BLOCKING PRIVATE PROPERTY
CUPE pickets are not letting people through at the city's improvised dump sites. I believe in unions, but not in breaking the law. Where are the police in this matter? After browsing through our Criminal Code, not once did I find a section that says it's OK to block access to public property. Since it seems the strikers are breaking the law, why are they not arrested and charged?
RICK EVANS
BRAMPTON
(The police have opted to only keep the peace, not flex their muscles)
QUESTIONS OF LEGALITY
A couple of quick questions: By what legal authority do striking workers determine when a taxpayer may use city-authorized dumps, and how much they may dispose? And what legal redress would be available to me if I am unlawfully impeded, or to them if I ignore them?
ALLEN EARLE
TORONTO
(Information pickets are allowed, not what they are doing, but we don't suggest making a run for it. This debacle will be over soon enough)
TARGETING THE PUBLIC
I am a union supporter, but the CUPE leadership has made a big mistake. By delaying each Torontonian for 15 minutes at the temporary dumping sites, they are undermining the very thing that gives them moral authority -- the will of the people. It's the will of the people that keeps our pay and benefits from deteriorating due to our government's inflationary practices. Targeting the people in this dispute has now removed much of that authority and enraged the public. Had the union leadership advised its members to "speed" Torontonians along as best they could at all dump sites -- even help out and serve coffee -- they would have maintained the public's sympathy and may have won their demands in time. This aggressive mandate from the union leadership will doom the strikers -- even in future bargaining -- by increasing the political resolve to "outsource" those jobs. The CUPE leadership is in danger of making that the will of the people.
ERIC HANSON
BARRIE
(Fantastic points)
JOB PROTECTION
Re "The more deserving" (Letters, July 14): The writer says "After all my concessions, I still lost my job." To me, that exactly demonstrates the purpose of a union.
JUDY CASS
(Sure, if you work for the government)
MAKE VERMIN SWIM
The garbage strike continues with two major areas of disgust -- parks for children are being destroyed and vermin have been provided with a cafeteria. Why is there no creativity in solving this absurdity? There are parked/idled freighters sitting in the Toronto Harbour that are readily available to be chartered as garbage dumps. They are huge and could carry an immense load of garbage. Once filled, they could be run outside the harbour and anchored offshore for the duration. No vermin problems unless the rats are Olympic swimmers, and the parks go back to the children. Is this solution ignored because it might work and would not poke the taxpayer in the eye?
DAVID BURN
TORONTO
(Have you heard of seagulls?)
LET US VOTE ON HST
Premier Dalton McGuinty wants to force this harmonized sales tax on Ontarians. Let's challenge him to put the idea to a democratic vote. We are his employer, are we not? And include those smart meters as well. These are two tax increases we can't afford.
Ed Parkin
Brantford
(Too bad the election is so far down the road)
FILMPORT IS A FLOP
Re Joe Warmington's "Film industry baffler" (July 8): With the fiasco regarding that "big white elephant down at the lake shore," I suggest Toronto claim its own equivalent of the Montreal-Mirabel airport -- the Toronto-Millerbel filmport. I like Mayor David Miller, in principle, but I present a slab of steak for the man's detractors. There is no film industry in Toronto. Close down that complex now and use its largest sound-stage to park the Spruce Goose.
SIMON ST. LAURENT
TORONTO
(We'd rather see effort put into saving our film industry and all the jobs that go with it)
Re:`Gay' blog post was just not fair, July 11
Public editor Kathy English's reprimand of Antonia Zerbisias excludes one very important fact. Farber, a straight man, was marching in the Gay Pride Parade wearing a T-shirt that proclaimed "Nobody knows I'm gay." This is the context one needs to know to understand Zerbisias' comment, "imagine my surprise when I saw Bernie Farber identifying himself as queer," and her rejoinder, "Funny because I didn't know he was gay."
By not including this context, English presents a distorted picture of what happened and also removes the fairly huge hole in the logic she's used to reprimand Zerbisias.
Given his attire, it is quite clear that Zerbisias' comment was not an attempted "outing" but meant as sarcasm and disdain at Farber's behaviour. Yet he complained that he is "offended . . . at the fact that a professional journalist would simply make up information of any sort and post it publicly," when he knew full well what his T-shirt said.
Andy Lehrer, Toronto
"Just not fair." You hear that a lot when raising adolescents. And there's only one response: "Get used to it; life's not fair." Zerbisias' popularity obviously rankles, but there's a reason for it. She assumes her readers have mature levels of acuity. Gay Pride is one huge multi-layered exercise in hilarious nuance and Zerbisias gets that. Too bad Farber couldn't foresee that he was making himself into entertainment by inserting himself into the parade, but he doesn't need the Star's public editor to put a bandaid on his imaginary boo-boo; he needs to stop throwing tantrums and shop for a sense of humour.
Corinne Allan, Ottawa
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