Quote of the week:

“There’s a new tendency in our society to repress and control everything. It’s very disturbing.” —Constitutional lawyer Julius Grey, on the city’s proposal to ban the sale of spray paint to minors to curb graffiti, in Tuesday’s Gazette.

Piknic goes PG

Club kids, circuit queens and others hoping to draw a drug-induced euphoria into broad daylight at the Piknic Électronik might have to spread their lovin’ elsewhere. Organizers of the Sunday-afternoon electronic music gathering at Parc Jean-Drapeau began distributing memos to partiers two weeks ago, informing them of a boost in security to counter certain unwanted behaviours.

“We created Piknic to dispel stereotypes associated with the electronic music scene and make the genre more accessible,” says Nicolas Cournoyer, one of Piknic’s founders. “But with the event’s rapid growth, we’ve noticed a resurgence in activities that may be fine in clubs, but not in a public park with children.”

Among the doings no longer tolerated by Piknic’s self-professed “morality squad” are on-site drug consumption—especially by those tactless enough to pop in front of children—massages and overtly-sexual dancing.

Cournoyer claims that monitoring is necessary to ensure that partying doesn’t get out of hand. “We don’t mind losing part of our clientele, if that’s what it takes to retain the spirit we’ve had since the beginning of the project.”

For more info, see www.piknicelectronik.com. —Michael-Oliver

Harding Jerusalem
Pride snub

A coalition of gay rights groups is calling for a boycott of this week’s Jerusalem WorldPride, saying gay rights should not be celebrated while the rights of Palestinians living under Israeli occupation are violated.

“There is no pride in occupation, specifically right now when Gaza and Lebanon are being attacked,” says QPIRG-McGill coordinator Leila Pourtavaf. Pourtavaf is helping organize “Out Against the Occupation,” a fundraiser for Lebanese relief on Thursday, Aug. 10, at Café Esperanza (5490 St-Laurent).

“We strongly condemn holding WorldPride in a city beleaguered by violence and conflict, and where [its] theme of ‘Love Without Borders’ belies a reality of separation, ubiquitous borders [and] destruction of homes and livelihoods,” a statement by the organizers says.

The boycott is supported by Helem, a global Lebanese gay rights group, which was supposed to be represented at the plenary of the Outgames international conference. The representative was unable to attend because of the war in Lebanon, but sent a taped address urging a boycott of Jerusalem WorldPride.

The event begins at 8 p.m., entry by donation. —Samer Elatrash

Bio food at TOHU

Still not entirely convinced why you should start eating organic? After all, do organic strawberries really taste any better than their pesticide-coated cousins? Are the alleged health benefits of eating non-hormone-saturated meats really all that significant, or, when you get right down to it, is this whole organic food movement thing just one more deceptive ruse—like global warming—propagated by leftist hippie-types in their never-ending quest to have the rest of the world behave more like them?

This weekend, Saturday, Aug. 12 and Sunday, Aug. 13, you can come to your own conclusions as la Fête Bio Paysanne gets underway at TOHU (2345 Jarry E.). With music, theater, trapeze acts and over 90 Quebec organic food producers on hand to promote their free range wares, “It’s going to be really cool,” organizer Camille Bégin promises. “In addition to all the entertainment and educational materials we’ll have on site, people will get the opportunity to speak to the producers directly with any questions they might have regarding organic produce.”

For a full schedule of the weekend’s activities, go to www.tohu.ca. —Chris Barry

Kids’ health gets day

Forget that the obese among us are forever being singled out for ridicule and nobody seems to think anything of it—those suffering from the condition can also find themselves vulnerable to a host of nasty, life-threatening illnesses.

Laurie Amir, the founder of Moovjam, an organization devoted to raising awareness of childhood obesity issues, is currently lobbying City Hall to have Montreal declare an official Child Obesity Awareness Day. Apparently, the city is listening, although no date has been set yet.

Nevertheless, Moovjam will be sponsoring an event imaginatively entitled Moovjam on Saturday, Aug. 26, at Parc Jean Drapeau. Featuring rock bands, celebrity sports figures and a potpourri of healthy foods and recreational activities kids and their parents can experience to help learn ’em “that it’s cool to be healthy,” Amir says. “Everybody’s talking about childhood obesity but nobody’s doing anything about it. With Moovjam, young people will be able to participate in a variety of sports activities, discover new healthy foods, and have a lot of fun while learning something too.”

For more information, go to www.moovjam.com. —Chris Barry

REAR-VIEW MIRROR

16 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK
Aug. 9–Aug. 16. 1990

On the cover: Bart Simpson, as The Simpsons has recently been picked up by CFCF. “Most of television is in some way or another trying to lure you with something that’s better than your miserable life,” says creator Matt Groening. “That’s not the case with The Simpsons. I don’t think there is anybody in the world quite as grotesque looking as the characters on our show.”

• Tom Naylor charts Montreal’s economic decline since the 1950s, blaming a lethargic and unimaginative business elite, the St. Lawrence Seaway, the political landscape of the 1970s and the provincial government’s decision to encourage economic development anywhere other than the city.

• “Shift go to guitar effects heaven courtesy of pyromaniac Jean-Charles,” writes Jenny Ross. “The band does a pretty good rendition of ‘Helter Skelter’ (probably JC’s idea), but watch your ass—people wanna hear it exactly like the record. And, uh, guys—get a metronome.”

• With Mo’ Better Blues, Spike Lee “has clearly overextended his talents as a scriptwriter,” reads the review.

Angel >> The Farine Five Roses sign The big neon sign overlooking the Bonaventure highway near the Lachine Canal may not be turning off its lights next week after all. There was speculation earlier this week that the sign would even be dismantled, as he Ogilvie flour mill on which the sign stands was recently sold to Smuckers, which owns the competing Robin Hood flour brand. While the city has stated it’s washing its hands of the matter by saying that privately-owned buildings can do what they want as long as they don’t block the view of Mount Royal, local historians, heritage groups and academics hope the sign—which all agree is iconic—finds a home elsewhere.
Insect >> AOL The beleagured Internet giant had egg on its face this week when it was revealed that the company had accidentally released the Web-search data of over 650,000 of its members. The data was supposed to have only been available to academic researchers, but posted it instead on its research Web site, making it available to any prying eyes for over a week, until the cock-up was noticed. Names weren’t revealed, but anyone from law enforcement to identity thieves was able to troll the data for addresses, birth dates, phone numbers and search queries. The company apologized profusely, but by the time the data was removed from the site, it had already been copied and now appears on other sites.