MONTEBELLO MAYHEM: Sûreté du Québec riot police enter the fray against protesters at the Security and Prosperity Partnership summit in Montebello on Monday. While police and demonstrators did clash amid tear gas and pepper spray, only a handful of people were arrested. PHOTO BY STEFAN CHRISTOFF

Quote of the week

“I’ve heard it’s nothing. It’s sad.” —Prime Minister Stephen Harper, on the
number of protestors at Montebello, on Monday. Between 1,000–2,000 people showed up to demonstrate from Sunday to Tuesday.

Zeke’s bids adieu to
blog, gallery

Ten years after first opening his strategically located art gallery/venue above a grocery store on St-Laurent, Zeke, aka Chris Hand, will be closing up shop. Hand tells the Mirror that he’ll be shuttering the gallery’s doors at the end of the month, and will spend the next little while “packing, drinking a lot of beer and reminiscing.”

Hand says the decision to close, reached last month in Italy while he was on “his first vacation in 12 years,” wasn’t an easy one. It had to do with both fighting to make the rent every month and recent legal difficulties he’s faced regarding his oft-opinionated blog, now off-line. Hand had blogged about local art dealer Pierre-Antoine Tremblay, who subsequently sued him for $25,000, claiming defamation. The case, involving allegations of organized crime, made headlines—both in print and in the blogosphere—over the summer. Hand’s next court date is Sept. 6.

“I think, after 10 years, I can say that I effected some sort of change in the world of Montreal’s alternative art scene.” He says that, thanks to him and many other talented artists and curators that followed, the “alternative art scene in Montreal exploded.”

He plans to remain in Montreal.

by PATRICK LEJTENYI

Mex mine’s the pits

Charging the Canadian mining company Metallica Resources with human rights violations and environmental degradation, today, Thursday, Aug. 23, a delegation of Mexican anti-mining activists will demonstrate in front of its major investor, CIBC, demanding the bank divest from the company.

In Canada to oppose the Security Prosperity Partnership, which they say would ease mining regulations, the Frente Amplio Opositor (FAO) has charged the state government of San Luis Potosí and the company with using violence and intimidation against the mine’s opponents.

Metallica subsidiary Minera San Xavier has been developing an open-pit, cyanide-leached mining operation in the town of Cerro de San Pedro in the central Mexican state, destroying the town’s historic mountain. They also claim the mining process will contaminate the local water source, which the FAO says provides water for nearly 1.5 million people and 73 per cent of the region’s agriculture.

“Especially because CIBC is involved in this problem, we want to inform the people of Montreal that the Canadian government is supporting these [mining] projects,” says former FAO legal council Enrique Rivera Sierra. Having fled to Montreal in May, Sierra claimed political asylum after allegedly being beaten by a company-paid paramilitary and facing intimidation and harassment by state police.

The demonstration starts at 3 p.m. in Dorchester Square.

by JESSE ROSENFELD

Social forum rocks

Wake up socially conscious art enthusiasts! Your dream has come true, so prepare yourself for four righteous days of getting yer ya-yas out with a veritable cornucopia of like-minded local artists, performers and spectators at the very first Quebec Social Forum.

From an opening night concert on Thursday, Aug. 23 at the Medley (1170 St. Denis, $20, 7 p.m.) until Sunday, Aug. 26, you can catch Les Zapartistes, Samian & Loco Locass, Bombolessé, Syncop, Psychotropical Orchestra, La Banda de Gaza and hundreds of others expressing their creative selves at several locations across the city, all in an effort to stimulate our collective conscience and raise public awareness about important issues from democracy and equal rights to the environment and social-housing.

“We want to set the stage for collective reflection about the problems and issues that surround us,” explains QSF event coordinator Carminda Mac Lorin. “Social change is not only the result of decisions made by corporations, big businesses and policy-makers. Arts and culture can be a powerful driving force behind improving the state of the world. People have to know that they can make a difference as individuals and that they can make their voices heard.”

For complete program listing go to: www.forumsocialquebecois.org.

by STEVE ZYLBERGOLD

Eat, dance, help Peru

Hey gringo, if you’ve got a few bucks just burning a hole in your pocket, how about forgoing that bag of cocaine for a change and sending some of those funds down to Peru? Instead of winding up in the pocket of some nefarious drug cartel, the money will actually go towards those Peruvians directly affected by last week’s magnitude-8 mega-quake, which at last count has claimed some 540 lives and left countless people injured and homeless.

“So far the Canadian government has been very helpful,” reports Mario Velez, the Peruvian consul general in Montreal. “They’ve already sent $2-million in medicine and equipment, but we need as much support as we can get.”

On Saturday, Sept 1, the consulate will be hosting a Kermess (a fundraising carnival) marathon at the Saint-Arsène church (corner Bélanger/Christophe-Colomb), where from 10 a.m. until 10 p.m. you’ll be able to dance to Peruvian music, eat Peruvian food and participate in a raffle with all proceeds going to victims of the quake. Ten bucks gets you in, or, if you’d prefer, you can make a direct donation to the quake fund via the National Bank of Canada, account number 003 10951 006 06 460 22.

For more information go www.consuladoperumontreal.com.

by CHRIS BARRY

Rear-view mirror

15 YEARS AGO - AUG. 20–27, 1992

On the cover: Michelle Shocked, touring her Arkansas Traveler. The newlywed says love has recently trumped politics in her life: “I faced the choice of being true to my heart… or basically being the equivalent to a political nun.”
• The Mirror examines menstrual extractions, a.k.a. “guerilla abortions.” The practice, “always done in the presence of three women,” is considered part of the feminist self-help movement. “It is just such a happy experience being part of a self-help group—doing self-cervical exams; being familiar with your vagina; …and especially doing menstrual extraction. You feel like you’re in charge,” says one American woman.
• Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven “won’t become a classic western,” reads the review by Martin Siberok. “The story lacks a psychological complexity that elevated… The Searchers or Red River to heights of greatness.”
• “A Metallica make-up show would be a treat,” writes Jenny Ross in her column, following the Aug. 8 post-concert riot at the Big O. “But we don’t want one from G&R. Their name is mud in this town.”

Angel >> Jean-Paul Roy, the inventor of poutine Debate still rages within culinary circles about poutine’s origins, but conventional wisdom has it that Jean-Paul Roy, who died last week age 74, was the first to add gravy and cheese curds to French fries at his Drummondville restaurant, Le Roy Jucep, in 1964. Our heart disease and cholesterol levels haven’t been the same since. Despite its objectively unattractive appearance—the gooey cheese, the brown lump of sodden fries and sauce—the artery-clogging dish has either prevented or cured many a hangover over the past 43 years. Jean-Paul Roy, innovator and scourge of the health-conscious, we salute you! For more info on the man, the food and the legend, see www.jucep.com.

Insect >> The North American Competitiveness Council Despite all the official talk about the Security and Prosperity Partnership talks at Montebello this week being about harmonizing boring minor trade impediments, most people still don’t have a clue as to what the gabfest was really about. That’s because the only body consulting George Bush, Stephen Harper and Felipe Calderon this week was a secretive, 30-member body called the North American Competitiveness Council. The council, made up of 10 appointed business executives from each country, seems to be the only organization outside their immediate political circle the leaders seem to respect. This snub to civil society—and voters—is a worrying indicator of just how seriously our elected representatives take us. Which isn’t very.