Quote of the week

“Too many f- and s- words.” —Lawyer and authour Maureen McTeer, on why she voted against Mordecai Richler’s novel Cocksure, as a panelist on the CBC’s Canada Reads radio series.

Get Earthy

Saturday, April 22 is Earth Day, and there’s no shortage of things to do to salve your little green soul.

The gang at UTIL (l’Unité Théâtrale d’Interventions Loufoques) will be staging a series of public performances throughout the city on the theme of water and its management. They’re still looking for help, so get in touch with them at info@theatreutil.org or www.theatreutil.org.

There will be a collection on Friday, April 21, of hazardous materials and old electronics from businesses throughout downtown. If you want to ditch your company’s old computers, fluorescent lights, alkyde and latex paints and more, drop ’em a line at 728-0116 or

danger@jourdelaterre.org.

On Saturday, April 22, starting at 10 a.m., the Plateau Éco-quartier will be holding a book exchange at Park Lafontaine’s entrance on Rachel, directly across from Vélo-Québec (1251 Rachel E.).

Also on Saturday, starting at 8 a.m., convicted stencil artist Roadsworth (who designed the Earth Day 2006 poster) will have an artistic action at the Habitations Jeanne-Mance east of St-Laurent between Ontario and Ste-Catherine E. to coincide with some tree-planting activities.

For more, see www.jourdelaterre.org. —Patrick Lejtenyi

Living it down

Tired of the rat race? Arthur Lacomme of the Réseau québécoise pour la simplicité volontaire (RQSV), a Montreal-based non-profit, thinks an easy way to get rid of keeping up with your well-to-do friends and neighbours is to not even try. Don’t bother. Give it all up, and concentrate on spending time with your friends and family. You’ll be happier, he thinks, and you’ll also be saving planet Earth.

This weekend, Saturday, April 21 and Sunday, April 22, RQSV will be holding a colloquium at UdeM on the benefits of living the simple life (without those skanks Paris and Nicole). The event takes place within the context of Earth Day, says Lacomme, as it will be “a way to look at our habits of consuming, in respect to the finite resources of the planet.”

Lacomme says his organization, founded in 2000, has over 500 members from a wide array of backgrounds.

Conferences, workshops, round table discussions and screenings will abound, as will several guest speakers from the Sierra Club, First Nations and the media. The French-only event takes place at 3200 Jean-Brilliant, with fees ranging from $15 to $60. For details, see www.simplicitevolontaire.org. —Patrick Lejtenyi

Kenyan education

Allessandra Salituri, a recent Vanier grad, takes umbrage at the notion that her generation doesn’t care about the rest of the planet. With a group of like-minded CEGEP students, she founded Generation for Change, which plans to show how students with fire in their bellies can better the world, one school at a time.

Generation for Change will hold two fundraisers on Wednesday, April 26, to raise money for building schools in Kenya. Those in the habit of admonishing against youth indifference can now put their money (suggested amount: $5) where their mouths are and head to Vanier (821 St-Croix) and John Abbott (21275 Lakeshore) for the day.

“We’re trying to send a message that our generation is not apathetic and we want to change things,” says Salituri. “Young people are doing what we can—come support us.” The fundraiser will include bands, choirs and talks on social justice.

The funds will go to a Free the Children campaign to build primary schools in Maasai Mara, Kenya.

Events start at 12 p.m. Call 567-8553 for more information. —Samer Elatrash

Social Justice rocks!

It’s been 30 years since the Social Justice Committee of Montreal first came into existence, and over that period of time the organization has been forefront in the effort to sponsor popular education programs and advocacy campaigns on economic and human rights issues in Third World countries. In other words, they’re fighting the good fight.

But guess what? It takes money to fight the good fight. To this end the SJC will be celebrating their anniversary through a benefit called “Global Music 4 Social Justice” at Kola Note (5240 Parc) this Saturday, April 22, at 8 p.m. Featured guests will include “legendary” West African griot minstrel Boubacar Diabate, Chilean resistance music group Acalanto, Canadian roots musician Michael Jerome Browne, as well as critically-acclaimed Chad-born troubadours H’Sao.

Says event coordinator Caroline Foster, “This isn’t only about raising money but also about raising awareness about some of the work we do—like the Upstream Journal, our quarterly newsmagazine.”

Tickets for the event are a scant 20 bucks. For more info, visit www.socialjusticecommittee.org —Chris Barry

REAR-VIEW MIRROR

17 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK
April 21–May 4, 1989

On the cover: Bronfman heiress Phyllis Lambert, hailed as Montreal’s “Joan of Architecture.” With the opening of the Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA), largely funded by her family, Lambert says she hopes it shows “the history of the buildings, making them alive so that people could see that there were their ancestors.”

• “We’re not trying to recreate the Two Tone movement,” says Matt Lipscombe of Me Mom and Morgentaler. “Instead, we’d like to give ska a new twist and to keep it alive, something like ‘ska meets punk meets rock ’n’ roll meets reggae meets polka.’”

• Writing about African cinema, Martin Siberok notes that “the most recent commerical release dealing with Africa is an ideological action film, Red Scorpion,” about a Soviet agent sent to Africa to kill anti-communist rebels. The film stars Dolph Lundgren and was produced by future-disgraced-super-lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

• From the Wanted section in Classifieds: “Gonzo TV reporter seeks outrageous scoops. Rat on your boss! No scandal too small…. Have Betacam, will travel.”

Angel >> Banning VLTs Senator Jean Lapointe’s proposed bill to ban VLTs everywhere except casinos and hippodromes is gaining popularity in Quebec. According to a Léger Marketing poll commissioned by the Journal de Montréal, 68 per cent of Quebecers support the ban. Ten per cent oppose it. The bill gained a higher profile after Lapointe’s appearance on Radio-Canada’s Sunday evening program Tout le monde en parle. Loto-Québec says they’re trying to reduce their accessibility, but warns that it could spark a return of illegal ones as seen in the 1980s. Hey, if they can ban smoking in bars, surely they can ban these insidious machines.
Insect >> Religion and politics A new Ipsos-Reid poll on church and state shows that Canadians are, in fact, dubious of overly religious political leaders. Portly Stephen Harper, an evangelical Christian himself, may have additional reasons to worry: Sixty-three per cent of Canadians would vote for an evangelical, but 68 per cent would vote for a Muslim or an atheist. Fifty-nine per cent of Quebecers would vote for a Muslim, 66 for an evangelical and 70 for an atheist. In the U.S., 64 per cent would vote for an evangelical in 2006, down from 78 in 1996. While religion still plays too big a role in politics, it seems the divisiveness of zealots once in power is increasingly seen as off-putting. Which is a relief.