Letters to the editor

Good book flawed by factual errors



To the editor:

We should always double check the dates. Westmount City Hall was designed by the Findlay father and son firm of architects in 1922—not the far earlier date written in Mackay L. Smith's new book, 'Montreal's Sherbrooke Street: The Spine of the City', reviewed in a recent issue of the Examiner.

It is very upsetting to see dates and descriptions of places in Westmount incorrectly identified. While I welcome Mr. Smith's concentrated study of Sherbrooke Street, I wish that he had checked his information just one more time. The fire and police departments were already on Stanton Street, not moved there.

Unfortunately, I have to make corrections before I can recommend his book to other history buffs.

Doreen Lindsay

President, Westmount Historical Association





Open Door and refugee centre are separate



To the editor:

With reference to Walter Lyng's article about The Open Door in the Feb. 8 Examiner, I should like to point out that it should not be referred to as the Open Door refugee centre.

The Open Door, which comes under the auspices of St. Stephen's Church, and the Advent Refugee Centre, are two separate entities.

The Advent clothing centre was established about 25 years ago by Miss Ann Robson, a member of the Church of the Advent. It was started as a free clothing centre when Miss Robson found that there were refugee children unable to go to school because they did not have winter clothing. She persuaded the Advent Corporation to provide space in the church hall basement on a limited basis which was later expanded to include an office and drop-in centre and officially named The Advent Refugee Centre.

Since Ann Robson's death in 2001, the Centre has continued to be run as a clothing depot. It is managed by James Khokhar, a volunteer worker, with a helper who is paid under Emploi-Québec's Insertion Sociale programme. The Centre is well supplied with donated clothes and is open Monday to Friday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.

When St. Stephen's lost their church hall a few years ago, they approached the Church of the Advent to ask if they could rent the Advent church hall to accommodate their soup kitchen. An agreement was reached in 2003 and the Open Door, then under the leadership of Bob Grier, moved in.

In 2004 the Church of the Advent had to sell the property due to a declining congregation, and joined St. George's Church at Place du Canada. The new owners of the Advent property, The House of Prayer for all Nations, agreed that the existing rentals should continue, for which we are very grateful.

The Open Door and the Advent Refugee Centre have a good relationship. While the clothing centre in the basement is primarily for the benefit of refugees, who are referred to us by the YMCA residence on Tupper Street, the men and women who visit the Open Door may also come to the basement for clothes and other necessities, which they do on a daily basis.

Ramon Herrera is doing a wonderful job at the Open Door, while James Khokhar provides a warm welcome in the Refugee Centre.

I just wanted to set the record straight.

June Paterson

Advent Refugee Centre