Quote of the week:

"It's resolved. I'm going." - Embattled CHOI-FM personality Jeff Fillion, announcing his resignation effective April 1, citing personal reasons. The Quebec City morning man was being sued by weather presenter Sophie Chiasson for defamation.

Protesting Iraq, post-election

This Saturday, March 19, marks the second anniversary of the start of the American-led invasion, conquest and botched occupation of Iraq. Thousands of dead, billions of dollars and one election later, the Montreal-based anti-war group Échec à la guerre, along with hundreds of other groups worldwide, believes that protesting the war is still relevant.

"There's still a lack of information about what's going on inside Iraq," says Échec's Raymond Legault. "The U.S. played the election in a very positive way, as being a victory of democracy over terrorism, and while I think it's good that there were elections, they are not rethinking their position. And [with all the irregularities], if this election were held anywhere else, it would have been considered invalid."

Legault believes that the situation two years on provides ample grounds for dissent. Reconstruction, he says, is "a joke," with promised funds not forthcoming, sky-high unemployment, water and electricity lacking and street-level chaos continuing.

The Saturday, March 19, anti-war march through downtown starts at Dorchester Square (René-Lévesque and Peel) at 1 p.m. » Patrick Lejtenyi

Toons against racism

Editorial cartoons are supposed to be easy to read, timely and, one hopes at least mildly funny. They can also be powerful, as can be witnessed at the Bonsecours Market (350 St-Paul E.) from Thursday, March 17 to Thursday, March 24 - the sixth annual Action Week Against Racism (AWAR).

Cartoonists Against Racism - Le raciste, c'est l'Autre, a collection of 69 pieces by 48 international artists, will address the racism issue as seen by some of the finest editorial cartoonists in the world. Artists from 25 countries and publications including The Guardian, Le Monde, The Economist, La Nacion, O Globo, El Pais and many others will be featured.

"Cartoons are extremely simple and touch people because they have the power to amuse or disturb," says Gaëlle Brocvielle of Images Interculturelles, AWAR's organizer. "In a very simple way, with very few words, they show the absurdity and incoherence of things in our society." She hopes to eventually take the exhibit on the road and show it internationally.

AWAR will also have film screenings, music nights and public meetings. For more info on AWAR, see www.inforacisme.com. » Patrick Lejtenyi

Couriers get tax cut

Tom Ostreiko can now lunch on even more of his favourite soup from PVM and stew from a Polish joint on St-Mathieu, because the feds now allow non-motorized couriers to write off $15 of food-fuel, up from $11 a day.

The idea is that food is to couriers what gas is to drivers. "Everybody has to have lunch in order to be productive," says Ostreiko, a counsellor at the Montreal Biker Messenger Association. "In the case of a courier, if you don't eat you slow down so much it becomes not cost effective."

The news means an extra $1,000 per year for non-motorized couriers, according to Wayne Scott, head of Toronto's Hoof&Cycle Active Transport Workers Guild. Scott started fighting for the deduction in 1981 before the feds finally relented in 1998. The $11 total was based on a similar total for train workers, and when that recently got hiked, Scott demanded and received a similar new deal for couriers.

His crusade has made him popular among his colleagues. "I haven't had to pay for a beer in years," says Scott. » Kristian Gravenor

Head and Hands at 35

One day, if somebody asks you what you were doing Friday, March 18, 2005, between 6 and 8 p.m., your best answer will be, "Why, I was attending the Head and Hands 35th anniversary party, of course!"

And if you wonder what Head and Heads does exactly, here's your answer: "We offer non-judgemental, holistic, medical, legal and social services for youth aged 12 to 25," says director Marlo Turner-Ritchie. "So, for example, we run clinics in the evening and we have specialized counselling and support, with a young parents program and a youth drop-in centre."

Their newish storefront digs at 5833 Sherbrooke W. (corner Melrose) is also known to be a good place to discreetly check out what sexually transmitted infections you might have picked up recently. Services are open to people from all over.

The party, to be held at the Head and Hands HQ, is part of what Turner-Ritchie calls "an emergency fundraising campaign," and will feature a silent auction of artwork, youth performers, a dancer, the ubiquitous DJ and the Yellow Door Choir, as well as booze. » Kristian Gravenor

REAR-VIEW MIRROR

16 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK
March 9–March 22, 1989

On the cover: A loincloth-clad Japanese Kodo drummer, pounding a 900-pound O-daiko drum, whose troupe is coming to Montreal. "There are other styles of drumming in Japan, such as the Noh or Kabuki theatrical styles, but they demand a more refined ear," says troupe spokesman Bob Ward. "The folk [Kodo] style was for the workers and the rowdy town festivals - it was for the common folk."

• "The main problem with being a girl in this business is what I call the bimbo factor," Bananarama's Sarah Dallan [sic] tells Marian Macnair. "The record company higher-ups will take you out and use you like an ornament, it's like they're going to sell you. We don't behave like that naturally, so we're just as likely to punch one of them in the face as flirt with them."

• Despite being billed as a "‘post-feminist comedy' (whatever that is)," writes Carla Gruodis, Les Pirates, a play about two 18th-century female buccaneers, offers little more than "flat parodies of butch girls and wimpy guys."

Angel >> Science spending This week the feds announced they'd be dishing out $222-million in health-related research grants to 571 projects across the country. Quebec universities are getting a hefty chunk - some $65-million over five years, to study a wide range of illnesses, from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in women following childbirth to the effects of screening tests for cancer-causing viruses. Another project will study PTSD in soldiers, one in five of whom may suffer from it. The grants may also allow Canada to hold on to the talent grown and developed here, with some of the money going to graduate and post-doctorate research fellows.
Insect >> The cost of air travel Jetsgo's sudden and complete collapse last weekend not only stranded an estimated 17,000 travellers and put 1,200 people out of a job, it also hit all Canadians planning on flying anywhere in the near future. Only four days after the news broke, the ticket price of a Canadian carrier went up anywhere from 16 to 50 per cent. The airlines deny they're feasting on Jetsgo's carcass and say the price hike is simply the result of fewer seats available. Be that as it may, and regardless of the underlying economic and structural reasons behind the Jetsgo debacle, we're all paying the price.