Editor:
In response to the article on page 5 (Coast Reporter, Oct. 24) I would like to make a comment on one sentence in the article that I found offensive.
I read the piece with interest as I was at that meeting myself and wondered how it would be covered. All was good until the last column when Judith Hammill was identified as being Roger Swickis’s partner. I believe this label was meant to diminish Judith’s performance as a person in her own right.
She did a splendid job standing up to the mayor, defending the town planner in a very intimidating environment. Why did John Gleeson feel it necessary to tell your readers she is Roger Swickis’s partner?
We do not need to be identified as so and so’s wife or partner. If this is your paper’s policy then I expect you should make sure that anyone who addresses council, male or female, should get the same treatment. I feel this description had negative undertones and purpose.
With the elections upon us, I beg this newspaper to make every effort to keep your reporting unbiased. After all, we are all your reading and advertising audience.
Judith Bonkoff, Gibsons
