WE WANT OUR ANTI-CHAVEZ TV: Opponents of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez marched to the TVA, CTV and CBC buildings Saturday morning to protest his government’s refusal to extend the licence of Radio Caracas Televisión, an opposition station that went off the air in late May. Human rights groups and others consider the station’s closure political revenge. A group of pro-Chavez supporters staged a counter-march at the same time. PHOTO BY WILL LEW

Quote of the week

“It’s a lot of money for a useless job.” —Bloc Québécois leader Gilles Duceppe, on the alleged $700,000 misspent by Quebec Lieutenant-Governor Lise Thibault

Cars boot docs

Indie film producer Valerie Shamash thought last weekend’s Grand Prix blow-out on St-Laurent would be the perfect opportunity to sell some locally made documentaries to interested passers-by at Duluth. Unfortunately for her, she was given a $141 ticket by city inspectors and replaced by an old-school Cadillac.

The confusion started not long after she set up a table booth Thursday morning. Her company, Productions Multi-Monde, is a member of the St-Laurent business association and she says she was given “clear and positive verbal approval” to set up the booth, but did not have a written permit—she claims she was never issued the form. Fest organizer Sandra Fénélon soon approached the booth and asked them to go home. When Shamash refused, pointing out that her company had offices at the corner for the past 10 years, a city inspector and police were called in.

Fénélon says strict measures are necessary to maintain some kind of order during the chaotic street sales, but Shamash can’t help feeling that, in the spirit of the Grand Prix, cars are more palatable to pedestrians than political documentaries. She will be back at the same spot this weekend, and plans to contest the fine.

by Patrick Lejtenyi

Southwest fest

It’s a wonderful world, the song goes, and the people of Lasalle and Verdun will celebrate it, and everyone who lives here, next week. The Festival Mondial de la Terre, running, largely along the waterfront, from June 16–24, is the third annual edition that bills itself as “an international festival for human solidarity and the space we live in,” says co-organizer Stéphane Lagassé. This year’s edition, however, is “15 times bigger than last year’s,” and will be a pilot project for future festivals in years to come.

One festival highlight will be a “green” fashion show offsite, at the St-Jean-Baptiste church (4237 Henri-Julien, corner Rachel) on Monday, June 18 at 7 p.m. Lagassé credits the hundred-plus volunteers and 25 designers who are donating time and energy to the event, including Masacoche, Blank and the CEGEP Marie-Victorin design school.

Another major event is “No Bag Day,” which will be observed on June 21, and every solstice and equinox following. The idea, says Lagassé, is to get merchants to withhold free plastic shopping bags from customers on those days in order to pressure the provincial government to institute an outright ban.

For more info, visit festivaldelaterre.ca.

by Patrick Lejtenyi

St-Laurent goes sonic

If you’ve always wanted to participate in interactive, sonic expression, but were always afraid that your lack of rhythmic skill would ruin the amazing sound of the weekly Sunday Mount Royal percussion orchestra, now’s your big chance. On Saturday, June 16, from 3:30–4 p.m., along St-Laurent all the way from Sherbrooke to Mont-Royal, citizens will be immersed in the sound of HMMM, an audio collage reflecting our multi-cultural, urban environment.

CKUT 90.3 FM will be broadcasting the soundtrack and over 50 volunteers will be carrying radios tuned to the station. HMMM is intended to unite Montrealers through wordless vocal expression and heighten our awareness of our sonic environment. Citizens are invited to participate by humming along or bringing along another radio tuned to CKUT. Participants will not be required to close their eyes and hold hands.

“It’s a supersonic experiment that will allow people to truly hear and reflect upon the sounds of the city’s main artery”, says sound artist and HMMM creator Kathy Kennedy. “Buildings and other obstructions block out many of the natural sounds in the area. This is an opportunity to hear them clearly.”

For more information visit www.kathykennedy.ca.

by Steve Zylbergold

Free worms for Earth

If you’re looking for a sure-fire way to impress people about how pro-active you’re being with respect to global warming without having to make any painful changes to your hip urban lifestyle, then take note: compost worms are the answer.

And making your personal eco-conversion even less painful, free compost worms, along with expert instruction on how to take the 10 minutes required to build your own indoor worm compost out of a $5 Rubbermaid bin, will be yours for the taking this Tuesday, June 19, at 6:30 p.m. at the Centre d’écologie urbaine (3516 Parc, corner Milton).

In case you didn’t know, greenhouse gases produced by landfills account for six per cent of total C02-equivalent gases in Quebec, with organic waste being a significant part of landfill material. So not only will your scent-free indoor worm compost deliver you the highest quality organic fertilizer on the planet, at the same time you’ll be doing your bit to stave off Doomsday a few more years.

“We’re doing everything we can to help green up the neighbourhood,” says Centre spokesperson Josée Magnon. “Simple things like composting can make a huge difference to the health of our planet.”

by Chris Barry

Rear-view mirror

14 years ago-june 10–june 17, 1993

On the cover: A scalper, as the Mirror investigates the old Forum’s “weak laws and ineffective controls.” Commenting on the ease with which scalpers buy their tickets at the Forum box office—far above the four-per-customer maximum—scalper “J.D.” says, “The Forum should pay their employees a little better. Then they wouldn’t have this problem.”

• Voivod’s The Outer Limits “stays close to the band’s original vision of a parallel universe where heavy metal, heavy water and heavy head trips meld.”

• Fringe co-producer Kristin Kieran explains the festival’s philosophy: “Be shameless in your publicity, bother the media, draw attention to yourself.”

• Letter-writer and Gazette City Editor Catherine Wallace is annoyed at the Best of Montreal’s link between Best Columnist winner Jack Todd and a Peter O’Toole character whose “love of the bottle and other nocturnal distractions often rendered him incapable of filing for the next deadline.” Wallace insists Todd has “never missed a deadline for any reason,” and that a recent prolonged absence was due to a bout of flu and bronchitis.

Angel >> Green computers The big players in the computing industry announced this week that they’ll be supporting a new World Wildlife Fund initiative designed to promote energy efficiency and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. While names like Microsoft, Intel, Google, IBM and Hewlett-Packard don’t usually evoke the spirit of good corporate citizenship, they estimate that improving energy efficiency by 50 per cent by 2010 will amount to removing 11 million cars a year. Some industry groups, however, say that computers are already highly energy inefficient and new European Union legislation will force manufacturers to improve efficiency anyway. Green groups wonder if the new initiative will be used to drive sales and contribute to more e-waste—but most analysts agree that even raising the issue’s profile is beneficial in the long run.

Insect >> Bad dog news Dogs have been in the news recently, but for all the wrong reasons. First was Snoopy-gate, the revelation that Air Canada was transporting beagles to Europe for medical research, a practice it said it would halt following passenger protests. Last week—just before the Grand Prix and the beginning of festival season—the downtown Ville-Marie borough announced that it will be cracking down on dogs in Berri and Viger Squares—a rather backhanded way of telling the street punks there to get lost. City crackdowns on perceived undesirables are nothing new of course, but targeting them through their best friend seems like a pretty underhanded tactic.