Quote of the week:

“We’ve become the backyard for all sorts of problems.” —Former Pointr St-Charles city councillor Marcel Sévigny, who opposes the proposed move of the Montreal Casino to the Peel Basin. A new report published Monday by the Montreal public health department criticized the move.

Muslim paper coming

The Islamic Supreme Council of Canada announced last weekend that they are planning to set up a nation-wide newspaper to present the news from a Muslim perspective.

The Muslim Free Press is expected to publish bi-weekly in Montreal, Toronto, Calgary and Vancouver beginning April 15. The Montreal edition will be bilingual, says Toronto-based Council president Syed Soharwardy in a telephone interview.

“We will start with those four cities and see how the response goes and then see if we can spread across the country,” he says. It will be financed by donations from the Muslim community.

The announcement comes in the wake of protests against the publication of cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed in two Calgary-based publications, the Western Standard and the Jewish Free Press. Soharwardy said last week he may open a hate-crimes lawsuit against the publishers.

He also says the free, tabloid-style paper will not be exclusively religious. He hopes to have several non-Muslims on the editorial board. “It will be very diverse,” he says. “It will be open to all viewpoints, and there will not be preaching of Islam.” —Patrick Lejtenyi

Reform the vote

Quebec democracy is terribly undemocratic. Scads of ballots get wasted in local landslide victories, second-place-overall parties form majority governments and non-mainstream parties can only hope to enter legislature via the visitors’ gallery. But consultations roll into town next week to listen to us average bums suggest repairs.

A new proportional representation arrangement, proposed by the Liberals, offers all voters an additional regional compensation vote. This could increase fairness and help loveable oddballs get voted in, because experience shows that voters often use the extra for fringe parties. In Germany, about 25 per cent send their second vote to non-mainstream parties; in New Zealand, about 30 per cent do so, according to longtime proportional representation advocate Paul Cliche.

He likes the proposal and urges people to attend the public hearings. “This consultation is good because there was so little information and discussion about this important issue previously,” he says.

Consultations hit the Palais des congès (1001 Place Jean-Paul Riopelle room 510) all day Monday, Feb. 27 at 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Other locations around Montreal will follow. Ring 1-866-337-8837 or go to www.assnat.qc.ca for details. —Kristian Gravenor

QPIRG movie nights

Good news, film fans: there’s another festival in Montreal. But this time you get to have a nice dose of politics to go along with your popcorn.

Until Thursday, March 9, the McGill chapter of the Quebec Public Interest Research Group (QPIRG) will be hosting a twice-weekly film night on campus to movies addressing pressing social concerns, such as gentrification, race and sexual orientation, AIDS treatment, the Zapatista movement and the environment. All film screenings are free and open to the public.

“The idea is to infuse the McGill campus with a constant presence of progressive ideas,” says QPIRG McGill coordinator Indu Vashist. “And showing films is an easy and accessible way of getting those ideas out.”

Individual QPIRG working groups chose the films they wanted to present, based on the work they do, and that meant tracking down rare, difficult-to-find and at times expensive copies. “We’re a non-profit with no money,” says Vashist, so they leaned on the McGill library for some help.

For a complete list of films, dates and times, visit www.ssmu.mcgill.ca/qpirg/. —Patrick Lejtenyi

Tunes for Tutsi tots

You think your life’s a struggle? Compare notes with Dawson social science student Beatha Kayitesi sometime and see how well your own misfortune holds up.

Beatha is one of only a few Tutsis from her village to survive the 1994 genocide in her native Rwanda. Her mother, who still resides there and whom Beatha believed dead until just recently, is another survivor. So are the 18 orphans Beatha’s mother now finds herself caring for.

And guess what? They need money—that is if these kids are going to continue going to school, and, um, eating. To this end, the good people at Dawson College have launched the Schoolhouse Project, an extension of last year’s successful drive to buy Beatha’s mom a bull—no small whoop in Rwanda.

This Friday, Feb. 24, Dawson will be presenting a musical wingding comprised of staff and students in an effort to raise the $3,000 needed to keep these kids in study mode. Says organizer Michele Pallett, “The action begins at 5 p.m. in room 5B16 with a pizza supper.”

Admission is $13, $8 for students. —Chris Barry

REAR-VIEW MIRROR

11 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK
Feb. 23–March 2, 1995

On the cover: Female casting agents Rosina Bucci, Vera Miller and Nadia Rona, who run Montreal agency Elite Productions. It’s one of the few industries dominated by women, writes Joanne Latimer, and they have power. “You have to have a feel for spotting talent,” says Miller. “I will just know after two or three minutes into an audition whether the person can do the job.”

• After referring to cheap dates as “hymies” among other bizarre on-air outbursts, Dini Petty, writes Josh Bezonsky, isn’t merely an insult to Canadian women or Canadians in general. “She’s an insult to all mammals.”

• Mireille Silcott reports that promoters are throwing more 18-and-over raves. “The core group of people are getting older and don’t want to be around 15-year-olds in social situations,” says one. But Rosanna, 15, asks only of their elders to “Teach us; don’t kick us out.”

• In Gone: The Mirror’s Travel Section, Nancy Lyon writes about voodoo, local aphrodisiac bois bandé (reputed to cause priapism) and a live volcano in Guadeloupe.

Angel >> Habitable stellar systems With 400 billion stars in the Milky Way galaxy alone, finding one that could support life (as we know it) was a pretty daunting task. But some very clever astronomers have found five that could conceivably support life. The short list, created after studying close to 120,000 stars, will help NASA’s Terrestrial Planet Finder orbiting observatories, to be launched in 2020, narrow their search for Earth-like planets in the neighbourhood, and help private searches like SETI concentrate on finding signals originating from those stars in particular. The stars include` Beta CVn, in the Canes Venatici constellation, a mere 26 light years (247 billion kilometres) from Earth, 51 Pegasus, HD 10307 (42 light years away), HD 211415 and 18 sco, in the Scorpio constellation. Hey aliens! Over here!
Insect >> Hockey parents Maybe they thought their own little under-performing Olympians needed some motivation. Or maybe they thought the 17-year-old referee was a vendu. Whatever the case, the boorish behaviour on grotesque display at an Atom hockey game last Sunday at the Maurice Richard Arena in the East End may wind up changing minor hockey. Following an altercation between parents of opposing players over a dispute involving a penalty shot, in which punches were thrown and 10 cops called in, minor hockey authorities are calling for volunteer security guards to monitor crowd behaviour. This pathetic example of sportsmanship is enough to make a 10-year-old swear off exercise forever.