We can live without cars



To the editor:



I cannot agree with you more about the need for each of us to seek viable, practical solutions to the environmental concerns which are affecting every one of us, no matter where we live on this planet.

Six hours of staging a car-free zone with props will not implore many to give up for good their autos for other means of transportation. The City of Montreal should

consider a trial period of at least two weeks, or even a month, of no autos in a larger, designated area. It should monitor the air quality and the pedestrian traffic in the affected zone. I am sure the numbers will

indicate there are many more pluses than minuses. For certain there will be inconveniences; any form of change will do that. The benefits will prove them justifiable. A conscious effort to make lifestyle changes is the first step.

It can work. All it takes is that first step. I speak as one who has not owned a car for the past 15 years. My husband and I raised a family of three children—at the start, they were 4, 6 and 8 years of age—without relying on the four wheels. It can be done. Our children participated in all the usual kids' activities: Cubs, Brownies, swimming, skating, karate, soccer. Instead of driving to and from the venues, we walked or bused. If the objective is to get active, isn't it a big irony to chauffeur children everywhere so they can get some exercise?

You may think winters could be hard on little ones, with no warm cars to shuttle them back and forth. On the contrary, it was a real liberation. As long as we were dressed warmly, and well insulated from having been fully dressed for the outdoors a full 10 minutes before heading out the door, we never really felt the cold. None of us ever got sick either. There was also none of the idling of the engine to warm up the car, nor scraping of the windows of ice and snow. The moment we were out the door, we revved up the pump of our hearts. And that felt good.

One step at a time, one change at a time. On our own, we may feel we don't make much of a dent in retarding the damage we do to our environment, but collectively, the change can be significant. I am hopeful that I will live to see the dent that I am making!

I urge anyone reading this to give it a try; give up the auto, you will find true liberation.

Janet Lin

Victoria Avenue





Columnist maligned Westmount High



To the editor:



As a graduate of Westmount High School, and an active member of both its governing board and the Westmount High Old Boys Association, and being one of the promoters for raising the money to repaint the school this fall, I fail to understand why the only thing Noah Sidel could write about the school in his new education column was the school’s former history for being a ‘high’ school.

Perhaps he could have written about how last spring Westmount High School was ranked the best public high school without admissions criteria in Greater Montreal and area. Or he could have focused on how Westmount High students continue to excel academically, taking most of the McEntyre writing competition awards last spring and winning many other municipal and provincial competitions in recent years. Or perhaps he could have focused on how through a dedicated team of professionals, needs of the students, including those who were integrated from Wagar last year, are being met through breakfast programs, art and drama programs, and MacKay Centre and Batshaw integration programs. Or he could have mentioned the new advanced program in which students from grades seven to 11 can earn their first year of university, not CEGEP, by completing the advanced education program and go directly into second year, the only high school in Montreal to offer it.

And how the first year of the 16 students who wrote AP exams, 15 passed, and of those 10 passed with 4 or 5 out of 5. Or that 51 per cent of students are on either the Distinction List or on the Principal’s Honour Roll.

But Mr. Sidel chose to take the low road reminding the community of what used to be Westmount High School, and not putting it into context. That was true in the late 1960s and early ’70s—the hippy years—when drugs at the school were not an anomaly but just a part of the North American social revolution that was happening at the time: the years when 4424 St. Catherine St. was addressing those issues—when Jefferson Airplane performed on Mount Royal, Led Zeppelin fans filled the Forum with smoke during their concert, and Mahogany Rush played at an early morning assembly at Westmount High. And to that, as a participant of those years, I might remind Mr. Sidel that the students at Westmount High School were purchasing their drugs from students at Wagar High School—who seemed to have a direct connection to the suppliers.

Hopefully Mr. Sidel will focus in his coming articles on the relevant facts rather than boring us with his opinions and unnecessary slurs. Principal Claude Dansereau and his professional teaching and support staff have worked too hard to make the school the success it is today to be maligned that way.

Marilynn Vanderstay

St. Catherine Street