Quote of the week:

“In Lebanon… men [can] have sexual intercourse with animals as long as they are females. [Intercourse] with male animals could lead to the death penalty,”” —CBC/Radio-Canada chairman Guy Fournier, in a Sept. 9 column for tabloid 7 Jours. Fournier, who said he was joking, resigned Tuesday.

Pow-wow city

Downtown Montreal will play host to two First Nations pow-wows this weekend. The first, the 5th Annual Pow-wow, Concert and Education Day, will be today, Thursday, Sept. 21 on McGill’s lower campus, hosted by the university’s First Peoples’ House. That gets going at 9 a.m. and will feature traditional music, food, crafts, hoop-dancing and a fashion show. Music will last until 11 p.m.

The second will be on Saturday, as part of the two-day All Together Urban Multicultural Festival at Cabot Square. This weekend’s event marks the end of a summer-long series of events organized by the Peter McGill Community Council, the Native Friendship Centre and around a dozen other community groups. Saturday will focus on First Nations performances, while Sunday features food, music, dancing and other performances from African, Asian and the Caribbean cultures.

“At noon [on Saturday], the Grand Elder will make his entrance and at 12:30 will say a prayer of healing for the community and for the community of Dawson College,” which is just up the street from Cabot Square, says coordinator Stephanie Dupont. —Patrick Lejtenyi

McGill’s dark secrets

Since its founding almost 200 years ago McGill University has been involved in more than its fair share of questionable activities.

From the institutions’ pioneering research in such handy technologies as nerve gas, nuclear weaponry and, of course, its invaluable contribution to the field of mind control via Dr. Ewen Cameron’s CIA-sponsored torture sessions at the Allan Memorial in the late ’50s/early ’60s, it hasn’t all just been Redmen, Frosh Week and sex parties taking place inside McGill’s hallowed halls.

Highlighting some of the more nefarious/controversial elements of the university’s history, a free walking tour, “A Political History of McGill,” will be leaving this Friday, Sept. 22, at 5 p.m. from the Roddick Gates on Sherbrooke at McGill College.

“We’ll be exposing some of the major political forces and trends which have influenced the development of McGill,” says tour facilitator Ed Hudson. “But the tour isn’t just a history of people being screwed over. It’s also of the McGill community itself questioning some of these activities.”

For more information go to ssmu.mcgill.ca/qpirg/calendar.html. —Chris Barry

Mountain joins
Car-free day

Friday, Sept. 22, marks another No-Car Day in Montreal (known clumsily in officialese as “In Town, Without My Car!” Day) and to mark the occasion, a good chunk of Mount Royal’s Camillien-Houde Parkway and Remembrance Road will be closed to through-traffic. Between 9:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m., Montreal will close off the area between de Maisonneuve to the north, René-Lévesque to the south, St-Urbain to the east and McGill College to the west, making it one of the biggest car-free zones among the estimated 1,500 cities participating in the day world-wide.

The fresh air will probably do the mountain’s flora and fauna some good. While no scientific data is available yet—measurements have just been taken for the first time this year—the lack of lichen on the trees on the mountain’s east-facing slope indicates poor air-quality, says Gabrielle Korn, of Les Amis de la montagne, a conservation group.

“We’ve wanted to do this for a little while now,” she says. “The initial idea of the parkway was to allow residents to come up and escape the noise and pollution and get a breath of fresh air.” —Patrick Lejtenyi

Last days for Grover tennants

Broke artists rent out dilapidated factory space, a community gradually sprouts up and the area is promptly taken over by wealthier folks. This familiar pattern has a name—the SoHo effect—and Montreal’s Grover factory is a classic case in point.

Last July, artist tenants who fought to save their digs from condo conversion faced the music when Grover’s new proprietor refused to negotiate joint ownership. Their efforts have since shifted towards a relocation project. “We’ve contributed to the revitalisation of Pôle Frontenac [as the East End neighbourhood around Frontenac below Sherbrooke is known], so we have no intention of moving to another area,” says Louis Georges Vanier, VP of the Coalition Sauvons l’usine.

Grover’s colourful artist palette will partake in the 10th Journées de la culture. “It’s important for the public to meet the Grover community, and recognize that the incredible synergy between tenants has no price tag and shouldn’t be lost,” says Vanier.

The free event runs from Sept. 29 to Oct. 1 at the Grover (2065 Parthenais) and includes a treasure hunt and exhibit. Visit www.sauvonslusine.ca for more info. —Michael-Oliver Harding

REAR-VIEW MIRROR

13 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK
Sept. 23–30, 1993

On the cover: Dancer Marie Chouinard, the enfant terrible of modern dance, performing at the Festival internationale de nouvelle danse. Having peed, danced naked, squirted fake breast milk and pseudo-masturbated on stage, Chouinard says “Provocation sometimes opens a door. But for other people it shuts a door. And sometimes people just see the movement of the door.”

• A photo shows three members of France’s Front National far-right party at a Montreal conference on cities. A Mirror editorial applauded local anti-racist demonstrations and the city’s barring them from a reception.

• The StreetSeen column asks Montreal musicians what issue is most important to them in the coming federal election. Zippahead: “The look of Canadian politicians, like what the fuck is Kim Campbell doing with her hair!” The Astronuts: “We’ll all support any candidate who’ll spend billions of dollars on space.” Schlönk: “We want to go back to a dictatorship where the strongest person rules and no one ever votes again.”

• Nirvana’s In Utero is “a solid follow-up that could never be Nevermind II.”

Angel >> Restoring Maher Arar’s good name It took some time, but Maher Arar, a Canadian citizen, has finally been cleared of any possible terrorist links by a public inquiry into his September 2002 arrest in the U.S. and deportation to Syria. According to the inquiry’s 1,200-page report, which blasted Canadian anti-terror authorities, inexperienced RCMP investigators gave false information to American authorities, claiming he was an “Islamic extremist.” That’s not good when travelling through New York City a year after 9/11, as Arar was four years ago. He was subsequently tortured by Syrian authorities until he was released a year later and returned to his home in Ottawa.
Insect >> Great Lakes shrinkage The U.S. and Canada are committing $17.5-million over five years to find out why water levels in three of the Great Lakes—Superior, Michigan and Huron—have dropped dramatically over the past few years. In some cases, including parts of ritzy Georgian Bay, water levels have dropped to their lowest in decades. Scientists don’t know the exact reason, but there are some theories. One involves shifting rain patterns as a result of global warming; another blames erosion caused by the dredging of the St-Clair River, which caused accelerated outflow to Lake Erie. Whatever the cause, wetlands, power generation and navigation are at risk.