Re: Hate Is Hate No Matter How You Slice It, Mark Cripps, April 18 Column.

The recent controversy at McMaster over Israel Apartheid Week is important for our community and should be discussed responsibly. Unfortunately, Mark Cripps' column is completely irresponsible.

Cripps portrays the Israeli Apartheid Week initiative as discriminatory, comparing it to a "Pro KKK Day." He does not give us a shred of evidence to support this serious accusation.

Cripps' column lists a number of incidents at McMaster, sometimes qualifying them with the word "alleged" and sometimes not. He does not tell us who alleges these things, nor does he give us any evidence to back up his innuendo.

"A lot of what was going on was motivated by professional agitators from York and Ryerson universities." Says who?

I was present at the event, as well as in the planning meeting of the previous day. I can assure you that "professional agitators" did not organize this event and did not control it.

"A number of Jewish students on campus were allegedly intimidated by protesters to the point where they had to receive counseling." "Some students were also allegedly accosted in the library..." Could we have some details of these alleged events, please? Is there any reason whatsoever we should believe any of this?

And, of course, Cripps' big point: "Police confirmed to me this week that incidents that took place at the event are being investigated as hate crimes."

Cripps does not bother to tell us a rather important fact: if someone complains about an event and says it involved hate crimes, the police have to investigate. So that's all Cripps has: someone complained about the event and said it involved hatred and hate crimes.

But we all knew in advance that such complaints would be made, because they are par for the course in silencing those who dare to criticize the policies of Israel. Cripps would have his readers believe that if the police are investigating these complaints, the complaints must be justified. Nonsense.

Good journalism involves research, not the passing on of gossip. Cripps gets a failing grade.

Dr. Graeme MacQueen

Dundas