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Mike Smith’s spin on the garbage strike doom and gloom (NOW, June 18-24) is so far out to lunch it’s scary. The citizens of Toronto who pay the freight are also not responsible for a world meltdown but are suffering. Public servants should be agreeing to share the pain. Eighteen days a year of sick pay is ridiculous, let alone getting to carry them forward to retirement.
Dave McDonald
Toronto
The art in ReelHeART
I was disappointed by Norm Wilner’s review of the ReelHeART International Film Festival (NOW, June 18-24).
Having been included in this festival as a filmmaker the last two years, I found his thoughts very juvenile.
ReelHeART is among the top festivals for its absolute support, promotion and celebration of independent film.
It gives every opportunity to the filmmaker to reach as wide an audience as possible.
To say [the organizers] just take the money to screen any film is absolutely wrong. This is a Toronto event that should be fertilized.
It’s a shame to see something so pure in its integrity and belief in art shot in the foot by its local alternative media.
Brett Butler
Toronto
Twitter the revolution
Twitter responsible for aiding Iranian protesters (NOW, June 18-24)? Not so fast, NOW and tweeters. The network may have helped in ducking the regime’s censorship, but it’s hardly the weapon that will bring down the theological dictatorship. There aren’t that many users in Iran.
Although today’s tech advances can spread info faster than ever, it’s not always perfect.
Some info found on the Internet, as in other media, may not be accurate or may be blocked by government and/or corporate interests.
Remember Google blocking pro-Tibetan sites at China’s “request”?
As much as I would love to see a free, equal and democratic Iran, it will be people power that brings the change, not technology.
The revolution will not be Twitterized.
Julian Bynoe
Toronto
Wedding crasher
Josh Errett, in sloughing off the shackles of the wedding industry and asserting his right to the wedding of his choice, says: “I’m the one entering the marriage promised land with the woman of my dreams. How I choose to do it is up to me” (NOW, June 18-24).
While I’m thrilled by Errett’s declaration, I’m puzzled by the “I” and the “me.” I thought marriage – catered or not – was a “we” event.
Geoff Rytell
Toronto
The passion of Reena Katz
Letter-writer tdj wants to know “What’s this obsession with Israel and Reena Katz’s politics?” (NOW, June 18-24). Rather than an obsession, it’s a passion.
TDJ wants a “fucking break” from Katz. But she did not ask to be on the cover of NOW. By signing the letter with initials only, TDJ gives credence to the idea that people should be afraid [to speak openly]. Apparently Katz isn’t.
Douglas Helliker
Toronto
Devil’s in the contradiction
Reena Katz claims the Koffler Centre has “vilified” her and made her “into the devil” (NOW, June 4-10). The Koffler has decided to withdraw its sponsorship of her exhibit because of her anti-Zionist views. I fail to see how that constitutes vilification.
Katz is entitled to her view; the folks who run the Koffler Centre are also entitled to their views.
I assume that if NOW Magazine were to ascertain that an artist whose exhibit it was sponsoring had associations with homophobic or racist or misogynist organizations, it would withdraw its sponsorship. Such a decision would be within its rights, but the decision would not in and of itself constitute vilification.
I have not seen any evidence of the Jewish community making a devil out of Katz. Your article, however, reveals that Katz does not hesitate to do the reverse.
Rabbi Edward Elkin
Toronto
Missing Metrolinx
Thanks for your continuing coverage of Metrolinx. Metrolinx’s mandate is supposedly to bring an integrated, regional transit system to the GTA. So far, its priority is easing the subsidized commutes of 905ers living in detached homes with two cars, with little thought to the destruction of downtown neighbourhoods or letting those neighbourhoods access Metrolinx’s transit expansions.
It is proposing another “grade separation” plus hideous elevated track on the Bradford line (parallel to Lansdowne from Dupont to Bloor) so people rolling through from Barrie can shave a few minutes off their 90-minute train ride. But there’s no plan for a GO stop at Bloor, or anywhere else in the 416 for that matter.
Joan Tintor
Toronto
Poisons for baby
It’s so nice to hear people caring about using sweet-smelling poisons on their babies (NOW, June 18-24). I must admit that when I heard people should trash these products or give them to the poor I became very anxious.
As a person who’s been addressing a very serious issue around the release of garbage leachate onto North American city streets and lanes, I’m very uncomfortable when I hear people being advised to throw poisons in the trash. It would be one thing if the trash were taken care of in a contained manner, but this is not the case.
Please do not throw poisons into the trash. Poisons join with other poisons, and we wind up with combinations of poisons that are spread everywhere.
Bharbara Gudmundson
Toronto
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But the good Rabbi ought to be ashamed of himself for ignoring just how the Koffler brought this all about even though they had known about Katz's political proclivities regarding Israel (whose demise she has said without hesitation that she has never called for) for over a year, from the very beginning of the project and before she accepted the Koffler's commission. Another important fact is the role the Koffler played in 'going public' immediately following the May 8 meeting they had with Katz and Simon - the curator hired by the Koffler to find an artist and develop a project that would be part of Luminato. In effect, they killed the project at that point and disingenuously claimed it was all up to the artist and curator!
Rabbi Elkin's attempted analogue thus is incomplete and so is misleading. If he were correct, then Yvonne Singer - a respected artist, a prof at York U. and the only artist on the Koffler Board - would not have resigned from both the board and Koffler's Art Advisory Committee. Her resignation letter said (in part): "The exhibition is a celebration of the roots and legacy of Jewish history and culture in Kensington Market. Reena Katz's political views are separate from the aesthetics and content of the exhibition. I cannot continue to work on behalf of an organization that blurs those boundaries between an artist's political views and the content of artistic work."
There have been many opinions expressed both in the media and on my street regarding this current strike. I have spoken with neighbors who, although previously mild-mannered, have been incensed by this event. Proposals to dump garbage either at the union's headquarters or at city hall, suggestions of banding together to march on one party or the other in protest, the demand for the resignations of city councillors or union bosses, and the sentiment that the unionized workers should be stripped of their livelihood for exercising their legal right to negotiate wages and working conditions and withhold labor have all been aired. News reports have shown demonstrators and residents living near makeshift temporary dumps up in arms and ready to take radical action like berating and physically restraining or impeding other citizens who have come to jettison their refuse. New temporary dump sites have been hinted at and will, when announced, further exacerbate this civil conflict.
What I see in all of this is both unproductive and pointlessly wasted potential. An opportunity exists in this environment of an emotionally charged citizenry that seems to have been driven out of complacency and into action. The apathy so commonly ascribed to us as a whole is burning off like an early morning fog. What is emerging is a ground swell of "radicalized citizens".
Which brings me back to where I started: the grocery store. By dumping garbage in parks, citizens are actively destroying their own quality of life, and are being misdirected by city hall to participate in a conflict in which they have no part and no say. The nameless contributor to this problem is the source of much of this garbage: the wasteful and unnecessary packaging that accompanies virtually everything you buy. For years environmental and consumer groups have decried the over-packaging of consumer goods but small grass-roots efforts such as unwrapping and leaving packaging at the store have had little effect.
I propose that citizens with a surplus of garbage take it back to its source. If they didn't have to bring home such extensive packaging when they went shopping they would have an easier time storing it while waiting for the strike to end. Supermarkets, for the most part, have massive parking lots that can easily accommodate large volumes of garbage and they have private contractors that haul away their waste. Even as the city is buried in garbage they are fueling the problem by quietly loading you up with more garbage than you can reasonably deal with. They, in turn, are the only link in the supply chain between the manufacturer and the consumer that can exert pressure on their suppliers to reduce the packaging or change it to less bulky or wasteful designs and materials. Until they have their noses pushed into it they will ignore the problem and pass the cost (social, environmental, and financial) on to you.
The emergence of radicalized citizens is a fleeting phenomenon. Once this current labor dispute has been settled their radical nature will evaporate and they will return to life as it was. What we must do is seize this opportunity and focus this force toward a change whose benefits will outlive the strike.
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