Quote of the week:

"I regret it profoundly." - Quebec Environment Minister Thomas Mulcair, referring in court to the May 2002 incident in which he said to former PQ cabinet minister Yves Duhaime, "I can't wait to see you in jail, you Péquiste slut." Duhaime is suing for defamation.

Borough power

At next week's Borough Party launch, veteran Loyola city councillor Jeremy Searle will throw open the door to those who share his decentralist vision. "At the launch on the 15th we're going to invite any Montrealer who is actively involved in their community to come forward to run," he says. "Those interested in becoming candidates will be selected by myself and other party officers, but we won't be holding endless time-wasting nomination conventions."

Another innovation promised by the thoroughly unique council veteran: "We're going to operate on a no-member basis. Only participants will take part, because membership fees are just a way of squeezing money out of people."

Searle offers no shortage of reasons to get rid of the bums in power. "The current administration is a dictatorship. We have a mayor who felt that he could spend $10-million of taxpayers' money on a federal (swimming competition) event without going to council for permission, and we have a council who decides that it's okay to buy $100-plus bottles of wine for lunch. It's time to turf them out, and I guess they say the same about me." » Kristian Gravenor

Pork rage in red

Rural-based and red-robed demonstrators will be taking to the streets on Valentine's Day, Monday, Feb. 14, to protest the red-hot growth of Quebec's pork industry and its subsequent polluting of drinking water. The Coalition citoyenne santé et environnement, together with some Kahnewake Mohawks and members of the Coalition Haut-St-Laurent, another anti-pork-producer group, will march on Jean Charest's Montreal office and demand a moratorium on new factory pig farms - something they say they were promised in June 2002.

"Since then, the number of pigs in the region south of Montreal has risen by 700,000," says Coalition president Gilles Tardif. "That's a lot of pigs for a moratorium."

For protesters who hope to attend the Monday morning rally, red is de rigueur. "It's the day of love, so we should be wearing red, but red is also the colour of conflict, and it's also the colour of blood, of life," Tardif says.

The march takes place Monday, Feb. 14, at 11 a.m. at Carré St-Louis. For more info see http://coalitioncitoyenne.reseauforum.org/. » Patrick Lejtenyi

Journalists shut up

Until Friday, Feb. 11, there will be fewer university students talking on campuses around the city. While that alone could be reason to cheer, the point is to draw attention to human rights violations around the world. The non-speakers are members of Journalists for Human Rights, a Canadian charity that trains African media to cover human rights issues, and their 12- to 48-hour vows of silence are part of a fundraising drive called Speak Silence.

"We'll be dispatching students across Concordia, doing some mime on the mezzanine, taking pictures, that sort of thing," says Concordia's JHR president Nelly Bassily, a 21-year-old journalism student. The money raised will go to local chapters to fund awareness events.

Over at McGill, JHR members will also be quiet, although at least a couple will be "speaking on our behalf," says McGill JHR president Poonam Dhir.

The JHR fundraiser takes place Friday, Feb. 11 at Club Blu (1426 Stanley), $5 in advance, $10 at the door, free drinks for girls before midnight. For more info see www.jhr.ca. » Patrick Lejtenyi

Parizeau return looms

Those titillated by splashy, greed-driven divorce battles might miss the controversial antics of Micheline Parizeau. In the '90s, the local divorce lawyer made $300 an hour, as well as regular newspaper headlines, and was once even targeted with a car bomb. But in 1994 she was charged with 14 counts of professional misconduct, including destruction of evidence and inciting a client to commit perjury. Her misdeeds eventually led her to be banned from practising law for seven years.

But with the help of lawyer Julius Grey, Parizeau managed to whittle that down to four years, a term that ended Feb. 3. Yet according to the legal authorities, that doesn't mean that she'll be back to her old tricks.

"In all cases of disciplinary suspension, the person must apply for readmission," says Montreal Bar rep Anne-Marie Lauriault. "There's a 45-day delay as the candidate's competence is evaluated. A committee will verify if that person has dealt with their shortcomings and whether they plan to return to their previous field of law. It's not an automatic return." » Kristian Gravenor

REAR-VIEW MIRROR

15 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK
Feb. 8–Feb. 15, 1990

On the cover: Defence analyst Gwynne Dyer, who discusses with Brendan Weston German reunification, post-Cold War military budgets and the 1859 "Pig War" - in which a squabble over a pig on a disputed B.C. island nearly resulted in war between the U.S. and Britain. "I loved the [almost] Pig War, because it really does bring home how foolish a lot of this stuff is... Most human history is caused more by incompetence than malevolence."

• In Notes From Underground, Jenny Ross writes that, while on their Bootless tour, DBC's "van kept breaking down until it caught on fire, necessitating an evacuation while still in motion - Chinese fire drill?"

• Dionne Brand, the associate director of Older, Stronger, Wiser, an NFB documentary about black women in Canada, tells Martin Siberok that, "People are flabbergasted when you tell them slavery existed in Canada. They are also surprised to find out that blacks have been here for nearly 300 years."

• According to The Straight Dope, aphids are indeed born pregnant.

Angel >> Charles Darwin This Saturday, Feb. 12, marks the 196th birthday of the famed evolutionist. And while rational-minded folk will be toasting him and his 1859 work On the Origin of Species, others still seek to discredit it. The evolution vs. creationism/intelligent design battle is being fiercely fought, especially in the classroom. School boards in 17 American states are in the midst of some sort of conflict over the inclusion of evolution and alternate theories in textbooks. Apparently, the religious right is doing a good job of keeping people frightened and ignorant: according to a 2003 McGill/Indiana University study, almost 50 per cent of North Americans don't believe in evolution.
Insect >> Paul Cellucci The U.S. ambassador to Canada, who leaves his post next month, couldn't resist one last dig at Canada this week, this time in an interview with his swooning admirers at the National Post. Cellucci never missed an opportunity to scold Canadians about something or other, and his constant badgering about our shortcomings - Canada doesn't care about terrorism, missile defence or military spending, for instance, not to mention our shockingly lax marijuana laws - has long been tiresome. He also issued a vague threat regarding trade slowdowns. Like a blustering, hectoring aunt at a family gathering, he won't be missed by most.