Quote of the week:

“It is a bizarre, absolutely bizarre judgment.” —Ontario MPP Michael Prue, on a U.S. judge’s decision to impose a three-year exile to Canada on a Buffalo, N.Y., teacher convicted of sexually assaulting a teenage student. The teacher is a U.S. citizen but lives in Canada.

New demo for new war

Anti-war groups will march in Montreal against the war in Afghanistan on Saturday, Oct. 28, as part of a national day of protest called by local peace group Échec à la guerre and the Canadian Labour Congress.

“The Canadian government presents its involvement in Afghanistan as a peacekeeping mission, but it’s a war,” says Échec à la guerre spokeswoman Martine Eloy. “News about what is happening in Afghanistan is starting to drive home. You can’t introduce democracy by blowing up villages and creating disasters.”

Canadian troops have been in Afghanistan since 2002, but this is the first major mobilization by anti-war groups in Montreal. Eloy says the recent offensives by Canadian and NATO troops in the volatile south of the country have spurred anti-war groups in Canada. At least 41 Canadians have died in the fighting, most in the past year. An estimated 2,000 Afghanis have died, most of them Taliban, according to the Canadian army.

The march starts at 1 p.m. at Dorchester Square. A march organized by Block the Empire, which will later join the larger march, starts at 12 p.m. at the corner of Guy and de Maisonneuve. —Samer Elatrash

Halloween mass

Grease up your gears and get out your costumes for a weekend full of cycling and Halloween-related fun as Critical Mass—the semi-regular invasion of downtown streets by groups of bike activists—hits the streets once again this Friday, Oct. 27.

“It’s really a festive, creative action that aims to celebrate bike culture instead of car culture,” says Critical Mass participant Pierre-Olivier Parent.

Riders will meet at Phillips Square (corner Ste-Catherine and Union) at 5:30 p.m., where things start rolling at 6 p.m. The route, as always, is unplanned. Afterwards, participants are invited to “Reclaim the Streets” at a street party featuring music, food and all sorts of fun activities. Partygoers will gather on St-Denis between de Maisonneuve and Ste-Catherine at 7:15 p.m. where organizers will reveal the street to be reclaimed.

And finally, on Saturday, Oct. 28, the Co-op sur Généreux (4518 Papineau) will host a Halloween party/benefit to raise money for the legal defence of several Critical Mass riders fined at a recent event. The fun starts at 8 p.m. and features music by absurdist rock-jazz duo the Pamplemousse Explosion. Pay what you can. For more info, visit masse-critique.org. —Christopher Hazou

Assault centres broke

With violence against women once again unhappily in the news, Quebec’s sexual assault centres, whose goal it is to provide survivors of rape, incest and sexual assault with counselling, are finding themselves financially ill-equipped to cope with the high influx of victims.

Last April, 23 sexual assault assistance centres across Quebec formed a coalition (CALACS-Les centres d’aide et de lutte contre les agressions à caratère sexuel) and presented Health Minister Philippe Couillard with a consolidation and development plan to increase their funding. The Minister promised more than $6-million over five years, including $1.5-million for this year. Six months later, and a penny has yet to be seen.

Denise Côté, a worker at Movement Against Rape and Incest, one of three local centres in the coalition, is concerned that women are not getting the help they need. “We have about 70 women waiting for help. We had to close the waiting list for individual counselling because it’s over a year long,” says Côté.

The coalition is asking the public to write letters to the MP, urging him to fulfill his promise for funding. For more information on how to help, visit their Web site at www.rqcalacs.qc.ca. —Benjamin Barna

Head & Hands zine

For new immigrants, young parents or both, the big city of Montreal can be a bewildering place to navigate. That’s why Head & Hands, the NDG outreach organization, is launching a new zine aimed at people in those positions, as well as for anyone else feeling isolated.

“The zine project is for making resources more accessible,” says Robyn Maynard, the project coordinator at Head & Hands. “We want to make it about sharing experiences, as well as being an in-depth resource guide.” The zine will contain information on everything from different CLSCs to young parents’ programs to Elizabeth House, a shelter for women and their children.

The zine—so far called simply The Zine—promises to be eclectic, with submissions from the community.

“Right now, I’m editing a submission from a young mother and former drug addict who has two kids,” says Maynard. But she stresses that the zine isn’t only for tales of woe and redemption, but for anyone with anything interesting to submit, from prose to poetry to comix. They hope to publish their first issue in December.

Maynard is currently hosting weekly Monday meetings, from 11 a.m.–1 p.m. at 5775 St-Jacques to chart the zine’s progress. Submissions are welcome. Call 481-0277 or e-mail zine@headandhands.ca. —Patrick Lejtenyi

REAR-VIEW MIRROR

12 years ago - Oct. 27– Nov. 30, 1994

On the cover: A black cat wearing bunny ears and a guy in a cow suit, illustrating the Mirror’s “guide to really tacky cheap costumes you can buy at the dep.” Pictured among party listings are the cow suit again (available at W.H. Perron in Chomedy, $32.96), a Lisa Simpson mask (Zellers, $2.99), a plastic polka dot hat (Jean Coutu, $4.60) and a jumbo baby diaper (Tabagie Dumont on Bernard, sold out).

• B-Sides cartoonist Aidan Maconachy draws an extra-big farewell strip that shits on all things Canadian (except the Mirror) as he heads home to England.

• Journalist Jane George spends a week with the Hudson Bay Cree and publishes her diary. At a gathering to discuss their future, one prominent Cree “says if Hydro Québec had its way, we would be sitting 300 feet below water.”

• “We would get really stoned and jam in [bassist] Boris’s basement,” says GrimSkunk’s singer Franz Schuller, explaining the band’s origins. “After a while, we realized, ‘Shit, this is pretty good.’”

Angel >> Dogs Amid much media-driven hullabaloo and Liberal fury over Conservative Foreign Minister Peter Mackay’s alleged insult to ex-girlfriend Belinda Stronach, one thing seems certain: partisan politics are besmirching the fine reputation of our canine friends. This is an outrage. It is true that, when abused, dogs can turn especially vicious. But here the similarities between politician and dog end. Unlike most politicians, the vast majority of dogs are loyal, friendly and selfless (as so vividly illustrated in last week’s Man Bites Dog column). Plus, dogs can be trained to play dead, do their master’s bidding and fetch the paper. Politicians perform none of these useful tasks. And while it is true that some dogs may eat shit, at least none of them talk it.
Insect >> Declining species We’d better love dogs, because they may soon be among the few non-humans left on the planet, if we believe the World Wildlife Fund. A new WWF report released this week showed that the population of many species had declined drastically, in some cases by as much as a third since 1970. Pollution, deforestation and overfishing are the prime culprits. The greediest humans—the ones who consume the most natural resources—live in the United Arab Emirates, the United States, Finland and Canada, the WWF says. And we’re getting greedier: the report says our global demand for resources is 25 per cent higher than the planet’s ability to provide.