From the Globe and Mail, responding to this column

'A mistress-piece of inanity'

Chris Cummings

Wednesday, September 15, 1999

Toronto -- Okay, I will bite. I actually will stoop to write in response to Heather Mallick's piece. I am not writing to rebut her unsubstantiated, ridiculous statements. She is entitled to prattle on for as long as she likes about her hatred of all things American, but I was disappointed that a paper such as The Globe and Mail would actually publish the evidence of her obsession. I doubt that one would find Ms. Mallick's musings on the pages of The New York Times or The Wall Street Journal or any of those other American newspapers that "are so soft you could lick them out of a cone."

The irony of such a statement appearing in this fluff piece (albeit a mean-spirited fluff piece) accounted for my only enjoyment of Ms. Mallick's column. The reason that one would not find a complementary piece on Canada in a U.S. newspaper is not because there are not ample targets at which to take aim, but because most Americans have neither the time nor the inclination to obsess about their neighbours to the north. And most U.S. newspapers would not print such tripe.

Sally Morrow

Wednesday, September 15, 1999

Gloucester, Ont. -- Re Americans: Hate 'Em Or Hate 'Em (Focus -- Sept. 11):

For the sake of her own mental health, Heather Mallick should try to get a more balanced view of the people she is calling "Americans." My impression of her article is that it is incitement to hatred against an identifiable group of people, which, I believe, is a crime in Canada.

Using expressions such as "viral," "mutate and crawl back," "physically ridiculous," "huge buttocks of American tourists," "most uneducable people on Earth" and calling the southern United States a "swamp populated by yokels" comes awfully close to Goebbels's descriptions of Jews in Nazi Germany. I think The Globe and Mail should apologize for printing this hate-filled rant. Not to do so gives the impression that you agree with her.

Michael Kaan

Wednesday, September 15, 1999

Winnipeg -- Heather Mallick's random parade of her anti-American views was a mistress-piece of inanity and a watershed in the dumbing down of The Globe. Since when has it become possible for someone to get paid to list a series of stereotypes and nationalistic whines without argument or context?

What other embarrassing parochialisms does Ms. Mallick hold that you would be willing to publish? Does she cling earnestly to the belief that American youth travel to Europe with backpacks bearing Canadian flags? That "eh" is a cultural icon? That the space-shuttle appendage that the rest of the world calls the space arm is really called the Canadarm? That Herzog is a Candian novel because its author lived in Quebec until he was 3?

Larry Shapiro

Wednesday, September 15, 1999

Calgary -- I'm sick and tired of insecure Canadians attacking the United States. If the best Heather Mallick can do is to indict the U.S. for countenancing the marketing of plastic fencing, then what criticism can be levelled at our utopian nation over its military's shredding medical documents to avoid taking proper care of its servicemen? Or the reaction by Immigration Canada to the arrival and subsequent disappearance of Chinese queue-breakers?

As far as the relative merits of Canada versus the United States, when so many talented Canadians have moved and are still moving there, we should not find it difficult to come to some conclusion about which country offers greater opportunities for personal expression and achievement.

Wayne Harding

Wednesday, September 15, 1999

Ottawa -- If, in her column, Heather Mallick had used the word "Jews" or "blacks" instead of "Americans," she and the management of The Globe and Mail would now be the subject of a human-rights -- if not a police -- investigation.

It is entirely reasonable that a Canadian writer would wonder aloud why Canadians have failed so badly to protect their own artistic endeavours. But it is neither reasonable nor responsible for such a writer to put down all the cultural achievement of all the people of the United States with one disparaging word -- "peasant."

Ms. Mallick's column was ignorant and offensive. You should apologize for it.

T.J. Varkony

Wednesday, September 15, 1999

Toronto -- I hope my letter is only one of hundreds. Heather Mallick's article was the most vicious American-bashing I have ever been confronted with.

If it is so terrible in the United States, why do a large number of capable Canadian professionals, as well as young, ambitious people, choose to gravitate there?

In the United States, talented people, regardless of race, gender or background, can succeed. In Canada, a conformist "yes man" is most likely to get ahead.

I think this article was just another expression of good old Canadian jealousy.

Rodney M. Kerr

Wednesday, September 15, 1999

Don Mills, Ont. -- Heather Mallick's anti-American column was really rather tiresome. Not only has it been done before, but the whole tone of the discussion was somewhat below the level of insightful, or witty or otherwise intelligent or entertaining commentary one hopes The Globe's Focus section will provide for perusal with our Saturday morning coffee.

Surely an appropriate standard by which to judge Americans -- as a group -- is to compare them to previous dominant powers. I would suggest, by this comparison, Americans look pretty good.

Joel J. Sokolsky

Wednesday, September 15, 1999

Kingston -- Heather Mallick does not have to worry about Canada absorbing more "humiliation" from Americans. Anti-American nationalists like her are doing a good job at making their fellow Canadians feel small and ashamed.