrote the caption for the photograph from the film Working Like Crazy that appeared in the March 16 issue.

I am the co-director of that film. One of the reasons we made the film was to present a different picture of people who have been labelled as "mentally ill" than normally appears in the media. Just how important it is to show what alternative is was brought home to me yet again when I read that little description you published and saw the language that was used to describe the people who appear in the film.

"A group of schizophrenics tell their own stories..." In fact, only one of the six people who appear in the film identifies herself as schizophrenic. One man tells us what name is used to describe his condition (and it is not schizophrenia), while the four other people choose not to label themselves at all. Somehow this didn't stop your writer, who I will assume watched the film, from simply tagging all these individuals as schizophrenics. These people are human beings, they are not diseases. By describing them this way, your writer discriminates against not only the people in the film, but anyone who has been labelled as mentally ill and struggles to keep his or her personal identity.

It is a most unpleasant irony that the description you printed reflects exactly the stigmatization that the film was made to expose.

--Gwynne Basen

Campus cola wars

Your article "McGill administration a Coke pusher?" [March 16] mistakenly asserts that 56% of McGill students voted against the cold beverage agreement. This statistic is unlikely, since only 31% of students voted. 56% of students who actually voted, voted against the CBA.

This means that about 15% of Mcgill students are for the CBA, 16% are against it, and 69% don't care enough to vote.

Perhaps the administration going ahead with the deal is a result of student apathy: if the students don't care, why not make a deal with Coke that does nothing but benefit the university?

--Andy Bennett

Your report on the administration of McGill probably pushing the Real Thing was stunningly revealing of the range and depths to which politicians have forced Canadian academia to sink. McGill students have responded to the challenge in a democratic manner consistent with our expectations of concerned thinking individuals. However, my guess is that the university will ignore the vote.

"No one can force anybody to buy anything, right?" McGill director of Ancillary Services, Alan Charade told the Mirror. Right! So the obvious choice for McGill students is to take a union solidarity course in "Boycott 101." Developed for over 30 years by the National Farm Workers of America founding leader, Cesar Chavez, this course of peaceful, democratic protest is the honourable way to demonstrate dissatisfaction with the misguided politics currently practiced in Quebec--the ethno-cultural, territorial nationalism and its consequences.

--Aleks Snowdon

Tax Objectors

Re: your "How NOT to pay your taxes" article last week [March 16]. It is important to note that conscientious objectors DO want to pay their full taxes, as their contribution to society, but they CANNOT go against their conscience and pay for killing. This is why they pay their full non-military taxes to the government and the military part of their taxes in a "Peace Tax Trust Fund."

Could the same argument be used for other purposes? Conscientious objection cannot be used to oppose any government expenditures we do not agree with. Conscientious objection cannot be used to serve political preferences but is restricted to matters of deep conscience. We strongly believe in what we are ready to "pay the price" for, in order to respect our conscience.

Thank you for bringing this important issue to your readers.

--Dominique Boisvert

Correction

Last week's story titled "Protest runs amok" (page 8) reported six arrests following the Montreal Archdiocese protest, when in fact there were seven. The photo accompanying the story was provided courtesy of the Collectif autonome feministe.