Soccer mom pierced off

My daughter has been playing soccer with Dollard des Ormeaux since she was five. She’s played house, inter-city and all-star leagues for eight years now. Now because of a tiny nose piercing she has been disqualified to play in the West Island Girls Soccer Cup. Dollard Soccer Club follows the FIFA rules that stipulate absolutely no jewelry during play — totally understandable. However, a nose piercing is different than others. They are very small and flush both inside and outside, so there is no harm in playing with it. Also, it is cartilage and it takes many monthes before you can remove the piercing without it closing up.

I contacted the Dollard Soccer Club to educate them and offered to show them so they could see for themselves I was told, and I quote “The “no jewelry” rule in soccer is designed around the basic premise that a player should not wear anything that could cause injury to oneself or to another person. Very simple. If the parents and players don’t have the basic common sense needed to protect the player, then the referee has to step in and enforce the laws of the game.” They will however let a child with a hard cast on her arm play, which is definitely dangerous to others. Quite the insult, thank you! We’ve lived in Dollard for 11 years and I’ve volunteered in both my daughters’ soccer, schools, Girl Guides and church.

The worst part is when my daughter is able to remove her piercing next year, she is so hurt she no longer wants to play the game she loves.

Our soccer club needs to keep up with the times and not turn away players. I hope the club will take you more seriously. Please help me, I’m just a soccer mom who wants to keep her daughter & others playing the sport they love and keep them off the streets.

Karen Smith

Dollard des Ormeaux

Train ride costly

Last March break my teenage son and a group of friends travelled by train from Beaconsfield train station to downtown. Upon their return trip they collectively purchased a packet of tickets as it was cheaper (students) for them to do so, through the machine at the station. On their return ride a ticket inspector (for lack of a better title) requested to see their tickets that they promptly supplied. It was at this point the ticket inspector phoned me to advise that my son “did not have a valid train ticket” — a very misleading statement. My son phoned and clarified — he and his friends did in fact purchase tickets that he gave to the ticket inspector. However, the tickets were not stamped — something the group had no idea needed to be done. My son said everything at the station was in French — nothing in English. When I called the customer service at the train complaining that there was nothing in English advising these rare train travelers, I was met with silence. Now here we are six months later, my CEGEP son has received a $103 ticket for not having stamped a train ticket that was paid for and in his possession. It gets better, however.

The ticket arrived solely in French. If he wanted the ticket in English he would have to call the number provided. Ironic that he called that number (on numerous occasions, as did I) but the recording told us all agents are busy with other callers. He has yet (two weeks later) been able to request an English version of the ticket. We read constantly about the environment and the need to go “green” and travel by public transportation - in my home that certainly won’t include the “greenback” grabbing train.

Laura Gendron McDougall

Kirkland

What a waste

Why dump boxes when an Eco-centre project is underway?

As a life-long resident of Pointe Claire, I was recently saddened and embarrassed by a sight I hoped never to see in my community. Walking through Pointe Claire Village, I passed by a trailer overflowing with cardboard boxes. These boxes, I learned, were not being broken down to facilitate recycling pickup, but were destined for the dumpster.

A call to public works quickly revealed the reason behind this completely avoidable waste of recyclable materials — the City of Pointe Claire does not provide a complete recycling service to businesses in the Village. Only material which fits into the blue bins is collected, leaving mountains of cardboard boxes as garbage waste.

Merchants of the Village must elect to drive their own recyclables out to the Montreal Éco-centre, located on Henri-Bourassa Boulevard West, or else pack their dumpsters full of material which could have been disposed of in a much more environmentally-friendly manner. This unfortunate reality is even more striking in a community which is currently involved in a full-scale pilot project for a municipal Eco-centre.

The Eco-centre pilot project is a wonderful initiative and I wish it all possible success for the future. That being said, I believe the City of Pointe Claire has overlooked the realities of the recycling situation in favour of making a public showing of their ecologically-friendly ways. If this pilot project is presently underway, why not open it to businesses as well, further encouraging the ecological disposal of materials?

The City of Pointe Claire should be proud of its efforts on this pilot project and I commend them on their endeavours. However, additional attention is still required to ensure that merchants in the Village, or indeed anyone else in the community, must not be left with little choice other than to put potentially recyclable materials out with the trash.

Katia Ostrowski

Pointe Claire 婚