THE NEED FOR SPEEDBOARDING: Speedboarders hurtle down Mount Royal’s Camilien-Houde Road Sunday afternoon as part of the Top Challenge 2007. Other disciplines included dirtsurfing, street luge, in-line skating, skateboard slalom and sliding. PHOTO BY RACHEL GRANOFSKY

Quote of the week

“Dog tags make it possible to put a name on a warm or cold body without having to check the wallet.” —Canadian Forces spokesman Captain Sylvain Chalifour, on Canadian reporters in Afghanistan being required to wear ID tags.

SQ footage sought

The YouTube clip that circulated last week showing undercover Sûreté du Québec officers infiltrating a peaceful crowd of protesters at Montebello certainly created a stir, and Chester Rhoder wants more. Rhoder, a self-described video activist and founding member of video collective Les Lucioles, is asking for anyone with footage of the undercover cops to send it his way.

“I’m just trying to see if there is any evidence of provocation” on the part of the SQ, he says. “I imagine there’s other footage prior to the video seen on YouTube.”

The five-and-a-half-minute clip circulated so rapidly that the SQ was forced to hold a press conference last Friday to admit that the three men accused of being undercover cops were, in fact, just that. The force denied they were there as provocateurs, even though one of the three is seen carrying a large rock.

“It opens up some questions,” says Rhoder, who was filming at Montebello. “If only three infiltrators were caught, how many others were there? Three seems like a low number. If there were others, did any of them throw rocks?”

He doesn’t know what he’ll do with the footage he hopes to collect. Anyone with footage can send it to chesterrhoder@gmail.com.

by PATRICK LEJTENYI

Global
discussions

Two big events are coming next week that might shed some light on the ever-shrinking world and the ever-expanding power of global capital.

The first is Naomi Klein’s appearance at Concordia on Wednesday, Sept. 5 (1455 de Maisonneuve W., Rm. H-110, 7:30 p.m., $6, $4 for students). The Canadian-born queen of the left wing’s Montreal appearance is part of a tour for her latest book, The Shock Doctrine: the Rise of Disaster Capitalism, which examines, according to her Web site, “the thinking, the money trail and the puppet strings behind the world-changing crises and wars of the last four decades.” Private Western oil companies in Iraq, real estate developers in post-tsunami Thailand and the continued neglect of New Orleans (where her book tour began last week) are all under scrutiny.

The second event looks at food security and the disappearance of small-scale agricultural production. On Thursday, Sept. 6, deep thinkers John Ralston Saul, Le Monde’s Hervé Kempf and former Malian minister and anti-globalization activist Aminata Traoré will discuss, according to a statement, how “food sovereignty is the alternative we must explore to the blind liberalization” of free-market agricultural commerce. The talk takes place at 7:30 p.m. at the Olympia (1004 Ste-Catherine E., $15 students, $20 regular at the door).

by PATRICK LEJTENYI

Off street sale

The Main may look like a bad stretch of Beirut these days, but the Société de développement du boulevard Saint-Laurent, the artery’s merchants’ association, says that despite the endless construction, the biannual street sale is still on. It’s just not on the street.

This weekend, the shops and boutiques lining the boulevard will still offer bargains on end-of-season apparel, but rather than offering them to consumers at the bottom of some enormous crater, shoppers will have to enter the stores themselves. It’s an unusual but potentially beneficial arrangement, says the Société’s executive director, Sandra Fénélon.

“The outdoor events are great, but we find that sometimes shoppers don’t even know which store offers what,” she says. “They think it’s low-end stuff, but now they see that they come from boutiques that are very unique.”

The annual end of August sale is spread out over two weekends this year—this weekend marks the final one—and Fénélon still doesn’t know how the Main’s disembowelment has affected receipts. The good news is, construction is scheduled to finish this November, so the new-look Main will have wider sidewalks, new sewers, new water pipes and new telecom lines. The street itself will be repaved next spring, and more trees will be planted.

by PATRICK LEJTENYI

Downtown’s eco-day

While residents of downtown’s Peter-McGill district wait for their promised community centre to be built, something which Eco-Quartier Peter-McGill spokesperson Paul-Antoine Troxler says “won’t happen until a couple of years from now, maybe even three,” they can at least try to get that old neighbourhood spirit going this Saturday, Aug. 30, at the Journée Éco-Communo’Terre, going down on Pierce street at the corner of Ste-Catherine W.

From 11 a.m. until 5 p.m. there’ll be music, a live mural painting by artist Jeannette Langmead, eco-friendly products and local designers like Montreal’s Fallen Pryde Clothing selling their wares. In addition, a diversity of workshops and activities such as bike repair and vermi-composting, swing dance and kung fu demonstrations/lessons will be occurring on site.

“These outdoor neighbourhood events really help foster a sense of community in our district,” says Troxler. “It’s especially important in a neighborhood like ours, where so many of our residents are, well, kind of bohemian. An overwhelming proportion of western downtown residents have only been living here for five years or less. Until our community centre comes, these neighbourhood events are absolutely crucial.”

For more information contact Éco-Quartier Peter-McGill at (514) 933-1069.

by CHRIS BARRY

Rear-view mirror

13 years ago - sept. 1 – sept. 8, 1994

On the cover: Lounge lizard” Ed Fuller, as the Mirror looks at the resurgent cocktail lounge scene as part of the Fall Arts Preview. “I’m making more fun of the character of the singer, not so much making fun of the music,” says Fuller.
• Upcoming concerts mentioned in the preview: Sarah McLachlan, Stereolab, Rancid, Sloan, House of Pain, Bootsy Collins, the Rolling Stones.
• Upcoming movies: Pulp Fiction (“Vinny Barbarino is back!”), Exotica, Quiz Show, It’s Pat, Ed Wood.
• Montreal books: André Breton’s Arcanum 17, Charles Foran’s Kitchen Music, Bruce Whiteman’s Lasting Impressions: A Short History of English Publishing, Yeshim Ternar’s The Book and the Veil.
• Theatre: Wendy Wasserstein’s The Sisters Rosensweig at the Saidye, Bulgakov’s The Master & Margarita at the Centaur, Isaac Bashevis Singer’s Teibele and Her Demon at the Rialto.
• Vincent Gogolek, the Mirror’s first and perhaps only “Parliamentary correspondent,” criticizes CSIS for its ham-fisted enforcement of the WWII-era Official Secrets Act.
• A Rant Line™ caller asks, “What does Riot Grrrrl mean anyway?”

Angel >> Legalizing Afghan poppy production Following the publications of a UN report stating that Afghan poppy production ballooned by 34 per cent over the last year, calls are again being heard for a rethink of NATO’s drug eradication strategy. The Senlis Council, an international think-tank, reiterated its call to consider legalizing poppy farming in order to channel money from heroin production to medical pain relievers. Federal Liberal defence critic Denis Coderre agreed. As the situation stands now, the Afghan insurgents are profiting heavily from the drug trade; legalizing the stuff would serve to both undercut the resurgent Taliban’s financial base and win over the hearts and minds of ordinary Afghan farmers, something that’s proving as elusive as a lasting peace in central Asia.

Insect >> Bernard Landry Dear Mirror readers: fuck you. That’s the message inferred from former péquiste premier Bernard Landry’s comments, uttered at last weekend’s celebration of Bill 101’s 30th anniversary. Speaking in Montreal, Landry proudly claimed that Quebec is neither multicultural nor bilingual, as if it were a good thing. The crowd reportedly cheered. Not only are his sentiments primitive and tribal, they’re also wrong. Over 550,000 Quebecers speak English at home, and over 700,000 speak neither English nor French at home, according to the 2001 census. And if that isn’t bad enough, this should really make Landry’s blood boil: almost three million Quebecers say they speak both English and French.