Quote of the week:

“This case is unprecedented, so I guess that the upcoming court case is going to be important to try and figure out the actual legal status of seeds.” —Pot activist Marc-Boris St-Maurice, following the seizure of 200,000 marijuana seeds by Montreal Mounties, on Tuesday.

Mass’s media

Gideon Levy, a journalist for Israeli daily Ha’aretz, will be in Montreal for the first time ever to talk about “Democracy and Occupation: Hamas, Israel and the struggle for Freedom,” on Friday, March 3. Levy also happens to be the inaugural speaker in the lecture series by the Human Rights Media Institute (HRMI), a new Montreal-based organization set up to give media access to otherwise marginalized communities.

“We’ll be giving workshops on the four major media outlets, print, the Web, radio and television,” says HRMI’s Laith Marouf, a former vice-president of the Concordia Student Union in the heady, crazy days of 2001. “We’ll be reaching out to a variety of community organizations, including the black community, the Haitian community, Natives, Arabs and Muslims and women’s groups.”

HRMI, born last November, are involved in Under the Olive Tree, a Palestinian community news program heard here on CKUT, news journal Siafu and are preparing to welcome Robert Fisk back to Montreal later this month.

Levy’s talk begins at 7 p.m. in Leacock 26 (855 Sherbrooke W.), $5–$10 sliding scale. —Patrick Lejtenyi

Immigration shrinks

There’s all sorts of groups out there to help immigrants adjust to living in Montreal, according to social worker Léontine Jhone, but none that address mental health needs of the newly arrived.

“Lots of organizations help them with job searches, help sign their kids into school, but we tend to forget the impact of immigration on mental health,” she says.

Apparently, being newly settled here often takes a toll on the head. “Let’s say a 45-year-old man who worked at a job in another country is obliged to return to school here. It seems that all of his hopes in life don’t count anymore; it can result in mental difficulties, and those can plague the lives of immigrants.”

Jhone says that because no resources specifically dealing with the immigration experience currently exists here, she’s launching la Symbiose near Snowdon metro, after five years of preparation. It will initially serve residents of NDG, Côte-St-Luc, Montreal West and Snowdon. She’s looking for bilingual volunteers to help raise funds and spread the word. Call 486-1642 to sign up. —Kristian Gravenor

Women and the world

On March 3 and 4, Concordia hosts the “Global Feminism and Social Transformation” conference, a joint effort by the March 8th Coordination & Action Committee of Women of Diverse Origins along with Concordia’s Simone de Beauvoir Institute and Peace and Conflict Resolution Series. The conference, in honour of International Women’s Day, will focus on women’s participation in civil society.

“Our primary aim is to raise awareness of the issues of visible minorities,” says Tess Tesalona, one of the organizers. “As it is, mainstream women’s groups carry certain issues, but not necessarily from our point of view.”

Afro-Canadian singer and activist Faith Nolan will headline the conference’s Friday-night cultural event, starting at 7 p.m. Saturday features panel discussions and workshops from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., with speakers from Guatemala, Vancouver, Palestine and Haiti, as well as local activists. All events take place at 1455 De Maisonneuve W., room H-110, on a sliding scale from free to $10. For more information, visit http://peace.concordia.ca/eventsarchives/event59.shtml. —Andrea Zanin

Cultural überauction

Everybody’s favourite culture jammers überculture will be holding a git-down and git-artsy auction tonight, Thursday, March 2, at the Bishop St. Pub (1222 Bishop) to raise some dough to keep doing the crazy things they do. The night, which happens to be the organization’s third birthday, will be a focal point of a month-long membership drive, says überculture executive director Rob Maguire, with the mission to “stop the commercialization of culture.” The auction will feature works by emerging Montreal artists, and much of it will be sold for under $20. Hip hoppers Euphrates will also perform.

“There’ll be some dance, some short political films, and a whole bunch of little political art,” says Maguire. “And of course, überbrü, our political beer.”

The money raised will go to fund current projects like Cinema Politica, which Maguire says is “expanding at a ridiculous pace,” and Wal-Town, their anti-Wal-Mart cross-country tour, and to fund workshops on using media to fight corporate powers that be.

The fun gets going at 8 p.m. Entry by donation. —Patrick Lejtenyi

REAR-VIEW MIRROR

12 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK
March 3–March 10, 1994

On the cover: Bitter Moon director Roman Polanski, who is said to still be making headlines for all the wrong reasons. “I wanted to be known for my work and not for my private life,” he says. “I wanted to be famous, not notorious.”

• Steven Goldenberg, owner of gay club Katakombes, offers to pay the legal defence bills of the 55 patrons arrested there during a police raid Feb. 17.

• A photo shows biathlete Myriam Bédard, winner of two gold medals at the Lillehammer Olympics, getting “a love bath at Mirabel Airport.”

• Matthew Sweet got the name for his latest album, Altered Beast, from a Sega game in which, “You have this certain power, and then you go through a metamorphosis into a monster-creature where you’re really strong and can kill everyone, and then you turn back into a human for the next stage.”

• The “4/4 heartbeat of the Hi NRG dance music coming out of continental studios these days” may be the “first cultural manifestation of a unifying Europe,” writes Chris Yurkiw.

Angel >> Dissident gay-friendly priests In a letter published in last Sunday’s La Presse, 19 Quebec Catholic priests, including Raymond Gravel, pictured, took to task the Vatican for its archaic stance on homosexuality. By considering homosexuality a “disorder” and barring gays from entering the priesthood, they say, they are contributing to homophobia. Furthermore, they point out that the Church has been wrong before when it comes to issues regarding “mysteries of life.” The 19 say they could no longer keep silent following the first major policy announcement by Pope Ratzinger, which barred men with “deep-seated homosexual tendencies” from entering the priesthood and the anti-gay-marriage position adopted by the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops.
Insect >> Young nurse burn-out According to a new study, 66 per cent of the 225 Ontario nurses with less than two years experience were found to be suffering from symptoms of burnout. The principal culprit, researchers say, is overwork, but a perceived lack of empowerment and fairness in the workplace and poor interpersonal relationships are also to blame. Those reporting burnout report feelings of depression and emotional exhaustion. Other surveys by the same team from the University of Western Ontario reported 58 per cent of all nurses, and 54 per cent of nurse managers reporting burnout. While the study was done in Ontario, alarm bells are already being raised in other provinces.