Panging for Plume

J'ai peur mon lettre est trop tard mais Chrisse. Je vis a New York tabernak alors c'est rare je voir le Mirror quand il sortie. Entecout, ton article au sujet de Plume c'est cool au bout [Cover, "Pitchers with Plume, Aug. 5]. Plume est le raison Montreal est le meilleur ville au Canada. Montreal sans Plume est Winnipeg. Apres lires les mots de Plume je suis tellement mal de maison. L'échange, français, des filles sur Prince-Arthur sur le printemps. Tabernak de chalice je suis mal de maison. Salut.

» Gavin McInnes, VICE

Vive la Quebec City

If his goal was to get people riled up, Kristian Gravenor's Aug. 19 column was a success [Kristian Perspective, "Quebec City blues"]. I spent most of my bus ride this morning thinking of comebacks to his "arguments" regarding Quebec City's misdeeds towards Montreal. Here are a few.

Firstly, linking the supporters of CHOI-FM and the French (from France) government of the 17th century (or even the current Quebec government) is preposterous. While the historical events Gravenor mentioned were interesting, I fail to see a direct relevance with CHOI, unless he was simply using the current protests an as excuse to bring forth his view. And by the way, the station's hosts have been very critical of the Quebec government, both provincial and municipal, most notably campaigning to have several politicians investigated in the juvenile prostitution case.

Secondly, Quebec City, as homogeneous as it might have been (and still is in some cases), is changing. The momentum towards a more international community has been increasing in recent years. I lived there for 20 years, going to both French and English schools, and my closest friends are half francophones from Quebec and half "other" - Acadian, American, Lebanese, South African, Haitian and Mexican. If you just drove through certain districts of the city, Limoulou and parts of Sainte-Foy, for example, you would certainly notice the changing face of the québécois.

Gravenor's column has proved one thing: Montrealers think Montreal is "le nombril du monde" just because they are lucky enough to have such a large and vibrant community. He might be right in saying that Quebec City is jealous, but the fact remains that there is more to this province than one egocentric island. If Montreal gains more proportional representation or becomes the provincial capital, the rest of the province will undoubtedly suffer. The irony, that Gravenor applauds minority communities while wanting more power for Montreal because it's the biggest city, is simply suffocating.

» Michelle Picard-Aitken

Angryphone irrelevance

In reference to the letter, "Do Anglos need balls?" [Aug. 19], Mr. John C. Underwood will have to forgive a fellow Verdunois for not giving into the pity-us-poor-anglos dogma, which Alliance Quebec no doubt pushes onto its constituency of ageing embittered unilingual angryphones. As for his apocalyptic predictions concerning the English language in Verdun, there simply aren't enough hours in the day for me to ponder if his blatant distortions of the truth are by accident or design.

Rest assured, Mr. Underwood, something as insignificant as a local event publicized in a language the overwhelming majority of us speak won't have anglos running for Ontarian hills. Although sobering to the reality that, believe it or not, one might have to learn the French language to function in Quebec society, just might do the trick.

Whether Mr. Underwood will eventually awaken to that reality or not will remain of little particular interest to me. But he just might do our borough a favour by speaking out about the poverty that incessantly cripples the citizens of Verdun, rather than bitching about them not adapting to the linguistic incompetence of a few.

» Stéphane Lespérance, Verdun

Galilee geography

According to the Mirror, Al-Awda is "a Palestinian folk music band from Galilee in the Occupied Territories" [The Front, "Custom greeting for Palestinians, Aug. 19].

I've been to Israel several times and have toured the Galilee area. It is in northern Israel, not in the occupied territories. Unless, of course, you consider every inch of Israel to be occupied territories. The bio on the Al-Awda Web site says they are from the Galilee in "1948 Palestine." In other words, Israel does not exist. Is that the Mirror's editorial position?

» Helen Shapiro

In his article, "Custom Greeting for Palestinians," Patrick Lejtenyi refers to the band Al-Awda as a "Palestinian folk music band from Galilee in the Occupied Territories." Galilee is part of Israel. Al-Awda is a band from Israel.

If Mr. Lejtenyi is unaware of this, we can write him off as one of the masses of lazy journalists and useful idiots whose ignorance is being used to lay the groundwork for the de-legitimation and destruction of Israel.

If Mr. Lejtenyi does know where the Galilee is - if he, in fact accepts the view that Israel, as the Palestinian organizations so quaintly put it, "Occupied Palestine '48" - it might be better if he made his views known before trying to recruit the ignorant to his cause.

» I. Bernstein

[Ed's reply: Most of Al-Awda's members come from historic Galilee, which is northern Israel from the Sea of Galilee in the east to the Mediterranean coast to the west, and not part of the Occupied Territories. Two members are from the Golan Heights, which Israel has occupied since 1967. The Mirror regrets the error.]

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