LUCHADORES SLAM DOWN: Lucha Libre wrestlers wreak havoc on each other at last Sunday’s Vans Warped Tour at Parc Jean-Drapeau. The touring company claims this was the first true Lucha Libre tour in Canada. PHOTO BY WILL LEW

Quote of the week

“Retail prices in Canada have responded to the loonie’s moonshot with all the speed and alacrity of a three-toed sloth.” —BMO economist Douglas Porter, as Canadian retailers avoid lowering prices even as the loonie soars against the greenback.

Plastax applauded

Last week’s announcement by Quebec Environment Minister Line Beauchamp that the province was considering a tax on plastic bags was greeted with cautious applause by the province’s biggest recycling advocacy group. The clunkily named Front commun québécois pour une gestion écologique des déchets (FCQGED) was surprised to hear about the proposed measure, dubbed the “plastax,” but says it is a step in the right direction.

“The announcement was like a rabbit being pulled out of a hat,” says the FCQGED’s Robert Ménard. “It’s worth thinking about coercive measures that go beyond simple awareness-raising. It does tend to produce more tangible results.” The organization represents 89 green groups across the province.

Beauchamp said the government was considering, among other measures, a 20-cent-a-bag tax on all plastic bags. Ireland introduced a similar measure in 2002, and the use of plastic bags in that country dropped by as much as 95 per cent. The measure was suggested by local activist Jacques Lalonde in a report he wrote for the Ministry. The tax could raise up to $30-million for the province, but Lalonde would prefer a total ban on plastic, preferring biodegradable bags made from corn or potato starch.

by PATRICK LEJTENYI

Safety and sex work

Sex workers ought to feel at home at the upcoming Quebec Social Forum, which gathers activists from labour groups, women’s rights groups, anti-poverty and environment groups—to mention a few—for three days of networking starting on Thursday, August 23. “As sex workers, we see the cross-sections of poverty, globalization, health and women’s issues,” says Jenn Clamen of Stella, a Montreal sex worker’s rights group, which will offer a presentation at the forum.

The problem is, other groups have a very different take on the connections between sex work and violence against women. Also presenting at the forum will be a Quebec women’s group that calls for the end of sex work, which it views as a form of violence against women. The popularity of this view among many women’s groups in Quebec has paralyzed the Fédération des femmes du Québec, preventing the group from taking a stance on the issue of decriminalizing prostitution. Sex workers say current laws place them in danger.

“We’ll be there trying to build alliances,” but it’s unlikely they’ll succeed with women’s movement, says Clamen.

The forum last from August 23 to August 26. See www.forumsocialquebecois.org for more information.

by SAMER ELATRASH

Charkaoui’s challenges

For more than four years, Moroccan-born Montrealer Adil Charkaoui has lived in a Kafkaesque state of limbo. Accused of being an al-Qaeda sleeper agent, he was arrested under a security certificate in May 2003, and spent almost two years in detention before being released under strict conditions. Unable to challenge the secret evidence against him, he continues to live under virtual house arrest and a cloud of suspicion.

Charkaoui’s supporters are asking the public to demonstrate their solidarity by showing up at Federal Court next week as he challenges the restrictions of his release, as well as the leak of secret information from CSIS.

“He’s going to be asking that the conditions against him be dropped entirely,” says Mary Foster of the Coalition Justice for Adil Charkaoui, noting that in February, the Supreme Court handed down a suspended judgment deeming security certificates unconstitutional.

Proceedings begin at the Federal Court (30 McGill St.), on Wednesday, August 22, at 9:30 a.m. and continue until Aug. 24. Organizers ask anyone who wishes to attend e-mail justiceforadil@riseup.net to be informed of changes to the court’s schedule. For more info see www.adilinfo.org.

by Christopher Hazou

Spike for sex ed

A world without high school sex education would be dangerous indeed: Imagine clueless, horny teenagers running rampant, accidentally poking each others’ eyes out, damaging other orifices, trying to cure genital warts with household cleaners, or using sandwich baggies as contraceptives.

The good people at Head & Hands want to ensure that this horrific vision never becomes a reality and so, in response to the Quebec education reform’s near-total elimination of sex ed in high schools, they have created Sense, a community-based sex education support program for youths aged 14 to 17 at Montreal-area schools. To raise funds for the program, they’ve organized a beach volleyball tournament at Jeanne-Mance park featuring staff members from your favourite downtown and Plateau bars on Sunday, Aug. 19 from 9 a.m.–6 p.m., followed by an after party at Blizzarts (3956A St-Laurent, 6 p.m.–12 a.m., $5 entry includes one drink).

“Youth today need sex education more than ever,” says Sarah Wakani, President of H&H Board of Directors. “The community truly understands the importance of this issue. Nearly 45 people have volunteered their time to help organize this event. The response has been incredible.”

For more info see www.headandhands.ca.

by Steve Zylbergold

Rear-view mirror

15 years ago - aug. 13–20, 1992

On the cover: Theatre troupe Carbone 14, whose Le Café des aveugles, directed by Gilles Maheu, opens at Place des Arts. Under Maheu’s “genius” direction, it promises, writes Gaëtan Charlebois, “heated, satisfying eroticism.”

• Mohawk activist and Oka Crisis veteran Kahn-Tineta Horn pens a full-page story on how “Mohawks start to recover from generations of brainwashing in white schools.”

• The subject of Australian director Dennis O’Rourke’s documentary The Good Woman of Bangkok, about the prostitution industry in Thailand, says she hates men “more than shit.”

• Sonic Youth’s Dirty gets an extended review. Richard Bird describes it as “the ugliest bits of heaven and the prettiest parts of hell, and [mixed] with the lyrical extract of the darkest corners of the psyche.”

• “Female Persuasions” columnists Julianne Pidduck salutes Olympian Silken Laumann for her exploits in Barcelona, despite “the extreme individualism of organized sport” and other complaints.

Angel >> Dr. Richard Carmona Unlike the usual gang of craven toadies who’d reached unworthy heights since Bush and Karl “Turd Blossom” Rove took office, Richard Carmona was actually qualified for his office. U.S. Surgeon General from 2002 to 2006, Carmona recently blasted the Bush White House at Congressional hearings for muzzling him when it came to politically sensitive topics like stem cell research, abortion, global warming, the war and abstinence-based prevention programs. Fed up with the administration’s continued emphasis on partisan politics over science, he said he “increasingly witnessed a government that was more and more using theology and ideology to drive its policies and its people.”

Insect >> Hysteria over the homeless Following the tragic stabbing death last weekend of a 32-year-old tourist in Toronto and an attack against a 79-year-old in Vancouver earlier this month, the usual law and order firebreathers called for a complete ban on panhandling. The alleged aggressors in both cases were homeless, a fact made much of in the Canadian media, but cracking down on an already marginalized population is both knee-jerk and stupidly vengeful. The police already have sufficient tools to deal with violent acts like those listed above—called, incidentally, “murder” and “assault.” Giving the cops more power over a powerless segment of society is pointless.