Submit your letter!
Protect the artists
I am writing in regards to last week's "Summer ink wars" by Craig Segal. I've been to Old Montreal a few times this summer and I noticed that there was a drastic decrease in artists of all kinds on the Place Jacques Cartier. I am glad to finally know what happened to them.
As a Montrealer, I go to Old Montreal to see the artists' stands, whether it be the jewellers, painters, ink artists, or outdoor performers, and it's the first place I take any out-of-town visitors. People set out to dine on Place Jacques Cartier for the special ambiance these artists put there. Lots of people look forward to purchasing the beautiful services and goods these individuals have to offer.
Restaurants don't lose out on customers because of the artists, they win. I am ashamed that the city has decreased the number of permits. To me, it is a blatant disrespect to artists who are highly regarded and admired by Montreal citizens and tourists alike. They are part of the city's culture and charm and they gain a decent salary working with their bare hands during the summer period. They should be left alone, permit or no permit. Shame on you Bourque, shame on you city of Montreal.
--Tania H
Who's racist?
In the article entitled "CSU sees red over alleged racism" [July 19], CSU Vice President Internal Laith Marouf is quoted as saying, "This is blatantly racist because it's like somebody coming and saying the Jewish leadership has infiltrated the Concordia administration."
To my knowledge, the only person who has ever made this suggestion was Marouf himself. The CSU should take stock of the VP Internal's use of the word racism as it applies to others, since he himself appears to be a victim of the same disease. Perhaps to balance out your reporting, the Mirror should interview some of the groups that have been targeted by Marouf's hatred to see what their take on the so-called "Jewish conspiracy" is.
--Miriam Verburg
Fennario's history
This is in reference to Mark Slutsky's profile of David Fennario's walking tours ["Walk of strife," July 19]. I'm a neighbour of Fennario's, Verdun's playwright--the only one I know of. His wife does not like me because I accused her of stealing my tomcat Fred and using him for stud purposes. Fred has since passed on.
I tried to have David Fennario given a city of Verdun honour as a grand Verdunois a few years ago. I filed all the necessary papers that were sent to me, but I never received word on whether or not my application had been received or accepted. Could this possibly have been because he was not considered to be a local, or because he is anglophone?
I'm also a Verdun anglophone, came up the same way as David. But, unlike him, my mind is not set in a time warp. In your article, the Westmount crowd Fennario refers to has died or gone down the 401 to greener pastures, so they're just memories by now and irrelevant today. They, at least, provided many of our fathers with jobs, which is more than the PQ government does today. The Westmount gang has been replaced by the Outremont gang, many of whom see the fascist Lionel Groulx as a hero. Have you ever read him? You should.
--John C. Underwood
Prisoners online
This is just a quick comment on your article about Canadian prisoners' ability to access books behind bars ["Hard-cover survival," July 19]". The article points out that prisoners are not allowed Internet access and I have to wonder why not.
I was employed for about two years by a company that provided Internet security to a very large branch of the federal government here in Ottawa. One of our responsibilities in the tech support department was to go to the client site and add approved Web sites to the list of allowed destinations for the employees of said agency.
In other words, unless a particular Web site had been "okayed," no one in that group could get to it, period. If this technology can be applied to regular companies, it could easily be applied to our correctional institutions. Why hasn't this been considered?
--Steve Acosta
|
