Editor, The Times:
The Wednesday before last I went down to big bad Vancouver for a meeting.
Upon contacting my daughter I was informed that we were going to see Gwynne Dyer at the SFU Centre located in the old Woodward's site on West Hastings Street.
Dyer's talk was standing room only, with people sitting on the steps and stairways.
However there was here, just as at TRU in Kamloops, an absence of media coverage.
Charlie Smith of the Georgia Straight was the moderator but the rest of Vancouver's scribblers appeared to be absent from the scene.
Is there an ideological reason for this non-coverage of one of Canada's finest columnists?
Of course, Gwynne Dyer is controversial. As he pointed out, here in Canada as well as the U.S., we are being programmed for an attack on Iran, perhaps by Israel or a USA-Israel combination.
He also said that on the main Iran, although governed by one of the most dislikable regimes on the face of the earth, conforms to the rules governing those nations with nuclear power. Contrast this to Israel, which has at least 200-300 nuclear bombs but has never acknowledged or been forced to acknowledge one of them.
An attack on Iran would be (and this is voiced in the top echelons of the Pentagon) a total disaster.
However, forgetting the lessons of Iraq (and Iran would be far worse) the powers that be are panicking the general population ('Israel can't wait," etc.) into going along with this ill-conceived idea.
Gwynne Dyer has a controversial in your face approach to things. Ignore him at your peril.
Dennis Peacock
Clearwater, B.C.