Quote of the week:

"I can't get over it. It's like I'm talking to a Martian." - BQ leader Gilles Duceppe, on the stock answers he received during Question Period from Transportation Minister Jean Lapierre's parliamentary secretary concerning land re-distribution around Mirabel Airport.

Unwelcome mat out for Liberals

As Jean Charest's Liberal Party holds its convention in town this weekend, local anarchists, union members, students and assorted affinity groups will be rolling out their unwelcome wagon. Two anti-Liberal demos are called for, the first Friday night, the next Saturday morning. While neither will exactly be a love-in, the anarchist organizers of Friday night's action are anticipating some raucous for the caucus.

Stefan Christoff, a spokesperson for the Anti-Capitalist Convergence, says provincial Liberal economic policies, especially the privatization of services like education and health, are the "local manifestation" of neo-liberalism and free trade at the hemispheric level. These policies constitute an "attack on the social sector and an attack on people's ability to survive," he says. "It's important to oppose this and show that we are willing to confront it through street demonstrations."

Christoff says there will be direct actions - meaning perhaps violence - but they will be targetted. "Direct actions will be taking place in and around downtown against symbols of the Liberal Party, their policies and the corporations they are connected to directly."

Other organizations involved in the demonstration will be the anti-war Block the Empire, the Northeastern Federation of Anarcho-Communists, the anti-deportation No One Is Illegal and Pain, panais et liberté, a food-and-environment-oriented group. The gathering point Friday, Nov. 19, is 5 p.m. at Phillips Square, corner Ste-Catherine W. and Union. Participants are asked to bring flashlights.

For those who don't want to risk arrest but still want to voice their anti-Liberal dislike, meet at

11:30 a.m. on Saturday, Nov. 20 at Palais des Congrès (metro Place d'armes). » Patrick Lejtenyi

Anarchist reading now available

Local anarchists have been having a hard time finding good reading material lately. Last August, the Alternative Bookstore on St-Laurent below Sherbrooke closed, with reports of infighting also heard, as rival groups accused each other of various un-anarchistic behaviour. Then, popular hang-out/concert venue L'X on Ste-Catherine E. was forced to shut its doors.

Thankfully for anarchists, that has now changed. Out of the ashes of the old come two new spots to find everything you wish to know about all things anarchistic and more. Three weeks ago, DIRA, the anarchist lending library previously located at L'X, opened its doors at a new spot on Ontario and Amherst, after a rather hasty departure. "Everything went pretty well, although it was a bit of a scramble to get out of L'X," says DIRA volunteer Aaron Lakoff. "But the new space is really nice and pretty accessible."

Lakoff says there's a lot more to the anarchist library than books. "It serves as an archival centre, with posters from demos, and videos" and information on other radical social movements. There is no need for membership, he says. The library can be found at 916 Ontario E.

Further west, meanwhile, an anarchist bookstore has risen from the grave. On the same spot as the Alternative (2033 St-Laurent), the new bookstore opened its doors last weekend. Now called L'Insoumise (translated, according to a release, as "The unsubdued or rebellious"), and run by l'Association des espèces d'espaces libres et imaginaires (AEELI) , it offers books, pamphlets, magazines and newspapers on a variety of subjects in both English and French. » Patrick Lejtenyi

Waiting for costly meds

Gaetane Saulnier has a notion that the government is too cheap to fight disease. She has issues with an inherited genetic condition known as Fabry's disease that currently afflicts 24 male Quebecers, including her 12-year-old son. "It attacks the kidneys, heart, brain, nervous system and causes extreme pain in the hands and feet, and it can be so intense they sometimes prescribe morphine for it," she says.

The 44-year-old Plateau resident and carrier of the gene wants the government to pay for a drug that she says has been proven to be effective in stemming the degenerative effects of the condition, which often lead to kidney failure and coma. Saulnier's faith lies in a newly developed drug called Fabrazyme, developed by Genzyme, one of the few companies that tackles such rare genetic disorders. It's an effort they make up for by charging a bundle for the medication, in this case up to $250,000 a year. While Fabrazyme was approved by Health Canada earlier this year, it's still awaiting provincial coverage. Qubec, however, does pay for treatments of other rare disorders, like Gaucher disease.

Saulnier has amassed a petition with almost 4,000 signatures, collected in firehouses, online and even at the weekly tam-tams on Mount Royal, and says that when told of the situation, "99.9 per cent of people I've spoken to agree that the government should pay for the drug." » Kristian Gravenor

REAR-VIEW MIRROR

13 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK
Nov. 14-Nov. 21, 1991

On the cover: Metallica, supporting their self-titled album and coming to grips with superstardom. "The way I've measured that Metallica have really become huge in North America with this new album is when I walk into a strip bar and they're all dancing to Metallica songs," says drummer Lars Ulrich. "So it's like, ‘Wow! We must have made it!'"

• The James Bay Cree continue their fight against Hydro-Québec's Great Whale project by taking it to the International Water Tribunal in the Netherlands. "The Canadian and Quebec governments are very sensitive to European public opinion," says Vice Grand Chief Diom Romeo Saganash. "We will be presenting evidence on the impact of the first phase of the James Bay project on the Cree way of life."

• Commenting on Image + Nation, Julianne Pidduck notices "a shift toward often personal, stylistically varied explorations of many aspects of lesbian identity."

• Slum Dog eats mooldy cheese and hallucinates while watching a hooker and a john go at it. "Krikey!! Aliens have landed!" he thinks.

Angel >> Smart street kid dialogue Thanks to Michel Parazelli, a UQÀM social work prof, street kids now have the ability to open up without fearing reprisals. In a three-year project involving the kids, police, community workers and politicians, Parazelli had two groups from each walk of life meet to discuss and write down questions, which they gave to the others to answer. According to Parazelli, the street kids turned out to be the most interested and articulate. They raised questions about police harassment, their legal rights when arrested and the problems of reinsertion programs. While the police and community workers seemed more responsive, the politicians seemed out of touch and have been replaced for future studies with institutional decision-makers and business leaders.
Insect >> Desk jobs First came pear-shaped bodies, then carpal tunnel, then spam and now, it seems, glaucoma. A study by researchers at Tokyo's Toho University School of Medicine found that prolonged, close-range exposure to a computer screen can lead to degenerative eye disease. People who are shortsighted seem more at risk. Basing their findings on interviews with 10,000 office workers with an average age of 43, researchers are warning that the decades ahead could see a sharp rise in eye disease and warn that more study of myopia is needed. The good news for the young males who tend be among the most heavy computer users is that there have not been reports of increasingly hairier palms.