Re: “Anti-police acronym removed from Bastion Square mural, replaced with censorship message,” Oct. 29.
As an artist I want to start off by saying, I support public art to the fullest. Public art can be controversial. It can enhance our community and open us up to dialogue. I need to say I was greatly upset over the completed art installation at Bastion Square pertaining to injustices towards Black and Indigenous people.
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The idea of surreptitiously encrypting the acronym ACAB into a piece of commissioned public art is both insulting and offensive to the public and the police. I have sold a number of pieces both my own and commissioned work. I could not imagine incorporating a political message of my belief into a piece of commissioned work, without the knowledge of the purchaser. It would be unprofessional, as well as morally unethical.
I was angered to read that the artists responsible for the work were involved in “weeks of negotiations with the city” as to how to deal with the offensive acronym. The solution to cover the letter “S” and include a lengthy notation that criticizes the city for silencing their voices seems to be almost as offensive.
I have been fortunate enough to purchase a few pieces of original art in my lifetime. Since I bought and paid for them, they belong to me. I can do whatever I wish with them.
It is my understanding that since the city owns this installation, the city should not really have to consult with anyone as to what happens with the piece. I feel that for all the good intentions on the part of the city to support public art, the cost and time taken has ended up as a huge waste of taxpayer dollars. In the end, the greater message of “More Justice, More Peace” seems to have been lost to everyone.
Rod MacPherson Saanich
Restaurant servers, wear your masks
When eating out we find that in some places not all of the staff members wear masks. The person directing us to a table might keep at a suitable distance.
However, often the person serving the meal does not wear a mask and is usually standing a foot or two away, is above us, and talking. Not good.
I have asked why no mask and been told that it is up to the individual server to decide.
It should be mandatory that at least the server wears a mask. Better yet, keep it simple and make it mandatory that masks be worn by everyone in all indoor facilities dealing with the public.
Roger Nield Victoria
Pandemic will have lingering impact
Let’s take a moment to cheer on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Before COVID-19 he had already set a milestone in increasing Canada’s debt per capita (inflation adjusted) more than any prime minister outside the Great Depression of the 1930s and the two world wars, sadly stealing that honour from his father. With COVID he now has an open field to surpass those PMs who merely had to deal with world wars or global depressions.
So while COVID will pass, we are assured the suffering will continue for generations to come.
Scott Clark Victoria
Limit cannabis to limit the virus
The authorities have strictly reduced access to bars and nightclubs to an essential minimum. Extended stays assisted by alcohol reduce inhibitions and allow the untested positives to spread the virus.
How does freely available cannabis enhance our drive to get the better of this pandemic? The answer is: It doesn’t.
Leonhard Braunizer Brentwood Bay
A bridge would help at Kelly Road crossing
Congratulations to Colwood in pressing for a bridge on the Galloping Goose Trail and Wale Road.
I find that crossing the Island Highway by bike to be not so much a challenge at the proposed site as it is at Kelly Road and the Veterans Memorial Parkway, which requires two major street crossings versus the one.
Please consider one more key crossing site.
Larry Maydonik James Bay
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LONDON (AP) — With a few daubs of a paintbrush, the Brontë sisters have got their dots back.
More than eight decades after it was installed, a memorial to the three 19th-century sibling novelists in London’s Westminster Abbey was amended Thursday to restore the diaereses – the two dots over the e in their surname.
The dots — which indicate that the name is pronounced “brontay” rather than “bront” — were omitted when the stone tablet commemorating Charlotte, Emily and Anne was erected in the abbey’s Poets’ Corner in October 1939, just after the outbreak of World War II.
They were restored after Brontë historian Sharon Wright, editor of the Brontë Society Gazette, raised the issue with Dean of Westminster David Hoyle. The abbey asked its stonemason to tap in the dots and its conservator to paint them.
“There’s no paper record for anyone complaining about this or mentioning this, so I just wanted to put it right, really,” Wright said. “These three Yorkshire women deserve their place here, but they also deserve to have their name spelled correctly.”
It’s believed the writers’ Irish father Patrick changed the spelling of his surname from Brunty or Prunty when he went to university in England.
Raised on the wild Yorkshire moors, all three sisters died before they were 40, leaving enduring novels including Charlotte’s “Jane Eyre,” Emily’s “Wuthering Heights” and Anne’s “The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.”
Rebecca Yorke, director of the Brontë Society, welcomed the restoration.
“As the Brontës and their work are loved and respected all over the world, it’s entirely appropriate that their name is spelled correctly on their memorial,” she said.
