Quote of the week:

"I'm a West Islander born and raised… and I know I will be able to do a good job, especially supported by such a great team." - New Liberal MNA for Nelligan - and first black woman elected to the National Assembly - Yolande James, following Monday's by-election victory.

Preacher fights for clinics

Sixteen months ago, freelance Pentecostal minister Wayne Kinlock strolled down from his home at Décarie and Sherbrooke to the Vendôme Medical Clinic, only to learn that it was slated to close. Such clinics are owned by private individuals but offer free health services to those holding medicare cards. Kinlock says stingy provincial health ministry policies have led to what he counts as 65 local clinics closing over the past couple of years. Since then he has lobbied provincial politicians, threatened a class action suit and launched a save-the-clinic petition, now totalling 1,500 signatures. Kinlock says the clinics offer faster care and cost the government around $30 per patient rather than $200 at a hospital waiting room. "I'm very angry," he says. "I have to fight for the poor and the weak and the sick."

Jean H. Phillippe, Kinlock's lawyer, says plans for a lawsuit were put on hold recently, as they wait to see where new federal health-care cash, promised at last week's first ministers' meeting, is allotted. He says the disappearance of such clinics could lead people to neglect their health and eventually suffer more serious and costlier health care later. "That would all end up costing more for taxpayers," he says. "And how much will it cost vulnerable people?"

Vendôme Clinic owner Dr. John Harrold, who offers a pamphlet at his door explaining his funding issues, says plans to shut down have been shelved. "But fighting the government isn't the easiest thing you'll ever do," he says. » Kristian Gravenor

Beyond the pink

Do pink ribbon products support breast cancer research or a company's bottom line? "It depends on what you buy and from whom you buy it," says Barbara Brenner, executive director of Breast Cancer Action San Francisco. Brenner will urge consumers to ask tough questions about corporate charity in "Think Before You Pink: Breast Cancer, Corporations and You," a free lecture hosted by Breast Cancer Action Montreal, Tuesday, Sept. 28 at 7:30 p.m. in Concordia University's D.B. Clarke Theatre (1455 de Maisonneuve W.). "If [consumers] can't get the answers, they should get another product," she says.

Brenner wants shoppers to ask themselves whether the pink ribbon product they are about to buy might actually contribute to the breast cancer epidemic. She says cosmetics companies might hand out self-exam pamphlets with coupons for their products, which in turn have chemical ingredients Brenner says are harmful to women's health. She also says car companies that donate millions to the cause manufacture vehicles producing exhaust with chemicals linked to breast cancer. "If you care about women's lives, you clean up your products or take the pink ribbon off them," Brenner says.

She has more questions. How much of the money raised goes straight to the cause and what kinds of programs does it support? Brenner says many companies have secrecy clauses with the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation to keep this information out of sight. And exactly how much money funds breast cancer research around the world? She's been trying to figure that one out for years. » Joanna Smith

Rockin' for Amnesty

As part of their two-year global campaign to raise awareness about violence against women, the West Island branch of Amnesty International is enlisting some help from some well-known acts that can act as a draw for a very good cause. Amnesty member Elizabeth Dawson says that each branch had to do something to raise awareness about violence against women, and her idea was to ask friends of hers from the local music scene to put on a benefit show this Sunday. All proceeds will go to Amnesty International Canada's education and awareness campaign.

"Recently we got some girls out of a sex-slave ring in India - they were part of a circus - and we're going to use $500 towards rehabilitating one of them," Dawson says. "The rest of the money will be distributed by our head office in Ottawa."

It's a big issue, and one with no geographical boundaries. "It's the most pervasive kind of violence there is," Dawson says. "We want to get a global voice to speak out on their behalf. We want to help women who are victims of war crimes like gang rapes, genital mutilation, who are stoned to death in Nigeria for having abortions or committing adultery, and of course victims of domestic violence here."

The benefit concert starts at 9 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 26 at the Swimming (3643 St-Laurent), $8, with the Crazy Rhythm Daddies, Oxacah, Throbbing Purple and others. For more info visit www.amnesty.ca/stoptheviolence or e-mail amnesty14@canada.com. » Patrick Lejtenyi

REAR-VIEW MIRROR

16 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK
Sept. 23–Oct. 6, 1988

On the cover: The Centaur's artistic director Maurice Podbrey, who reflects on his 20-year association with the Old Montreal theatre. The South African native muses that, over the years, "Perhaps it is a form of ‘enlightened despotism' that I practice at Centaur."

• Gilles Rhéaume, leader of Quebec's Parti Indépendentiste and former head of the St-Jean-Baptiste Society, shares his vision of a future Quebec with Brendan Weston. He believes in total unilingualism in immigration, that immigrants shouldn't be allowed to work unless they speak French and that Quebec, once sovereign, should occupy Labrador.

• The Beatnigs' debut record is described as "the perfect companion album to Public Enemy's It Takes a Nation of Millions…" in David Oancia's review. • In Dear America, a documentary looking at letters home from soldiers serving in Vietnam, "Even the most gung-ho volunteers come to focus on nothing more than the buddies they've lost and the number of days until they get rotated home," writes Stan Shatenstein.

Angel >> Remembering neighbourhood oddballs One year after noted strongman and annual Best Montreal Weirdo the Great Antonio passed on, his memory is still with us, even though at least one person seems to want to cherish it more than most. Only hours after a plaque was installed outside Antonio's former residence on Beaubien near St-Michel, it was stolen. The good folks over at Quartier Éphémère, an organization dedicated to improving the lot of local artists and protecting Montreal heritage buildings, installed the plaque, and said they'll install a new one. The Great Antonio was a unique Montreal character - we should all be allowed to appreciate him.
Insect >> Dan Rather and CBS News The chief face of CBS news had to wipe a lot of egg off it this week, when it was revealed that much-vaunted documents that cast aspersions on George W. Bush's National Guard record were deemed fakes. Pro-Bush news outlets across the continent - from FOX News to our very own CJAD - promptly went to town with it, lambasting Rather and CBS for personifying the right-wing's pet hobgoblin, the liberal media bias. Rather apologized, but conservatives are already milking the gaffe for all its worth. Thanks to CBS's mistake, the Republican camp now has yet more ammo with which to fire at its enemies.