Reggae and LOVE: Daytime revellers take in the sights and sounds at Montreal’s International Reggae Festival. The LOVE (Leave Out Violence) stage featured singers, rappers, DJs and dancers, some of them from the local non-profit organization that teaches media skills to troubled youth. PHOTO BY RACHEL GRANOFSKY

Quote of the week

“We approach problems and challenges perhaps differently; we probably want to have our poutine now and then.”—Canadian Lt. Col. Jean Trudel on overseeing Quebec’s recently deployed Vandoos in Afghanistan

Hoses of death?

Recent concerns about lead in the city’s tap water may have abated, but the Allergy and Environmental Health Association of Quebec (AEHAQ) is raising the alarm about the carcinogen’s presence in garden hoses.

The findings of an investigative report by a Phoenix TV station about the dangerous amount of lead in some garden hoses outraged U.S. activist Charlie Pizarro, according to a KNXV-TV report circulated by the AEHAQ. Three years ago, several hose manufacturers agreed to reduce lead content in their products after Pizarro’s group, the Center for Environmental Health, sued them.

Some of the same manufacturers are reportedly still producing hoses that contain 20 times the amount of lead allowed for drinking water by the U.S. Environment Protection Agency. At least one of the products is available at Home Depot outlets in Quebec, a sales representative told the Mirror.

“Most of the hoses made with PVC are likely to contain lead,” says KNXV-TV’s Lisa Fletcher, adding that small warning stickers on the packages, required by laws in some U.S. states, are often missed by buyers.

Canada does not compel companies to label their products. “The government should regulate that, if there is a risk of harm, the products should be labelled,” says Rohini Peris, president of the AEHAQ. “We have a right to know.”

by SAMER ELATRASH

Harper in Haiti

This week, Prime Minister Stephen Harper will visit Haiti, the Western Hemisphere’s poorest nation, during a six-day tour of Latin America and the Caribbean, a trip which, according to Harper aides, aims to “showcase his leadership” in the region.

Haitian politics have been mired in international controversy since 2004, when former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide was ousted in a violent coup d’état backed by U.S. and Canadian military forces, including Canada’s elite “counter-terrorist” unit, Joint Task Force 2 (JTF2). Canada’s former Liberal government openly supported the major international intervention in Haiti, while Harper’s upcoming trip suggests similar support from the Conservatives.

Local Haitian solidarity activists and Montreal’s sizeable Haitian community, one of the largest in the world outside of Haiti, are closely following Harper’s trip. Next Thursday at 5 p.m., CKUT 90.3FM will host a one-hour special focused on Harper’s stop in Haiti, produced by local activist group Haiti Action Montreal and Résistance haïtienne au Québec, a militant group within the local community.

“Harper’s political arrogance will be illustrated through his first stop in Haiti, which will be to Cité Soleil, one of the poorest neighborhoods of Port-au-Prince and home to the strongest opposition to the 2004 coup that Canada supported,” explains Haiti Action Montreal’s Yves Engler.

by Stefan Christoff

Green project needs
your socks

Finally, a constructive use for all the lonely socks so many of us have stashed away in the backs of our drawers.

Citizens are asked to bring their orphan footwear to the Old Port’s Quai de l’Horloge on Sunday, July 22 between 11 a.m. and 4 p.m., to be used as insulation for Espace Sedna-Rebut global. The project, conceived by Vincent Vandenbrouck, is a joint endeavour of the Sedna Foundation, Equiterre, the Biodome and Blue Storm Média.

Perennial plants are also needed to install a green roof on the building, constructed of such materials as old cargo containers and metro and bus seats.

The building also features a small cinema to screen educational films, including a 20-minute documentary about the Sedna IV’s recent Antarctic voyage.

Event coordinator Kay promises that all donated materials will be put to use, all the public’s questions about going green will be answered and a DJ will spin tunes all afternoon.

“There will be specialists on site to advise people about insulation, green roofs, solar energy, wind farms, everything,” she says. “It’s a way to have a good time, learn something, meet people and participate.”

by Lorraine Carpenter

Just for spliffs

If you’re looking for a worthy cause to support—and really, who isn’t?—then you might want to consider heading on down to le Social (1445 Bishop) this Sunday, July 22, at 9 p.m. to partake in comedian Howard Dover’s Medical Marijuana Comedy Show, ExtravaGANJA.

Attendees can look forward to a soirée of first-rate stand-up comedy, short film screenings and, according to Dover, “a lot of famous comedians in town for the [Just for Laughs] festival will be stopping by unannounced to do their sets.”

Ten bucks gets you in, with all monies being collected divided between the Montreal Compassion Centre on Rachel and Dover’s Green Therapy project, “so we can continue spreading the word and educating people. It’s extremely important that people have safe access to marijuana through the Compassion Centres. What’s so good about them is the quality control—if there’s any bit of mold or whatnot on the bud, they just won’t sell it. They’re selling to patients, after all, people with AIDS. It’s essential they have access to quality stuff.”

For more information on this sure-to-be awesome evening, go to greentherapy.com.

by Chris Barry

Rear-view mirror

19 years ago - July 29–Aug. 30, 1988

• On the cover: “Hometown Bard” Leonard Cohen explains that his song “First We Take Manhattan” is about his “intention to take over the world with anybody who wants to come along for the trip.” Of the music industry, he says, “It’s important to know you are dealing with an industry and still keep your dignity and integrity. It’s a marriage between music and money.”

•The proliferation of condos is examined in a piece about landlords using loopholes in the moratorium on condo conversion, a trend that “could decimate the stock of low-rent apartments.”

•In an article about Iceland’s the Sugarcubes, Andrew Jones describes the band’s unnamed female member (Björk) as “the sexiest singer since Martin Denny’s Exotica girls of the ’50s.”

•A review of Rick James’s album Wonderful states that the record “should do well south of the border where they play Black music more frequently.”

•Clint Eastwood’s final Dirty Harry film, The Dead Pool, gets a lukewarm review, while Big Top Pee Wee is panned and Die Hard is highly praised.

Angel >> Green publishing The production and distribution of a mammoth franchise like Harry Potter may not seem like an eco-friendly endeavour. But J.K. Rowling’s impending release, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, is the greenest book in publishing history. The title’s English editions alone, printed in 16 countries using a variety of eco-friendly papers, some developed specifically for the Potter series, will reportedly save 197,685 trees and 7.9 million kilos of greenhouse gases. Even if the surefire bestseller spells the end of everyone’s favourite young wizard, it could be the beginning of a new, eco-conscious era in publishing.

Insect >> The wait on wait times In Sicko, Michael Moore points to Canada as a country with a more humane healthcare system, an example for the U.S. to follow. Meanwhile, Canada could learn a little something from fellow Commonwealth countries about reducing wait times for medical treatment. According to the journal Health Affairs, Canada has spent more money on the issue than the other four countries whose systems were scrutinized in the international study (England, Australia, New Zealand and Wales). But Canada has failed to employ new information technology to curb the problem, and lacks firm targets and national standards. Until the provinces agree on what a wait time is, the sick will be kept waiting.