Quote of the week:

“I’d like to have an iced cappuccino. An iced cappuccino from Tim Hortons.” —Karla Homolka, in a Radio-Canada interview hours after her release from prison Monday, on the first thing she’d like to do.

Child porn panic

Heavyweight hitters went down swinging against federal Bill C-2, which had its final readings in the Senate this week. The law has been attacked by 15 major artistic groups in Quebec alone for what they consider its overzealous attempt to quash all discussion about sex involving young people.

“They’re trying to clamp down on child pornography, but they’re going too far by making too loose a definition of it,” says Charles Montpetit, chairman of the freedom of expression committee at the Quebec Writers’ Union. “Any description of sex involving people under 18 will be considered child pornography. It’s absurd because the age of consent in Canada is 14. Between 14 and 18, teenagers can legally have sex but we can’t talk about it because that would be child porn.”

The bill would allow seizure of documents until their legality has been determined. “If you fight to the Supreme Court, it takes about 10 years, so if somebody makes even a frivolous complaint, it will result in 10 years of censorship. There are people out there just waiting for such a tool to remove certain books from the market,” he says. » Kristian Gravenor

War of the meds

Over the last two months, during interviews with Access Hollywood and most recently the Today Show, actor/Scientologist Tom Cruise has continued his personal crusade against what he calls the “pseudo-science” of psychiatry and the use of anti-depressants in therapy. While Cruise’s concern about the overmedication of children in America may be compelling, workers at Montreal’s Face à Face Listening and Intervention Centre have been dealing with the real consequences.

“Many of our clients suffer from mental illness, and it’s often a tough decision for them to take medication in the first place,” says community worker Alexandra Houston Smith. “Many of them are unable to work. As a result they spend a lot of their time watching TV and are susceptible to the media.”

Face à Face street worker Jessica Quijano adds, “When celebrities like Tom Cruise make public statements referring to medication in general as being bad and the psychiatric profession as a sham, it only contributes to the stigma associated with mental illness. In truth, Mr. Cruise lacks the expertise or the experience to make statements about such serious issues.” » Raf Katigbak

Street kid vids

Life looks different from the street. Just ask the dozen young people who will be showing their short films tonight, Thursday, July 7, at the corner of Mont-Royal and St-Laurent. The group of six recent grads from film and TV school paired with six youths from “problematic backgrounds,” according to the project’s coordinator, and will be showing off what they’ve done with a camera, some training and a desire to say something. Six films, each between five and 10 minutes long, will be joined by other, similarly-minded entries from around the Francophonie. This year marks the fourth edition of Télé Sans Frontières (TSF).

“These films touch on all kinds of subjects, from homelessness, work, politics, love, sexuality and poverty,” says Claire Buffet, TSF’s coordinator. Bringing young people from different backgrounds, she says, “allows them to learn from one another. It gives them a voice, but it also can get them jobs. And it helps give the marginalized some stability and an idea of working in a professional environment.”

TSF begins at 4533 St-Laurent at 9 p.m. Voluntary contribution suggested. For more info, see www.telesansfrontieres.com. » Patrick Lejtenyi

Bring us our beaches

The water around Montreal actually isn’t that bad, says Conseil régional de l’environnement de Montréal (CRE). What sucks is our access to it.

“Fifty years ago there were around 50 places where Montrealers had access to the water,” says the CRE’s Coralie Deny. “Now there are three: Île Bizard, Cap St-Jacques and Île Jean-Drapeau beach.”

Deny and other community groups are urging the city to make Montreal more water friendly by both improving water quality where it’s poor and by providing access where it’s clean. Lac St-Louis, off Beaconsfield, for instance, is an example of a prime water body with access but generally unusable because the water’s dirty. Parc Bellerive in the East End borders on clean water but doesn’t have the facilities for enjoying water sports.

Chantal Rouleau, of the Comité ZIP Jacques-Cartier, an organization dedicated to the river’s health, is organizing a swim-in at Parc Bellerive near the end of the month. “If we can swim in the most industrialized, built-up part of the city, we should be able to do it anywhere,” she says. Call 527-9262 for details. » Patrick Lejtenyi

REAR-VIEW MIRROR

10 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK
July 6–July 13, 1995

On the cover: “Zairean rumba roi” Papa Wemba, in Montreal for Nuits d’Afrique, talks about crossover success following his latest record, Emotion. “I might sing the odd line in English as a kind of nod to the international market, but I don’t speak it, so I’ll continue to sing in Lingala,” he tells Chris Yurkiw.

• In an interview with a 25-year-old Mario Dumont, Chris Sheridan writes that he “approaches political life as a money manager.” Dumont, however, approves of same-sex spousal benefits, but says “My problem is with adoption of children [by same-sex couples]. I wouldn’t be comfortable with that.”

• A story speculates on the jails that will house the four police officers convicted of beating cabbie Richard Barnabé into a coma. A UdeM criminologist tells Lyle Stewart, “The image of prison is important for the perception of justice in this case.” (The four were suspended from the force for between 120 and 300 days, and were later rehired. Barnabé died in 1996.)

Angel >> Deep Impact NASA’s six-month mission to send a probe smashing into the comet Tempel 1, currently somewhere between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, reached a successful and violent climax early Monday morning EDT. The first mission of its kind, its goal was to provide clues as to the origins of our solar system. Comets contain ice, dust and gas left over from the solar system’s formation and can provide a glimpse of the composition of this neck of the galaxy 4.6 billion years ago. When the probe collided with Tempel 1, which was hurtling through space at 37,000 kilometres an hour, the subsequent explosion was spectacular. See images at www.nasa.gov.
Insect >> Karl Rove George W. Bush’s doughy Svengali—the architect of his rise to power, chief dirty trickster and now deputy White House chief of staff—is truly a nasty piece of work. But, with any luck, he may soon be hoisted by his own petard. In the lead-up to the Iraq war, a White House source leaked the identity of an undercover CIA agent—a serious federal crime—to a conservative columnist in order to discredit the agent’s husband, who disputed some White House assertions about Saddam’s WMD program. Evidence in the subsequent investigation into the leak, still under way, points the finger in Rove’s direction. For a law-and-order White House, this may turn into one whopper of a problem.