Quote of the week:

“Sorry that you’re dead.” —A message of condolence from a four-year-old Toronto girl to a “true hero” who made “the ultimate sacrifice,” Brigadier, the police horse killed in the line of duty Feb. 24. Over 1,200 Torontonians turned out for Brig’s funeral on Monday.

Resistance and Iraq

As the third anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and its subsequent descent into chaos approaches, local anti-war types are gearing up. First off is a two-day conference this weekend on resistance and occupation in Iraq, organized by L’entraide missionaire, with speakers from the U.S. and Iraq.

“We’ll be exploring the actual issues in Iraq within the global context of the Middle East as a whole,” says organizer Suzanne Loiselle. One speaker, Dr. Jinan Ahmed, is a Baghdad doctor who will talk about living day to day under the occupation. “She’ll be discussing things like food, health, infrastructure and the role of women,” says Loiselle. Another topic up for discussion will be unions in Iraq and resistance movements both within the country and around the world.

The event takes place on Friday, March 10, 7 p.m., and Saturday, March 11, starting at 9:30 a.m. at UQÀM (405 Ste-Catherine E., Room J-M400, voluntary donation).

On Saturday, March 18, anti-warriors will gather at Dorchester Square at Peel and René-Lévesque at 1 p.m. to march against the occupation. —Patrick Lejtenyi

Police Brutality at 10

Wednesday, March 15, marks the 10th annual International Day against Police Brutality, and Collective Opposed to Police Brutality (COPB) plans to observe it with an evening of festive protest and street theatre.

“We do this once a year, but police brutality happens every day,” says protest organizer François du Canal. “This year’s main themes are police killings, racial profiling, harassment of street people and political repression.”

Observing the day began a decade ago after Swiss police officers beat to death two children, prompting the Black Flag collective in Switzerland to call for a day of protest against police brutality. The Montreal-based COPB heeded the call by holding annual protests, some of which have gained notoriety.

In March 2000, Montreal police arrested more than 100 demonstrators, accusing them of rioting and vandalism. Two years later, police abruptly ended the protest by arresting some 370 demonstrators.

The protest will start at 5 p.m. at Berri Square; call COPB at (514) 859-9065 —Samer Elatrash

Kafka-esque security

The secretive, bizarre world of national security and those caught up in it will get a stage reading next Thursday, March 16. Trial mixes readings from The Trial, the Franz Kafka novel, with lines from the five men, all Muslim, currently being held under security certificates in Canadian prisons.

The point, says Mary Foster, a member of the Justice Coalition for Adil Charkaoui, is to draw parallels between the gloomy writer’s satiric take on justice and today’s reality. K, the main character in the Kafka book, never learns what he’s charged with; under security certificates, defendants aren’t allowed to examine all the evidence against them.

“In one part, K is talking to a lawyer who explains to K that he will never be free of this process, that he’s never seen anyone absolutely acquitted,” she says. She points to the case of Mahmoud Jaballah, who was re-arrested after being released by a judge twice.

Trial will be staged on Thursday, March 16 at McGill’s Moot Court (3644 Peel) at 4:15 p.m. For other readings, visit www.adilinfo.org. —Patrick Lejtenyi

A month of rights

There are a lot of good causes to get excited about, but all the options can get a bit bewildering. Human rights is a good place to start, so Andrea Charbonneau, a 2006 Mirror Noisemaker for her northern-Ugandan-focussing Shelter Wakadogo club at McGill, recruited a couple of other campus clubs to put together a month-long speaker series.

“At first we wanted to do a week-long event to raise awareness about the night commuters in northern Uganda,” she says, referring to the children who flee their villages for the relative safety of bigger towns every night. “But then we opened up to other groups that are involved in pertinent human rights issues.” The others are the Humanistic Studies Student Association and the Community Outreach Program for Immigrants.

“By joining with more clubs, we can get people to care about more issues.”

The next speaker up is human rights advocate Warren Allmand, on Thursday, March 9 from 4 to 5:30 p.m. at the Macdonald Engineering Building, Room 279, on McGill’s downtown campus.

For the full line-up of events, visit www.shelterwakadogo.org. —Patrick Lejtenyi

REAR-VIEW MIRROR

10 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK
March 7–March 14, 1996

On the cover: Local stage actress Sylvie Drapeau, who leaves writer Gaëtan Charlebois “in awe.” “Arguably the best actor in the land” and “a national treasure” are some of the superlatives he uses in describing the star of Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler, who can “play rage that is real, red-hot and frightening.” “I don’t know any other way of working than to flirt with danger,” she says. “With time, I am learning how to put distance between myself and the characters I play.”

• Michel Fogli/Michelle DeVille, a “once-celebrated drag queen,” says discrimination against them is taking its toll. “I’m tired of seeing queens all around me dying of suicide, overdoses and AIDS,” she says. “It’s all because of the way they’re treated.”

• Henry Rollins doesn’t worry about hitting 40. “I’m an American—you really can’t predict longevity anymore. America’s a fucking slaughterhouse. We’re living in the Gaza Strip here!”

• Despite playing a “pied piper of stupidity” in Bottle Rocket, Owen Wilson “will emerge as a major star,” reads the review by Matthew Hays.

Angel >> Ali Farka Toure More than just a great musician, guitar legend and two-time Grammy winner Ali Farka Toure was also an ambassador for his native Mali and for Africa as a whole for bringing “desert blues” to the world stage. Combining jazz and blues with elements of traditional Songhai, Tuareg and Mande cultures, he won his first Grammy in 1994 for his Talking Timbuktu, and his second this year for In the Heart of the Moon. Despite being the “African John Lee Hooker,” as he was referred to, he worked as a farmer and later as mayor of his native village Niafunke. He was thought to be 67, and died of bone cancer.
Insect >> South Dakota Good news, rapists: if you impregnate your daughter in South Dakota, she can’t have an abortion. The state’s Republican governor, Mike Rounds, signed into law a bill that would make it illegal to have an abortion under any circumstances, unless the mother’s life was in danger. American pro-choice groups quickly condemned the law, which is considered a challenge to the U.S. Supreme Court’s stance legalizing the procedure. A new fight on abortion, but with an ever more extreme position on the right, now looks likely. Canadians can take some comfort knowing that our current Conservative government still looks too nervous to take up the issue, for now.