WALKIES AGAINST CRUELTIES: Canines and their human friends walked their way along Rachel last Sunday in a march to end puppy mills, the destructive, inhumane and illegal dog breeding farms. The Best Friends Animal Society, the march’s organizer, claims there are between 1,500 and 1,800 puppy mills operating in Quebec alone. Photo by Rachel Granofsky

Quote of the week

“Mme. Couture-Nowak is an excellent teacher. She makes everything as easy as possible for you to learn the subject material. She is extremely nice and understanding.” —An online teacher assessment of Jocelyne Couture-Nowak, a Virginia Tech French professor originally from Montreal who was killed on Monday.

Walk against global warming

In case you hadn’t heard, there’s a rumour circulating in public affairs circles that something called global warming is currently in the process of causing all matter of bacchanal upon our cherished Mother Earth. Yet in spite of recent lip service paid to the issue by the Dubyas and Stephen Harpers of this world, governments have been disturbingly lackadaisical about addressing the upcoming crisis. Even the goals of the arguable band-aid solution that is the Kyoto Protocol are not being met here in Canada. So it’s time to take to the streets, eco-warriors, and this Sunday, April 22, is the time to do it.

The “Kyoto, pour l’espoire” march will be leaving from Parc Lafontaine (corner Calixa-Lavallée and Rachel) at 1:30 p.m. with the intent of offering hope that Doomsday can be averted if we just collectively get off our asses and properly address the situation.

“Even though Quebec has the best green plan in Canada, it still doesn’t even meet 60 per cent of what Kyoto calls for,” says Julie Kelly, co-organizer of the event. “We need to do more, right here at street level.”

For more information, go to www.jourdelaterre.org.

by Chris Barry

Alcan out of India

Montreal-based corporation Alcan Inc. surprised the business world last week with an announcement it was pulling out of a contentious aluminium mining project in Orissa, India. Alcan holds a 45 per cent stake in the bauxite mine that rests upon Adivasi (India’s rural indigenous people) territory.

Alcan’s project has been faced with both domestic and international opposition for years. In Montreal, Alcan’t in India, a group opposed to the mine, organized demonstrations outside of Alcan’s annual stockholders’ meetings. In India, local Adivasi people, who faced displacement due to the mine, strongly fought the project by organizing country-side demonstrations and militant strikes.

In 2000, Indian police opened fire on local protesters demonstrating against the mine, killing three and sparking an international outcry from human rights organizations.

“Internal political pressure from Indian communities who opposed the mine had a major impact on Alcan’s decision to pull out of the project,” says Zahra Moloo of Alcan’t in India. “However, Alcan is selling all of its shares, which is a moral victory but means another company will be taking over the disastrous mining project, which leaves us to realize that this sadly will not result in fundamental changes on the ground for the affected people in India.”

by Stefan Christoff

Access local Asians

If your knowledge of Asian culture is limited to spicy food, kung fu movies and ancient symbols that look cool as tattoos, then you have a lot to learn. Fortunately, May is Asian Heritage Month, and the Accès Asie festival will be holding concerts, film screenings and other cultural events throughout the month to celebrate this popular continent’s rich and varied artistic traditions.

The fun begins on Thursday, April 19, at Cabaret (2111 St-Laurent), 8 p.m., $12, with Asia in Fusion, the festival’s official launch party, hosted by CBC celebs Sonali Karnick and Geeta Nadkarni, and featuring performances from over 40 musicians, dance troupes, theatre groups and other artists, including local R&B sensation Cheryl Sim, percussionist Patrick Graham and the Bollywood Blast dancers. The evening’s proceeds will help raise funds for festival events and support Asha for Education, an organization dedicated to helping underprivileged and abused children in India.

“Our goal is to share the incredible talents of local Asian artists with the rest of the community,” says Accès Asie artistic director Janet Lumb. “It’s time to give them a greater presence in this city’s arts scene.”

For more info, visit www.accesasie.com

by Steve Zylbergold

Earth Day West

Last year, Beaconsfield city council established an environmental advisory committee to “provide answers on how to live a more sustainable lifestyle,” says committee chair Kate Coulter. The committee has come up with an action plan it will launch on Earth Day, Sunday, April 22, at the West Island Environment Fair.

The theme of the fair is “sustainable solutions for the future,” says Coulter. “We’re bringing a number of speakers, some on home improvement and on renovating your homes to be more energy-efficient.” Marc Garneau, Canada’s first astronaut, will deliver the keynote speech.

The fair, which will be held in Beaconsfield High School (250 Beaurepaire), from 11 a.m.–5 p.m., will host a teen fashion show with models decked out in used clothing. Children can look forward to a “waste sorting game”.

The environmental committee wants West Island residents to be “responsible for future generations,” says Coulter.

A screening of How to Save the World, a documentary on biodynamic farming, will be held Thursday, April 19, at the Beaconsfield Library (303 Beaconsfield) at 1:30 p.m. and Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth will be screened at the library at 7 p.m.

For more info, visit www.beaconsfield.ca.

by SAMER ELATRASH

Rear-view mirror

On the cover: Father Paul Marx, the founder of Human Life International, a radical pro-life organization speaking at a conference in Montreal. The article lists “HLI’s top 10 extremists,” which includes homophobes, Nazi sympathizers and religious fundamentalists.

• “Eastern Canadian audiences are rougher on us than western Canadian audiences, and I think that has to do with them being a little behind the times as far as new music goes,” says the Melvins’ King Buzzo. He’s referring to the “slow, grinding” live recording of the song “Montreal” at the Metropolis in 1993, when the audience chanted for headliners “Pri-mus!”

• The RantLine™ is inundated with calls about Slaves on Dope, the MiMis, CHOM’s Too Tall and “saluting the corporate flagpole.”

• Nancy Lyon visits Gulf Breeze, Florida, the UFO sighting capital of the United States for the Mirror’s Travel section. She explores a UFO-shaped house, meets the local Abductee Support Group and is momentarily startled one night by luminous jellyfish, but does not see any UFOs.

Angel >> More heritage protection For the first time in 16 years, the City of Montreal is going to classify several pre-merger Montreal buildings as heritage landmarks. Among them is Habitat 67, Moshe Safdie’s futuristic cube complex built for the Expo, becoming the only post-World War II building to be protected, and just in time to celebrate Expo’s 40th anniversary. Four buildings have already been approved for heritage status last week, with more to come in the coming weeks. Île Ste-Hélène will also be studied for classification, as it pre-dates European arrival and was the scene of the French military surrender.

Insect >> Pot gouging As if people living with cancer, HIV/AIDS and hepatitis-C didn’t have enough to worry about, now comes news that Health Canada, the official supplier of medical marijuana, has been making profits that would make a biker blanch. Records obtained under the Access to Information Act show that Health Canada buys a kilo of weed from a registered supplier for $328.75, then sells it to federally registered users for $150 for 30 grams, or about $5,000 a kilo. That means Health Canada is charging a 1,500 per cent mark-up on its pot. National medical marijuana advocacy groups like Canadians for Safe Access are calling for cost-coverage and debt forgiveness for the 10,000 Canadians using medical marijuana.