Quote of the week:

“They are apparently blissfully tolerant of hockey sticks, baseball bats and skates.” —Alan Borovoy, lawyer for Civil Liberties Association of Canada, on Via Rail, after the Crown corporation forced a Sikh passenger off the train last week for wearing a ceremonial dagger.

UN versus cops

Last week’s UN report that slammed the Montreal police force for its use of mass arrests has raised eyebrows around the province, but for some high-profile activists, it’s a vindication of claims they’ve been making for years.

“This is just the basics,” says local anarchist activist Jaggi Singh. “It’s tip-of-the-iceberg kind of stuff.” Singh points to mass arrests made by police in protests past—notably the 2002 G8 protest and the 2003 WTO protests—as proof that Montreal police use the tactic with regularity.

The report, written by the United Nations International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, says that close to 2,000 people have been rounded up in mass arrests since 1999, more than any other Canadian city, and says only those suspected of criminal charges should be arrested (this reporter and Mirror photographer Rachel Granofsky are currently awaiting a court date relating to their arrest at the Nov. 19, 2004 protest against the Charest Liberals).

A Montreal police spokeswoman justifies mass arrests, saying it’s difficult to find the guilty party in a crowd. » Patrick Lejtenyi

Con U on air

Concordia student-run radio station CJLO looks like it’ll be going onto a radio dial near you. On Monday, Nov. 14, the station has a hearing with the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) to grant it a broadcasting licence. Previously heard only on the Internet, this would be a huge step for a station that started its life as a merger between Concordia’s previous stations CRSG and CFLI in1998.

“We’ve been training for this moment,” says station manager David Caporicci-Urovitch (also the station’s metal director). For the past three years, the station staff has intensified its training, upgraded its equipment and made significant strides in its production and promotion quality, all with the goal of making it on air.

“It’s not going to be like [McGill radio station] CKUT,” he says. “There will be more music, less political talk shows, and we’ll be trying to showcase different styles and genres.”

Caporicci-Urovitch says because no one has intervened against their application, the hearing will be more of a formality. He hopes to start broadcasting on air next spring or summer. » Patrick Lejtenyi

Tunes for tents

Instead of passively grieving for her dead countrymen in Pakistan following the Oct. 8 earthquake, Montreal artist Asma Khan decided not to let distance get in the way of her desire to help. “I have family members and acquaintances that live in Muzafrabad, some of whom have lost their children,” she says. “Northern Pakistanis are rural and pure—it is unjust that this should happen to them of all people. I feel a natural responsibility to take action.” She and a few friends are organizing a musical event to raise money for quake victims that still do not have tents.

The fundraiser features an impressive and eclectic list of local talent playing bebop, funk, jazz, electronic and ’80s music. Creature, Vox Crosby, Tempus Fugit and others round out the line-up. The show is on Nov. 11 at la Sala Rosa (4848 St-Laurent, $12, 8 p.m.). All proceeds go to Oxfam for the purchase of insulated tents.

Meanwhile, on Sunday, Nov. 13, Bourbon Street West (1866 Sources) hosts a hurricane relief concert with Dibondoko, Daniel Iorio and others (4 p.m., $12). » Ismail Elmokadem

Samdup gets sung

Thubten Samdup flew down to San Francisco last weekend as an “Unsung Hero of Compassion” only to leave considerably more sung.

The Montreal resident and tireless advocate for peaceful Tibetan liberation, along with 47 others, was personally awarded a humanitarian award by the Dalai Lama in a ceremony attended by 600 people paying $400 (U.S.) a seat. The event was organized by wine entrepreneur Richard Grace’s non-profit organization, Wisdom in Action.

Do-gooders from 22 countries were rewarded with $1,000 (U.S.), including Ben Duskin, an 11-year-old cancer patient who developed a video game to allow people to virtually blast their cancer cells.

“It’s all about honouring compassionate action for these unsung heroes who work on the sidelines and don’t get any notoriety,” says event organizer Christine Wright.

Samdup became the first North American elected to the Tibetan parliament in exile in 1990, and in 1993 also launched the World Tibet Network to provide Tibet-related news, and has worked tirelessly to promote Tibetan independence. » Kristian Gravenor

REAR-VIEW MIRROR

16 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK
Nov. 10–Nov. 16, 1989

On the cover: Mordecai Richler, who had recently published his most ambitious novel to date, Solomon Gursky Was Here. “Every novel is a failure of a kind, because you start out with this idea of perfection and you never, never attain it,” he tells Graham Fraser. “It’s never what you hoped it would be. But at a certain point it’s finished and you’ve got to let it go. It’s finished when you’re bored with it.”

• Saying they want to escape racism, Haitian and Iranian immigrants form their own cab companies. Taxi Metro-Montreal is Haitian-run, Atlas Iranian. “I think up to 85 or 90 per cent of our Iranian drivers have a minimum of a college degree,” says Atlas president Nasser Bajgiran.

• Of a Killer Dump show, Jenny Ross writes: They “did two songs, all my friends left, the power went out and the police came.”

• Drugstore Cowboy’s “roots are in the experimental art film genre, but if I’d had more time I would have been more outrageous,” says director Gus Van Sant.

Angel >> Rethinking election strategies Following the dismal turnout for Sunday’s election and the fiasco with the counting machines, the provincial Municipal Affairs Minister, Nathalie Normandeau, speculated that changes to the voting process are in order. One idea is pushing election day back into October, to spare voters going to the polls in dismal weather. Another is to make election day a Monday, so people enjoying a lazy Sunday wouldn’t have their weekend disturbed. Also, the minister questioned the wisdom of holding same-day province-wide elections (a first). The thinking behind the move was that it would electrify voters with a charge of democratic zeal, and translate into 60 per cent voter turnout. Obviously, it didn’t.
Insect >> Winter elections Speaking of elections, it looks like we’ll be bombarded with politicians’ faces, banners, ads and glad-handing over the holidays. Oh joy. Federal NDP leader Jack Layton said he wouldn’t support the governing Liberals’ health care policy earlier this week, meaning that an election is on the way. The one consolation lies in the reluctance of all opposition parties to bring down the government and force an election on an already stressed-by-Christmas Canada. Because of parliamentary procedures, the likeliest scenario is a no-confidence vote in early December, making for an election in mid-January. But that still means politicians campaigning over the holidays, when voters probably won’t have the time, energy or inclination to care.