Letters to the editor

To the editor:

I wish to recount an event that took place recently in Westmount Park. I was strolling around with a bag of bread crusts to throw to the squirrels, crows, blackbirds and all other wildlife inhabitants of the Park, when a woman police officer who was patrolling stopped me and asked if I planned to throw the food for the animals. I said yes.

She then informed me that it is forbidden to feed the park animals, as it is a Westmount bylaw.

Now I grew up in Westmount and lived here practically all of my adult life. To be approached and even ticketed for such nonsense is incomprehensible to me, as all my life I have seen people feeding the pigeons or the squirrels and it was never an issue — just an enjoyable day in Westmount Park's life.

I believe that the police should concern themselves more with real crimes (i.e. the recent stabbing in Vendome metro station) instead of petty and insignificant issues like this. I ask you, where are the police when you need them?

Ingrid P. Mask

Park Place

To the editor:

Westmount Park School and Narnia day care were both very involved in the healthy debate about the soccer field. In particular the use of a synthetic surface in these days of global warming was put forward.

It is therefore very surprising to me to see the shameful state of their own land in front of the school facing the park. It seems no effort is being made in this desert-like surface to plant a blade of carbon fixing grass or a small plant. How can these organizations mount such a well-organized debate on the City’s use of its green space and yet not make the time or effort to improve their own?

Dr. Mark Roper

Westmount