News

It’s all about Michelle

Michelle Obama on the front page of Canada’s national newspaper promoting an American store (Michelle Obama’s Style Secret Sets Its Sights On Canada – Sept. 4)? How fair is that to Canadian retailers?

Pat Greening, Oakville, Ont.

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I thought it was a slow news day when I saw Michelle Obama in a J. Crew outfit on your front page. But wait, what’s that in your Life section? Not an article on “one of the most promising preliminary breakthroughs in more than a decade in the elusive quest to produce an effective AIDS vaccine” (Scientists Discover HIV-Blocking Antibodies)?

Sonya Bell, Ottawa

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There’s Michelle O on your front page. And there, deep inside your paper, in a world brief, the United Nations Secretary-General is warning us that “we are heading toward an abyss” because of climate change (Climate Change Happening Quickly, UN Chief Warns). Go figure.

John Lynagh, Welland, Ont.

It’s all about shock and awe

If the Americans followed the example of the Canadian Forces (Mock Shock-And-Awe In Washington: Canada Stages Taliban Attack To Bring U.S. Attention To Afghan Mission – front page, Sept. 4), they’d set off explosives in the space between the U.S. embassy and the National Gallery of Canada. And blow up the peacekeeping monument.

Michael Byers, Canada Research Chair in Global Politics and International Law, University of British Columbia

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Wouldn’t it be better if the Canadian Forces staged their Taliban attack in Ottawa to bring Canadian attention to the Afghan mission?

Ted Kawano, Toronto

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Who needs the “magic of Hollywood” to illustrate the delights of Afghan villages being blown up?

Ann Strickland-Clark, Mississauga, Ont.

Cycling for our time

Marcus Gee’s cheery, London blitz-like advice for cyclists and motorists to show forbearance, get on with our lives and make do (Wake Up, Cyclists: Canada Is No Bike-Lane Utopia – Sept. 4) sounds suspiciously like the call for “peace for our time.”

Alarmingly, statistics indicate that almost all car-cyclist accidents result in injuries. Not surprisingly, insurance companies have lobbied the Ontario government to cap motor vehicle-related injury claims at $25,000. These type of claims are exactly the bone-smashing kind of injuries that result when a cyclist hits a car door or is “bumped” to the pavement by a passing car.

Yes, an attitude adjustment is necessary. But government needs to make the necessary infrastructure investments that will reduce the epidemic of auto-cyclist accidents. Energy costs and climate change have made cycling financially and socially responsible. Yet, as a result of this rise in popularity, cycling in the city has become a high-risk activity. Separating cyclists and cars – as cities such as Copenhagen have done – is precisely what is needed.

David Roddick, Ottawa

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Here’s a simple proposal: First, let’s treat cyclists like other road users by mandating licensing based on skill and knowledge. Second, let’s demand that all bikes on public roads display number plates so that irresponsible behaviour on the street will no longer be protected by anonymity. Third, let’s require that all cyclists on public roads carry enough insurance to cover a reasonable range of possible liabilities, including vehicle damage and pedestrian injury. In Ontario, none of these changes would require anything more than a minor revision to the Highway Traffic Act.

John McLeod, Toronto

TIFF tiff toll

Equating boycotts with censorship (Artists For Censorship – editorial, Sept. 4) is nothing more than a dismissive gesture, ignoring (among other things) that artists who feel they must resort to such measures also “censor” themselves by withdrawing their work. On the other hand, it is completely justifiable to see the Brand Israel project as state propaganda. For the Toronto International Film Festival to claim that its only concern is with showing “the best films” is to remain willfully blind to such manipulation.

Gary Kibbins, Kingston, Ont.

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It’s fair to point out the propaganda value to Israel of showing a 10-film series from Tel Aviv at TIFF. The “protest group” is not trying “to intimidate” anyone; it is just trying to bring attention to the social injustices being carried out by the Israeli government in the Middle East.

Jim McMaster, Burlington, Ont.

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Among the countries represented at TIFF are China, Iran, Argentina (which, according to Amnesty International, used excessive force to evict indigenous peoples from their lands), Kazakhstan (where Amnesty says the use of torture by security forces remains commonplace), Thailand (where Amnesty says security forces are engaged in torture and arbitrary arrest), the Czech Republic (where Amnesty reports pervasive discrimination against the Roma), and Sri Lanka (where Tamils are being detained without charge).

This is just the tip of the well-documented iceberg. Yet, these altruistic filmmakers and artists are, once again, preoccupied with jumping on the anti-Israel bandwagon.

Willa Litvack, Calgary

Lead on, McAnuff

It’s unfortunate that the headline and subhead of J. Kelly Nestruck’s mostly laudatory piece on the Stratford Shakespeare Festival (Namesake Omissions – Review, Sept. 2) gave the impression that we have “pulled back” from our principal playwright. That is untrue, nor does it reflect what Mr. Nestruck wrote.

For the record, we offer three Shakespeare plays this season, plus one by his contemporary, Ben Jonson. Next season has four Shakespeares, accounting for one-third of our playbill – our average proportion for the past two decades. (Do much more on a regular basis, and we’d soon burn through the canon.) Far from abandoning Shakespeare, we are fiercely committed to producing his work and, through our Birmingham Conservatory, to developing the skills it demands.

Mr. Nestruck did ask if Stratford had produced any “reliable homegrown directors of Shakespeare.” Eight of the 12 Shakespeare plays in our past three seasons were directed by Canadians (counting myself); so will all four next season. Canadians, native-born and naturalized, have directed 17 of our past 31 productions. “Reliability” in art is a matter of opinion. But homegrown directors we certainly have and I, for one, am proud of them.

Des McAnuff, artistic director, Stratford Shakespeare Festival, Stratford, Ont.

I am kid, hear me roar

On behalf of toddlers, I must object to the jocular tone of your editorial Truth About Tantrums (Sept. 3). Are we toddlers not human? If we are cut, do we not bleed (and scream)? A number of us are born introverts. To be “dragged kicking and screaming to daycare” is a terrible fate. We spend longer days there than our parents are at work, because we are dropped off before they go to work and picked up afterward. So why wouldn’t some of us be depressed?

The estimate of depression among us is not high compared with that made for the adult population. Surely, some of our parents go to work kicking and screaming mentally but have learned the necessity of keeping silent. We haven’t; we’re too young and honest in our view of life.

And unlike editorial writers, we can’t even go for a quiet lunch and a beer to ease the cares of the day.

Catherine Lissaman Mantell, Chelsea, Que.

Curse you, Red Baron

Perhaps the most appropriate way to settle the feud between “duelling Billy Bishop airports” is with a good old-fashioned dogfight (Airports At War – letters, Sept. 4) A re-creation of Bishop’s legendary encounter with Manfred von Richthofen in 1917 – when he “briefly got the Red Baron in his sights, but his gun jammed” – would be a public relations bonanza for all involved.

They could pit one of Bishop’s Nieuports, representing the underdog Owen Sound, up against a scarlet red Albatross, representing Toronto, the “evil empire.” A simulated battle could wrap up the air show at the Canadian National Exhibition on Monday, with the winner receiving bragging – and naming – rights.

Jeffrey Peckitt, Oakville, Ont.

Speaking of air shows ...

Once again, a lovely Toronto morning is marred by another onslaught of sky-splitting thunder by fighter jets seemingly over our rooftops. Me, I’m growing angrier by the moment. Scaring babies, terrorizing dogs and cats, stopping grandma’s heart … Make them stop. Please.

Mary Mackie, Toronto

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For most Torontonians, the sounds of military jets at the CNE air show are either exciting or annoying. But I wonder how many newer Canadians, from countries with more domestically involved militaries, have more extreme emotional reactions to the same sounds. It should be a reminder of how lucky we are in Canada, where we use the military for entertainment.

Peter Steen, Toronto

The superior wife

Re Who’s To Blame? (Life, Sept. 4): I’d comment, but I’d be wrong!

Martin Wale, North Vancouver