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Censorship to satisfy a vocal minority

It was with much dismay that I received a notice from the Belfry Theatre that it is cancelling The Runner, a play about an Orthodox Jew in Israel and his job as a ZAKA member.

ZAKA is a volunteer organization not only responsible for honouring the Jewish dead after a calamity, but also engages in search and rescue internationally after major catastrophes.

The play rises above politics. It is about the humanitarian efforts of Jacob, the ZAKA member who saves the life of an Arab woman wounded by Israeli gunfire on suspicion that she stabbed an Israeli soldier to death.

Censorship of the arts because of the opinion of a vocal minority group in Victoria sets a dangerous precedent. What comes next: The banning of a Palestinian play? Who decides?

Ruth Schreier

Victoria

We can’t ignore the dead in Gaza

Re: “After weeks of demonstrations, enough is enough,” commentary, Jan. 4.

I wonder if the 30,000-plus civilian deaths in Gaza are “enough?” If not, how many more civilians must die at Israel’s hands before the rabbi sees the humanity of Palestinians?

Protesting against Zionism is not protesting against Judaism.

Anna Cordon

Victoria

Consider the barracks in Paris and Barcelona

In a generous clutch of Jan. 3 letters opposing density, one writer says, “So first we had former Victoria mayor Lisa Helps inviting sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½’s homeless to Victoria….”

Here is a lesser-known fact: Helps is also responsible for the enormous populations of homeless in all other Canadian and American cities. Yes, a powerful woman, Helps, such a shame she didn’t put her powers to better use, like curing cancer, eradicating poverty, putting an end to death itself.

Also, several writers invoke the image of Soviet-style residential barracks to limn their opposition to density. Funny, they never land on the “barracks” of beautiful Barcelona or Paris or Bologna — filled, no doubt, with people yearning for single-family homes in Victoria.

Where I and the letter-writers can agree is that most of Victoria’s downtown towers are derivative, lacklustre and unwelcoming (I exclude Don Charity’s and Fraser McColl’s wonderful Jukebox and Mosaic re-do, almost everything by the Jawls — with architect Franc D’Ambrosio — and a few others). But that’s a different fight from the class warfare of Fairfield/Gonzales.

Gene Miller

Victoria

Want to take away rights? Go somewhere else

Re: “Direct homeowners to develop vacant space,” letter, Jan. 2.

The letter recommended that homeowners or renters be identified and directed by government to “make modest alterations to their homes” and be forced to allow renters to occupy the space.

It also said homeowners would be forced to pay higher taxes as a result of this income stream.

We live in a democracy where freedom of choice, freedom of expression and freedom of association are fundamental tenets of our society. I spent 40 years in uniform as a soldier and police officer protecting those rights and freedoms.

If the letter writer wants to live in a society where the state makes those types of decisions and can direct you where and how you live your life, he can take a one-way flight to any communist country he likes.

Failing that, he better be the first ­person to offer up a bed in his home to a perfect stranger. People spend much of their lives working, saving and then building a life where they can enjoy a retirement with family and friends.

Very few want to spend it as a landlord.

Mike ter Kuile

Gulf Islands

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