Popping off on Afghanistan

What an arrogant and ungrateful bleeding-heart liberal Michael Hollett is! (NOW, November 12-18).

I guess he would rather see terrorist organizations from around the world setting off car bombs in our streets, in the subway or on buses here in Toronto. The use of the poppy as a symbol of remembrance comes from the John McCrae’s World War I poem In Flanders Fields. Those poppies were not cultivated to produce an opium and heroin cash crop. 

Don Cherry was the first celebrity to come out big time in support of the military mission in Afghanistan and of our troops and their sacrifices on our behalf. 

You are the one with a murky and muddled mind in that you seem to delight in trashing our past historical accomplishments in war and the good names of those who stand up in defence of democracy. 

Stan Belding
Toronto

Royal pain

If you’re going to send someone to cover the royals (NOW, November 12-18) and dis their appearance, at least send someone who knows something about royalty, etiquette and sartorial matters. Sheila Gostick failed on all counts. First she scolds Camilla for not wearing any jewellery at the Royal Winter Fair. Simply put, it is very gauche to wear bling at 10 in the morning, particularly at that kind of event. Ça ne se fait pas, Sheila.

Then Gostick accuses Prince Charles of “rumpliness.” I have followed Prince Charles’s sense of style for a couple of decades and I can assure Gostick that he is one of the world’s best-dressed men and for many of us a style icon. Prince Charles would never be caught wearing a rumpled suit. He does indeed employ the best tailors in the world. 

Maybe Gostick mistook the small imperfections due to hand-stitching – the telltale marks of a bespoke suit – for rumpliness. Fortunately, the accompanying picture makes it clear that Prince Charles is in fact sporting one of his many perfectly tailored suits. Conservative but stylish, yes.

Rumpled, never.

Denis Pelletier
Toronto

Street Health’s union slide

As a good friend of Gaetan Heroux, a supporter of Friends of Street Health and an Ontario Coalition Against Poverty member, I strongly protest the Street Health’s plan to exile him to Scarborough (NOW, November, 12-18).

Gaetan’s turf is the downtown core in Cabbagetown where he’s worked for over 10 years and earned the respect and trust of homeless and poor people, new immigrants and refugees, people with disabilities and psychiatric survivors.

It appears Street Health has criminalized Gaetan for voicing support of CUPE. Some crime!

Don Weitz
Toronto

Skinny on CUPE fight

The street health board and management are committed to a fair collective bargaining process. We will continue to support reaching a collective agreement that provides fair wages and working conditions and respectful relations between employees and management. 

The board is monitoring the bargaining process, including ensuring that management has neither initiated nor participated in any decertification effort. To this end, board representatives have met with every staff member willing to discuss concerns. 

Please also be aware that the worker featured in your article, Gaetan Heroux, is not an employee of Street Health. His employer had arranged with Street Health for temporary office space for Heroux’s administrative work. That arrangement is now ending, as his employer has moved to larger premises and is relocating Heroux to fulfill only the administrative responsibilities of his role at the new premises. 

Eleanor Lester
Chair, Street Health Board

Seaton House time warp

Re Remaking Seaton House (NOW, November 12-18). This is good news for the area, no question. I left the area when the chaos and menace became too much, and I noticed others moving out after hitting middle age. You want to grow old somewhere that’s a little safer, where you don’t have to be constantly on guard. 

Still, I wish them well. The neighbourhood deserves a break, and so do the Seaton residents. The place is a hole, and the scale is unmanageable.

But the timing is interesting. Why in hell did it take 18 years for Kyle Rae to do something about it? 

Alex MacLean
Toronto

Port Authority armageddon

I have no doubt that the Toronto Port Authority board has grown a culture of contempt for oversight and for their obligations to the people of Canada (NOW, November 12-18). They have no business squandering our money, and they ought to keep their legal documents straight.

But it doesn’t do to ignore the larger picture: the TPA stands in the way of utopian “urban designers” and greedy developers who want to destroy the port. 

If we destroy the port for a promenade and a bunch of chi-chi latte places in an attempt to bring back the “knowledge worker” jobs that actually left for Bangalore a decade ago, when we run out of oil for the truck fleets that currently bring in most of what we eat, drink, wear and so on, this city will wish we’d paid a little less attention to what former Port CEOs are spending at steak houses.

John Spragge
Toronto

Goodman’s Boys masterful

I was rather perplexed to read letter writer Burf Kay’s complaints over the When We Were Boys screening at the Royal (NOW, November 12-18). 

Kay didn’t seem to realize this film is a documentary. So concerned was he with wanting more plot, character development and pimples that he misses the entire point. 

This unprecedented look at the inner (and outer) worlds of these boys, yes, does include ironed shirts and celestial singing. 

It’s not about creating characters for the sake of a story. It’s about exposing this world in the most truthful way, which director Sarah Goodman does masterfully. 

If Kay’s looking for more erotic tension or pimples, I would recommend American Pie.

Sidney Kopalak
Toronto 

Pumping up the playlist

I enjoyed Wikipartya, your guide to partying (NOW, November 12-18), but I think playlists don’t always work because the music needs to flow with the party and be dynamic. 

You can’t guess what point the party is going to be at hours later. 

Paul Lanyon
Toronto