Quote of the week:

“I was just…figuring out the best way to put [some hash] in my cigarette, with no intention, necessarily, of smoking it.” —19-year-old Dawson student “Albert,” whose Sept. 13 campus run-in with police is tangentially credited with bringing to a halt Kimveer Gill’s rampage

Haitians remembrance

Montreal’s Haitian community is finally getting a place to honour the men and women who led the revolt against Haiti’s French colonial masters in 1804. Thanks to a private donor who wishes to remain anonymous, la Perle Retrouvée, a non-profit serving the estimated 130,000 to 150,000-strong Haitian community in Montreal, is inviting the public to the unveiling of long-secret plans to construct a public square complete with a fountain and statues to six revolutionary heroes on Saturday, Nov. 18, at 7 p.m.

“We received the donation on the condition that we build a symbolic place for the Haitian community,” says la Perle Retrouvée’s communications rep Magalie Laville. “Many young Haitians in Montreal do not have any historical references. It is a community that is losing its roots. We need to re-actualize our history, to achieve a better knowledge of history.” She would not reveal the cost of the project.

Place de l’unité, which will be outside the organization’s office at 7655 20th Avenue in St-Michel, will be ready by next May. The public is invited to the plan’s unveiling on Nov. 18, but should call 514-221-6396 for reservations. The group will host an open house on Nov. 19. —Patrick Lejtenyi

Fair fashion

Sure, you want to look cool, but all those nifty high fashion statements you’ve been buying at your local box store might not only be environmentally dubious, there’s also a good chance they were produced by hungry Third World children—and everyone knows a hungry slave is a distracted slave not really capable of providing the quality stitch work you demand.

Others, believe it or not, might even question the morality involved in the time-honoured practice of child slave labour. Go figure. Local environmental organization Équiterre, in the effort to promote both awareness of the issue and to push local “responsible” clothing designers and boutiques, have organized a fair trade fashion show scheduled to go down at FACE school (3449 University) this Saturday, Nov. 11, at 6:30 p.m.

“Often when people hear of responsible clothing, they think of it as being either underground or kind of granola,” says co-organizer Murielle Vrins. “We want to show people it’s possible to wear responsible clothing that actually looks nice, that is fashionable.”

Équiterre also intends to distribute a detailed brochure at the event, “a tool for consumers wanting to dress themselves with respect to their values,” says Vrins. —Chris Barry

Gaza crisis demo

A Palestinian rights group will hold a march on Saturday, Nov. 11 to protest an Israeli military campaign in Gaza that killed scores of Palestinians this month.

“What’s happening in Gaza is a crisis,” says Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights spokesman Chris Brown. “It’s gotten to the point where it’s an unabated massacre. It’s unacceptable.”

The group is calling on Canada to condemn the operation, which has killed more than 70 Palestinians, including 19 civilians killed in an artillery strike on Monday. “[Canadian Prime Minister Stephen] Harper has to take a stance in the United Nations, and stop supporting war crimes,” says SPHR activist Fadi Kamal.

Israel withdrew from the coastal Gaza Strip in 2005, but continued assassinations of Palestinian militants who fired rockets into Israeli towns. The ongoing operation was sparked when militants kidnapped an Israeli soldier over the summer, demanding the release of Palestinian prisoners in Israel. Human rights groups such as Amnesty International have called on Palestinians to release the soldier and end the rocket fire, while denouncing Israel for “collective punishment” and “war crimes” in Gaza.

The march starts at 1 p.m. in front of Concordia (1455 de Maisonneuve). Call (514) 839-7335 for more info. —Samer Elatrash

Cable vs. Daily

Last week, cable news network broadcasters CNN and FOX picked up on a McGill Daily article quoting investigative journalist Seymour Hersh saying at a recent McGill lecture that the U.S. army in Iraq was “murderous and violent.” CNN and FOX News asked for a transcript or tape of the talk, which the Daily refused to provide, saying it distrusted the broadcasters’ coverage of current events.

“Well, we imagined that, knowing how FOX beats the war drums, they would exploit the comments,” says Martin Lukacs, the Daily writer who authored the report. An editorial in this week’s Daily says, “Often when a major public figure has spoken out against the war, the mainstream media has focused its efforts on character assassination rather than an investigation of the person’s claims and arguments.”

Lukacs says the Daily’s suspicions were borne out when FOX aired a monologue from right-wing talking head John Gibson over the weekend attacking Hersh’s comments while ignoring his claim, also quoted in the Daily, that he had footage showing U.S. soldiers planting guns on Iraqi civilians they killed. The Mirror asked to speak to Gibson but an unnamed FOX staffer said this reporter was “not authorized” to speak to the pundit. —Samer Elatrash

REAR-VIEW MIRROR
14 years ago - Nov. 12–19, 1992

On the cover: The backs of two women in Walk-Safe jackets, as the Mirror looks at violence against women. “The news is grim,” reads the text on the cover. There is “a climate of fear in Montreal that has never been known before.” The McGill ghetto is considered “one of the most dangerous areas in Canada for women.”

• Queer Issues, the Mirror’s Gay and Lesbian Supplement, runs articles on “Living and dying with AIDS in art,” queer media and identity, gay writer Neil Miller, the crackdown on gays in the Third Reich and La Ville en Rose, a locally organized gay and lesbian studies conference.

• Also included in the issue is a run-down of Image & Nation screenings.

• Of the song “Fifty Mission Cap,” Tragically Hip bassist Gord Sinclair says, “If that kind of thing [Toronto Maple Leaf Bill Barilko’s mysterious death] happened in the States, everyone would hear about it, a Casey-at-the-bat kind of deal. But in Canada… we just sort of brush over our history.”

Angel >> Throwing the bums out Like a good enema, Tuesday’ mid-term elections in the U.S. cleaned out some of the rotten works constipating that country’s government. Bush’s gutless and corruptible fellow Republicans have finally received the punishment they so richly deserved, after five years of squandered legislative and executive control. They did an admirable job of fucking up the country: witness Iraq, Katrina, suspending habeas corpus, the Patriot Act, the rise of Christian zeal, Jack Abramoff—the list of Republican malfeasance is long. With House control now theirs and, at press time, the Senate within reach, the Dems may be able to put some sort of check on an administration that has so clearly lost its credibility.
Insect >> The world Tourism is up globally, but down in Canada, according to a UN study. The problem, officials say, is that we’re too boring. Really?! Haven’t the world’s sophisticated globetrotters heard of the CN Tower? Or the majesty of the Rideau canal? The sizzling nightlife of Moncton, Burnaby and Drummondville? The big red apple near Belleville, visible from the scenic 401? The World’s Tallest Teepee in Medicine Hat? The Edmonton mall? The vast Prairie vistas, with their miles and miles of nothing? Ask anyone who’s ever seen Sudbury’s giant nickel and see if their eyes don’t light up like a Hamilton steel forge. Boring? Gosh, world, Canada’s anything but!