PARTY UNDER THE OVERPASS: Megasoid (Hadji Bakara and DJ Sixtoo, on van) entertain the post-St-Viateur street fest crowds early Saturday morning below the overpass near St-Laurent and Bernard. While not officially part of Friday’s festival, the party lasted for nearly two hours before a modest police presence ensued and the crowd peacefully dispersed. PHOTO BY RACHEL GRANOFSKY

Quote of the week

“Canada is the worst culprit in blocking a significant communiqué [on African aid].” —Bob Geldof, slamming Canada’s foreign aid commitments before this week’s G8 summit in Germany

Arrested victory

A municipal court decision last week to throw out charges against 193 demonstrators arrested at a November 19, 2004 student protest was welcomed by the protesters, but the ruling was not a victory for “freedom of protest,” says the students’ lawyer Pierre-Louis Fortin-Legris.

The students were charged with violating a public order bylaw passed by the administration of Jean Drapeau in 1969. “We made a motion to quash the bylaw itself, but it was rejected,” says Fortin-Legris. He says the bylaw allows police more leeway in arresting protesters who are considered a threat to public order.

In the court ruling, the judge said the protesters had disturbed the peace but police violated the protesters’ Charter rights by confining them for hours while taking their pictures and not allowing them access to legal counsel. Several bystanders and journalists covering the demonstration, including Mirror news editor Patrick Lejtenyi and photographer Rachel Granofsky, were held with the protesters.

Montreal police had used the bylaw to conduct mass arrests twice before the 2004 protest, and in both cases, charges against the protesters were thrown out. The police’s resort to mass arrests has come under criticism from human rights groups such as Amnesty International and the United Nations Human Rights Commission.

by Samer Elatrash

Ben’s art deco heritage

First we lost their smoked meat. Now Montreal is about to lose a classic example of Streamlined Modern architecture, as the Ben’s Restaurant-Deli building is currently in the process of being sold to an American developer who apparently intends to have it demolished. But there’s hope the building can be saved yet.

A fight to preserve the landmark downtown structure is heating up, with organizations Art Déco Montréal and Pop Montreal mobilizing to pressure authorities to see Ben’s reclassified as a heritage building. Next Thursday, June 14, at noon, they’ll be organizing a demonstration in front of the former delicatessen (990 de Maisonneuve W., corner Metcalfe) with speakers and performers ranging from Socalled to filmmaker Tim Rideout, all weighing in on why it’s so crucial the building be spared the wrecking ball.

“The real estate tycoon who bought it has no idea of what Ben’s means to the city,” says Pop Montreal’s Dan Seligman. “They’re just hoping to go in there, destroy it, and that nobody will care. But if people actually do something, we can prevent this from happening. We need to protest.”

See popmontreal.com for more.

by Chris Barry

Six days, 40 years

Forty years ago this week, Israel conquered the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Syrian Golan Heights during the Six-Day War. This Saturday, June 9, the Coalition for Justice and Peace in Palestine takes to the streets in support of Palestinians now entering their fifth decade living under the longest military occupation of modern times.

“It gets worse by the hour and by the day,” says Rezeq Faraj, a Palestinian activist and one of the event’s organizers. “Israel is trying to starve the population so it will leave. It’s another form of ethnic cleansing.”

Despite the withdrawal of 8,000 settlers from Gaza in 2005, the number of Israeli Jews living illegally in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, currently about 450,000, continues to grow, rendering the “two-state solution” all but impossible.

Nevertheless, Faraj remains hopeful. “Eventually, the Israelis will get out,” he says. “Meanwhile, Jews, Muslims and Christians will continue to suffer.”

The march begins at 1 p.m. from Dorchester Square (corner Peel and René-Lévesque W.), and will be preceded by 24 hours of activities in Dorchester Square, including film screenings, kiosks and a “refugee tent” starting at 1 p.m. on Friday. For info visit www.cjpp.org.

by Christopher Hazou

Theatre of the tortured

An audience isn’t simply an audience for Hector Aristizábal—it’s a collective witness and a vehicle for catharsis and activism. A torture survivor, the Colombian-born actor, therapist and activist explores the spectrum of emotion and creativity by inviting audiences to interact based on principles of meditation and the Theatre of the Oppressed (a school of politicized theatre aimed at social change and justice).

In 1982, Aristizábal and his brother were kidnapped on suspicion of subversive activity. His brother went to jail and Aristizábal was tortured by electric shock, drowning and mock execution; upon his release, he received death threats, and eventually moved to California in 1989. He blames Colombia’s paramilitary death squad for murdering his brother in 1999.

“The voice of the survivors is crucial,” he says. For the past two years, he’s exposed torture and terrorism through the autobiographical theatre performance Nightwind by constantly reliving it. The raw, visceral reactions and participation he extracts from his audiences help guide the evolution of his performance.

“You create the play, but the play is also creating me.”

Aristizábal performs Nightwind on Wednesday, June 13 at Concordia’s de Sève Cinema (1400 de Maisonneuve W.), 7 p.m. free.

by Tracey Lindeman

Rear-view mirror

13 YEARS AGO-JUNE 9–JUNE 16, 1994

On the cover: A couple with a dog and a radio, symbolizing the Hot Summer Guide. The 44-page supplement includes guides to summer festivals, movies, music, theatre, books and art, as well as ice cream, beer and outdoor activities.

• The recent seizure of 26.2 tonnes of hash and the arrest of alleged gangster Gerald Matticks find dealers wondering about their future. “It’s going to be a dry summer,” says Philip. “Prices are going up,” says Carlos. “I had a buy set up two days after the bust. When I got there, the guy wanted $700 more per slab [kilogram] than I’d agreed.”

• “Gone are the days of the Fringe as a goof-fest, as a second-hand Just for Laughs or as a Gonzo showcase,” enthuses Gaëtan Charlebois.”

• Zev Asher of Osaka-by-way-of-Montreal’s Nimrod says of the Japanese, “Despite their fascination with American culture, there’s still a certain level of xenophobia that exists. I live in a small, rural neighbourhood between Osaka and Kobe, and I was the local freak.”

Angel >> Learning to live green As G8 leaders gather in Germany this week to gab and yak and not come up with any meaningful plan to combat the ever-worsening problem of global warming, some grassroots types will be teaching Montreal consumers how they can make a difference in their daily lives. The second annual Salon National de l’Environnement opens today, June 8, at the Old Port, inviting visitors to learn all about responsible consumption, transportation, energy, housing and more, and runs through to Sunday, June 10. There will also be loads of exhibitors trying to sell you on the benefits of being green. Someone should tell the feds it’s worth it. For more info, visit www.sne2007.com.

Insect >> Bean-counting Heritage Minister Bev Oda The city administration sided with soon-to-be-freaking-out festival organizers across the country in calling on the federal government to release the promised, and much-needed, funds to get mostly summer festivals rolling. The feds are holding on to some $30-million, to be spent nationally, which they helpfully say will be released in the fall—long after the Jazz Fest, FrancoFolies, Just for Laughs and countless others are over. Heritage Minister Bev Oda somewhat petulantly and lamely pointed out that the festivals shouldn’t have counted on the funding in the first place. One Jazz Fest organizer said immediate consequences to sclerotic funding could include cutbacks to porta-potties. True, festival season here may be kind of annoying, but with an estimated seven million visitors bringing in over $200-million, it might not be something we want to nickel-and-dime.