Asserting accessibility

The Festival image&nation is writing in reference to a letter to the editor titled "Queer disabled rights," which ran in the September 28 edition of the Mirror. Many of the points that Colette Sparkes addresses in her letter are, of course, the very understandably infuriating realities for a disabled queer living in Montreal. image&nation is sensitive to these issues and that is why we have striven to make the 2000 edition of the festival accessible.


We also made sure that this information was widely disseminated. Through information printed in our official catalogue as well as within the Festival insert in over 200,000 copies of Mirror and Ici distributed throughout the city (and for the first time into the suburbs), on our Web site, on our infoline as well as through our 24-hour-a-day accessibility number, we have made it very clear that the Festival did everything in its power to assure that our disabled festival-goers could experience all that image&nation had to offer. Moreover, each night of the Festival, a team of very hard-working volunteers was available on site to assist those who required help into the venue.

--image&nation

Don't believe the hype!

I find it commendable that, in Siobhan O'Connor's review of Rape me ["Shock Tactics," Sept. 14] she managed to address and then entirely disregard the hype. It's far too easy for the alternative media to gobble up a film like this based solely on the politics that surround it. Instead, the Mirror took a chance. She pointed out some good things about the movie and found it, as I did, to kind of suck when it comes down to it.

As a seasoned porno lover (I have seen my share of hardcore), I was, like your critic, enticed by the buzz. I wanted to see it, wanted to love it, wanted to stand by it in the face of the censors/prudes. But it's just not that damn good. I'm as liberal as the next guy and agree that the censoring of this film was ludicrous (and by the horny French, no less!) but really, don't believe the hype.

--Benjamin Shermann in Boston

Not the first Aboriginal gold

While not wishing to dispute Cathy Freeman's "Angel" status [Sept. 28], she is not "the first Aboriginal to walk away with an Olympic gold medal." That honour belongs to Nova Peris-Kneebone who won the gold as a member of the Australian women's hockey team in Atlanta in 1996.

Since then she has shown Marion-Jones-like flexibility. She won gold in the 200-metre at the KL Commonwealth Games in 1998 and was in the 4-by-400-metre relay team at these Olympics (and possibly other events--I haven't actually spotted her as such). The women's hockey team has carried on without her as they just won gold again, the first women's team to repeat apparently. Actually I think most Australians were surprised that she was the first. I think we figured someone else would have done it before 1996, but there you go.

--Bridget Browne

The immigrant vote?

In the article, "Voter I.D.s irk ethnic Quebecers" [Sept.28], George Maddux wrote that Amarkai Laryea of CRARR said "some immigrants will be discouraged from voting." This is incorrect: only Canadian citizens are allowed to vote in Canada. Journalists and commentators should stop talking about the immigrant vote--no such thing exists.

--Julian Samuel

Correction

In last week's Visual Arts listings, the photo caption for Gunther Gamper's photo wrongly stated that the exhibit features the Montreal Symphony Orchestra. The photos are, in fact, of the Orchestre Metropolitaine. We regret the error.