Quote of the week:

"There must be a limit to this shameful fascism!" - Raymond Villeneuve, leader of the ultra-nationalist Mouvement de Libération Nationale du Québec, complaining that eight "mentally deranged anarchist skinheads" beat up one of his supporters the night of Feb. 12.

Health-care blitzkrieg

The promised payoff of the reorganization of the health system will be an army of health officials conducting proactive, in-your-face, door-to-door combat on the ailments that plague us. The ongoing strategy, as outlined in last year's provincial Bill 25, has health-care workers descending on individual neighbourhoods to examine, explain and hopefully prevent a wide swathe of medical problems.

With the medical map redrawn from the 29 old CLSC zones to 12 new territories, the philosophy has also evolved. "The new Health and Social Service Centre will be responsible for the health in the area, not just the people who walk in the door," says Deborah Bonney, communications director of the Montreal Public Health Department. "It's a population approach, as opposed to an illness approach."

Yves Laplante, a public health media rep, says that particular attention will be paid to five neighbourhoods - Sainte-Marie, Lachine-Ville-St-Pierre, Montreal North, St-Michel and Verdun-Côte-St-Paul - with high levels of infant malnutrition, a common problem in a city where 21 per cent of kids under five live with only one parent and 38 per cent of all kids under five live in families under the poverty line. » Kristian Gravenor

AIDS Ball hurting

The Boxing Day tsunami resulted in an unprecedented surge in global giving, but other charities are feeling the pinch. AIDS, for instance, is still killing thousands every day around the world, but at least one charity raising money is having trouble selling tickets to what would otherwise most likely be a well-attended fundraiser.

"There are two problems," says Dale Barrett, a McGill law student and a member of the first annual McGill AIDS Ball organizing committee. "First, you're dealing with law students, who commit to a lot of things and don't have much free time. Second, a lot of corporate sponsors have already spent a lot of time and money on tsunami relief."

The AIDS Ball, to be held at the Medley (1170 St-Denis) on Friday, March 4, will be a formal affair - suit and tie for the gents, evening dresses for the ladies - with cocktails, silent auction, bachelor auction and prizes. Money raised goes to Médecins sans frontières' Access to Essential Medecines campaign.

For ticket info ($25 advance, $35 door), call 286-4869, e-mail aidscharityball.law@mail.mcgill.ca or visit www.law.mcgill.ca/students/clubs/charityball. » Patrick Lejtenyi

Workshop against war

This March 19 marks the second anniversary of the American-led war on Iraq, and the local activist scene isn't sitting idly by. For the next three weeks, representatives from five organizations - No One Is Illegal, the International Solidarity Movement, the Iraq Solidarity Movement, the Indigenous Peoples' Solidarity Movement and the Projet Accompagnement Solidarité Colombie - will be showing their, uh, solidarity with those on the short end of the global stick with a series of community workshops "against capitalist globalization, para-militarisation and colonialism." The series culminates in Saturday, March 19's global day of action against the occupation of Iraq.

"This is about community education. Basically we want to go out into neighbourhoods and connect with neighbourhood groups," says No One Is Illegal organizer Jaggi Singh. "But we won't be shy about our politics, we want to be up front about them. This builds on the work these groups have been doing already."

For more info on subjects, times and dates of a workshop near you, visit www.warofterror.ath.cx. » Patrick Lejtenyi

More on Black History

Some last Black History Month events worth catching:

On Thursday, Feb. 24, Groupe Voices will be singing Haitian songs at CÉGEP Marie-Victorin (7000 Marie-Victorin, 8 p.m., free) while Nathalie Natiembé sings at the Maison de la culture Frontenac, (2550 Ontario E., 8 p.m. free). On Saturday, Feb. 26, UQÀM hosts Peru Negro, a celebration of Peru's African legacy (405 Ste-Catherine E., 8 p.m., $25–$35). The same day the Union Church Gospel Choir sings traditional African songs at the Union United Church (3007 Delisle, 3:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., $10 advance, $15 door).

On Saturday, Feb. 26, the Chantier d'Afrique du Canada will put on a day-long show of discussion, readings, music and dance at the Mile-End Library (5434 Parc), beginning at 10:30 a.m.

Finally, the Rotary Club of Montreal will be holding a 12-hour, multi-style dance-a-thon benefit at the MAA (2070 Peel), 9 a.m.–9 p.m., on Sunday, Feb. 27. The money will go to building community centres both in Montreal and in hurricane-ravaged Haiti. » Patrick Lejtenyi

REAR-VIEW MIRROR

18 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK
Feb. 26–March 18, 1987

On the cover: Barbara Sukowa, portraying fiery early 20th-century German communist Rosa Luxemburg, in Margarethe von Trotta's eponymous 1986 bio-pic (to be screened in Montreal as a benefit for La Vie en Rose magazine). "Digesting, ingesting culture and chaos, Luxemburg was a spirit who, face-à-face, was never successfully challenged," writes a breathless Leila Marshy. "Prolific and daunting, her restless energy, like the inevitable tide, waited for no one."

• Foreign domestics don't have it easy in Canada, the Mirror reveals. Bureaucracy, low pay, little privacy and fewer legal rights makes the job "a personalized way of continuing the regular exploitation of the Third World," says a representative from the Household Workers Association of Montreal.

• Stanza five (of seven) in Def Annie's review of License to Ill reads, "Well the Beasties are/the baddest b-boys around/Rhymin' and Stealin' licks/from Credence and Led Zep/Beasties are the definition of def."

• Investigating the generally poor state of English stand-up comedy, Mimi ReTardif asks, "Are Montreal anglos too miserable to laugh?"

Angel >> Little Sister's The small Vancouver bookstore catering to the LGTB community has been in and out of courtrooms since 1986, leading the movement to reform Canada Customs' obscenity import prohibitions. Their latest court battle against Customs, stemming from the 2003 seizure of two Meatmen comics, is still in the preliminary stages but has already cost the store hundreds of thousands of dollars. On Friday, the B.C. Court of Appeals overturned the decision to award them advanced costs, which Mark Macdonald, the store's bookbuyer, calls a "major setback." They vow to fight on, however, saying the case is of national importance.
Insect >> Nuke neglect Details are only emerging now about last June's potentially catastrophic incident at the Chalk River, Ontario, nuclear reactor. The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, the industry regulator investigating the matter, says only an automatic safety system prevented a radioactive leak, the result of coolant loss. The Commission blasted the federal Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd., saying it was complacent when it came to safety (last month, AECL was criticized for sloppy disposal of sludge). Meanwhile, in Quebec, a Radio-Canada reporter was allowed to fly over the province's Gentilly-2 reactor for 20 minutes without any bother, further embarrassing the province following the LG-2 and Manic-5 hydro dam debacles.