I must ask why The Telegram published that letter from Robin Reid regarding the sweat lodge built by the RCMP?
It is a snide, negative letter with thinly veiled overtones of severe bigotry towards a minority group in our country.
It shows a blatant ignorance of the world we live in today.
May I suggest a cultural sensitivity course for the author of that letter?
The dominant culture of Canada has always been Christian, and services offered in institutions have traditionally been of the chaplain and chapel type. There is nothing wrong with changing that and adding helpful services catering to different cultural backgrounds, and in fact, it is high time we did.
By choosing to publish such a letter The Telegram gave a voice to a person filled with negativity, may I even suggest hatred, and are thus, by publishing, a part of the problem of bigotry in our land.
Free speech in Canada does not allow for hateful rhetoric. The editor is supposed to use good judgment in what is published. Please don’t support ignorance and bigotry by publishing such letters.
By the way, if I had not written to you about this I, too, would have been part of the problem. I have learned that we all need to speak up against bigotry that is pretending to be something else.
In case anyone does not know what a bigot is, see the following definition from the Merriam-Webster dictionary: “Bigot: a person who is obstinately or intolerantly devoted to his or her own opinions and prejudices especially : one who regards or treats the members of a group (such as a racial or ethnic group) with hatred and intolerance.”
Annemarie Christie,
St. John’s
