READERS DEFEND BARENAKED LADY

Re: 'Yeah, It's Cocaine,' Page Told Police, July 18.

Steven Page has always been atop my list of Canadians I'd most like to
meet or have dinner with. Growing up in Mississauga, Ont., in the '80s
and early '90s, I was desperate for a sign that hope and creativity
existed in Toronto's otherwise drab, grey-brown, cookie-cutter
suburbs. And when I watched the Barenaked Ladies riding around
Scarborough in the back of a pickup truck, singing an optimistic and
spirited version of Bruce Cockburn's gloomy ballad Lovers in a
Dangerous Time, that's when I first found consolation, inspiration and
hope.

Fast-forward 20 years and the Barenaked Ladies have become not only
one of this country's most iconic bands, but important and relentless
social activists as well. In two decades as a public figure, Steven
Page has never shirked his responsibility and commitment to Canada. We
owe it to him, and to his family and fellow band members, to not let
him become just another casualty in the war on drugs.

Matthew McKean

Ottawa