Quote of the week:
“Fifteen weapons were found to be missing: seven Glocks, six Tasers and two Berettas.” —from an audit by Samson & Associates, after an inventory of the Kanesatake Mohawk Police found that many of the force’s weapons had disappeared.
Panthers for whores
This Sunday, Dec. 17, enigmatic queer radicals the Pink Panthers, along with partners Stella and film-collective Les Lucioles, launch their latest DVD, La Putain de Compile at Café Cleopatra (1230 St-Laurent, 1st floor) to coincide with the fourth International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers. “We want to show another side of prostitution, to have a different discourse than the mass media [allows],” says Panther and former sex worker “Pom Pom,” who, in Pink Panther tradition, asked not to reveal her real name.
The bilingual compilation of 25 short films from eight countries, the DVD also aims to give voice to an often marginalized and invisible group. “Everybody has an opinion on prostitution,” says Pom Pom. “But we never talk to sex workers themselves. So, for once, we’re inviting people to listen to what they have to say.”
Doors open at 7 p.m., the film screens at 8 p.m. Suggested contribution of $5, but no one will be refused entry. The launch will be preceded by the Red Umbrellas’ March, organized by the Sex Workers Coalition of Montreal. It starts at 6 p.m. at Papineau metro and ends up at Cleopatra. For info, www.lespantheresroses.org. —Christopher Hazou
Pop against warming
’Tis the season to pony up for a good cause and to brood over how global warming is turning the Arctic into a world of slush, so why not attend a benefit concert organized by Pop Montreal for environmental groups? “Right now global warming is a cause celebre,” says Pop co-founder Dan Seligman, “but there is still a lot of ignorance about it.”
Pop Montreal puts on a seasonal benefit show every year, and this year’s theme is global warming. Local music groups, including a children’s choir and Stars, Sam Roberts and the Dears frontman Murray Lightburn, will perform at the Ukrainian Federation (5213 Hutchinson, 8 p.m., $10) on Saturday, Dec. 16.
“It’s obviously à propos because of the timing,” says Seligman. “Lots of people know there’s something wrong, but it’s pretty easy to become cynical and apathetic about it. Hopefully it will inspire people at the local level to find connections between local and global concerns. We don’t want to be heavy-handed about it, but to do something more positive.”
The proceeds will go to the Canadian Youth Climate Coalition, founded in September to protest the Conservative government’s Scrooge-inspired environmental policy, and stopglobalwarming.org, a U.S. environment group. —Samer Elatrash
Inaction on Lebanon deaths
Almost four months have passed since Montrealer Hassan El Akhras lost 11 family members to an Israeli air strike in the south Lebanese village of Aitaroun. Currently, legal representatives of the family are pressing the Conservative government for action on the case.
Despite existing legal efforts, Hassan El Akhras holds little faith in the current government. “The government has done nothing,” says El Akhras. “Our family wants the Canadian government to launch an international investigation on the war crime committed against my family, but we have gotten no phone call, nothing.”
The El Akhras family was well respected in Montreal and ran a successful pharmacy in Côte-des-Neiges. Their death shocked many Montrealers this past summer, stirring debate about the war that many felt was unjustified in its scale and choice of targets.
“Montreal’s Lebanese community feels increasingly alienated from Canadian politics,” says Bassam Hussein of the Lebanese community centre El-Hidaya. “Reaction on the part of the Conservative government concerning the El Akhras family enforces that alienation.”
“Sometimes I feel that the Conservative government views Arab life as less valuable than others,” says El Akhras. —Stefan Christoff
DNA for Immigration
Not all of us are going to be surrounded by family this Christmas. M. Komi Amouzou will be trying to prove to the Canadian government that his children are really his.
Amouzou, a 37-year old sociologist from Togo, fled his country in 2004 after his human rights work had stirred up trouble with the government. He was accepted as a refugee in Canada and applied to sponsor his wife and their three young children.
Quebec gave the okay and was waiting for the green light from Immigration Canada when a new demand was made. “They asked for DNA tests to determine the biological link between me and my kids,” says Amouzou.
The tests are costing him $7,700 and his family, already fearing for their safety, had to travel from Togo to the Canadian High Commission in Accra, Ghana, to take their tests.
Stéphane Malépart from Immigration Canada stresses that DNA tests, used occasionally since 1991, are not mandatory. He adds however, that, “If the sponsor refuses to undergo such a test when it is the only way to establish the biological relationship, the application would be turned down.”
To help Amouzou defray the cost of the test, contact the Côte-des-Neiges Community Council at (514) 739-7731. —Carolyn Morris
REAR-VIEW MIRROR
16 years ago - Dec. 13–20, 1990
On the cover: MCJ and Cool G, for the Mirror’s Music Annual. Articles examine the local indie scene (“While the French audience crosses over to support their English-speaking colleagues, the English audience stubbornly stays put”), the “booming” francophone pop scene, Doughboy Patrick H’s tour diary (“11/19/89: Edmonton: Jonathan drove to Edmonton last night with Frank & Company, and they hit and killed a deer on the highway, putting quite a damper on the rest of their evening”) and radio station 990 Hits, among other topics.
• “The most notable phenomena in this Year of the Chaos Theory were Frenchmen, festivals and French festivals,” reads Notes from Underground’s Year in Review.
• Best-selling local records include Gerry Boulet’s Rendez-vous doux, Ray Condo’s Condo Country, the Doughboys’ Happy Accidents, Celine Dion’s Unison, Luc de Larochellière’s Amère America and Bootsauce’s The Brown Album.
• Jeremy Searle writes in his Urban Ecology column that the lack of Christmas decorations on downtown streets are a sign of recession. He describes the Ste-Catherine strip as “desolate.”
Angel >> Policing the Mounties Judge Dennis O’Connor’s inquiry into how the RCMP botched the Arar case has led to his calling for an independent monitor over the federal force earlier this week, one that would have widespread powers to investigate the force if necessary. The inquiry had some ugly moments, the worst probably occurring late last week, when the RCMP’s Commissioner, Giuliano Zaccardelli, resigned after he admitted he misled the public and politicians in the handling of the case. An earlier report accused the Mounties of dishonesty and incompetence—hardly reassuring, given that police forces everywhere are seeking more and more power to fight suspected terrorism.
Insect >> Stockwell Day’s bonehead blog Evangelical Public Security Minister Stockwell Day has a blog, and, earlier this week, wrote a seemingly tongue-in-cheek post about how he couldn’t wait for global warming because it was cold outside. Also, “Big Al [Gore’s] Glacial Melt” would benefit some of his Okanagan valley constituents, who could look forward to new lake-front property as water levels rise, yuk yuk. Given his and his party’s apparent disregard for science (he thinks the Earth is only 6,000 years old, and men walked with dinosaurs), and Environment Minister Rona Ambrose’s constant gaffes, Stock’s brain-dead gags reveal more than he might have hoped.
