Quote of the week:

“They’ve committed an act of treason.” —Québécois writer Victor-Lévy Beaulieu, on playwrights Michel Tremblay and Robert Lepage’s assertion that they no longer believe in sovereignty, on Radio-Canada Tuesday.

Patwardhan screenings

Indian filmmaker and chronic gadfly Anand Patwardhan will be in Montreal on Thursday, April 13, for a film screening and discussion at Concordia’s de Sève Cinema.

The award-winning muckraker, whose work has displeased short-fused fundamentalists and Indian censors, was invited by Concordia’s Cinema Politica group for a screening of his documentaries Bombay: Our City and A Time to Rise.

Cinema Politica’s Ezra Winton says his group had wrapped up its film showings for the school-year but decided to hold another event when they learned Patwardhan was available. “It’s a rare and great opportunity,” says Winton. “This screening is what we try to do: have the directors talk about political films as a practice.”

Both documentaries were made in the ’80s. A Time to Rise follows Indian and Chinese farm workers in British Columbia as they struggle to unionize. Bombay: Our City documents the lives of inhabitants of Bombay’s slums—grinding mills for millions of destitute Indians.

The screenings start at 4 p.m., at 1400 de Maisonneuve W. Direct browsers to www.cinemapolitica.org for more information. —Samer Elatrash

Occupied hip hop

For the 8,000 Palestinians languishing in Israeli jails, words are their only freedom.

Next Wednesday, April 19, their message will make it to El Salon (4388 St-Laurent) as part of a nationwide tour sponsored by Sumoud, a political prisoners’ organization.

To Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights organizer Tania Tabar, incorporating Palestinian oral culture is key to understanding the issues.

“Spoken word and hip hop is one of the strongest forms of resistance to the Israeli occupation,” says Tabar. “It’s unique in Palestine because it relates the collective pain we feel.”

Two guest speakers from Palestine, themselves former prisoners, will discuss the plight of the 400 children currently behind bars. Solidarity statements from North American political prisoners will be read by area activists, along with some rousing words of wisdom from Mohawk elder Kahentinetha Horn. Montreal poet Ehab Lotayef and Narcicyst of the Iraqi-Montreal hip hop troupe Euphrates will be joined by DJ Leila P to end the evening on an upbeat.

“Break the Chains” starts at 7 p.m. with a $5 suggested donation. —Elise Hugus

GM trees decried

If the pulp and paper industry gets its way, Canadians might soon be trading the forest for the trees. The introduction of genetically modified trees, plotted on a “trial basis” in Quebec, has raised the ire of environmentalists, who say that genetic interference threatens the ecosystem, public health and general bio-ethics.

“Genetically engineered trees are being pushed by GM seed and pulp and paper companies, despite the danger they pose to rural and indigenous communities, as well as to nature,” says independent journalist Kasim Tirmizey, organizer of the Stop GE Trees Campaign. It’s making a pit stop at Concordia’s School for Community and Public Affairs (2149 Mackay) this Thursday, April 13, featuring the David Suzuki-narrated film Silent Forests and a presentation by the Vermont-based Global Justice Ecology Project.

As Canada’s forests are being cut down faster than they can grow back, Big Timber is looking for ways to speed up the process. By introducing bio-insecticides and cellulose-enhancing genes, the industry hopes GE trees will get them more bang for their paper-based buck.

The free event kicks off at 6:30 p.m. —Elise Hugus

Youth movement

Local talent scouts take note: the best and brightest of Little Burgundy’s teen artistic community will be strutting their stuff this Thursday, April 13, as part of Youth in Motion’s annual cultural talent show, Stay Free 2. According to YIM spokesperson Mikaella Goldsmith, “It’s a great opportunity for these kids to perform in front of a large audience, and the monies raised help fund our programs. Like, last year, we were able to take a pretty large group to New York City from the money we earned with Stay Free.”

Tickets are $7 for students, $10 for the general public and attendees can look forward to sizzling performances by the likes of Jedi, Salah Steel, Chicaz, the Dawson Dancers and a host of other top flight local teen talent. The excitement gets underway at 6:30 p.m. at the visually and acoustically perfect Corona Theatre (2490 Notre-Dame W.), and will be followed by an all-ages party featuring the sounds of DJs Downtown Sounds, Blaster and Fire Squad, who will continue entertaining the troops until the ripe ol’ hour of 1a.m. —Chris Barry

REAR-VIEW MIRROR

20 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK
April 10–April 30, 1986

On the cover: Québécoise actress Marie Tifo, appearing in Pouvoir Intime, in which she plays a would-be Brinks truck hijacker. “Of all the parts I’ve played,” she says, “I think it’s the one that most resembles me.”

• The Mirror investigates police brutality following the January 5 beating of Brian O’Carroll and March 16 death of Muhammed Abassise while in police custody. The Complaints Review Committee, a watchdog organization which has rejected 80 per cent of claims against police, “has lost all its credibility,” says law student Stewart Istvanffy.

• Jenny Ross writes, “The Devices (‘they’ll make your ears puke!’) most visually exciting. Curtain opened on Rick hanging upside-down in a harness playing guitar.”

• Organizers of Cinema V’s first “official” Soviet Film Festival can’t really explain the difference between it and the “numerous ‘Semaine de Cinéma Soviétique’ that have been offered by the Cinéma de Outremont,” writes Stan Shatenstein.

• Mirror Vol. 1 No. 16 is 16 pages long, has no Letters section and exactly 17 classified ads.

Angel >> Cree windpower A James Bay Cree band and a Toronto-based energy company are getting ready to build the world’s biggest windpark, with 1,100 windmills generating 1,650 megawatts of power, at the cost of $3-billion. The project would both make the northern Cree self-sufficient in terms of electricity and provide them with a tidy bundle of dough, as much of the power could be sold to the U.S., Ontario and the Maritimes. Hydro-Quebec, however, is reportedly not very happy with the idea, saying it is the sole buyer of wind power in the province and the Cree project hasn’t submitted to a bidding process.
Insect >> Nuclear diplomacy The White House is denying it, but Seymour Hersh, the Pulitzer-Prize-winning investigative journalist, recently wrote an article in The New Yorker saying the Bush administration is considering nuking underground Iranian facilities suspected of enriching uranium. Hersh says he’s heard the President described as “messianic” about Iran. He’s also heard the President considers himself the only person capable of freeing Iranians from their current regime, which he likens to Hitler’s. Yes, a nuclear-armed Iran headed by Western-hating fundamentalists is a scary thought, but given this administration’s uncanny ability to botch almost everything it puts its mind to, the fact that Bush is even considering the nuclear option is even scarier.