LOCALS FOR, AGAINST BOLIVARIAN SOCIALISM: A handful of supporters and opponents of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez demonstrated outside the Venezuelan consulate on Peel last Sunday as voters in the South American country went to the polls to decide the future of the president’s sweeping constitutional reforms. The 69 proposed changes, including lifting presidential term limits, were rejected by around two percentage points. PHOTO BY RACHEL GRANOFSKY

Quote of the week

“It’s not as if there’s a Berlin Wall around the island.” —UdeM demographer Victor Piché, saying the recent census data showing the proportion of francophones living in Montreal is now under 50 per cent for the first time is no cause for alarm as more francophones move to the suburbs but work on the island.

Certificates finals

Civil libertarians and advocates for the rights of immigrants will hold a day of action this Friday, Dec. 7, in advance of the third and final parliamentary reading of the Harper government’s new security certificate law, Bill C-3, which is expected to take place next week.

Critics argue the proposed law, which provides for the creation of a special detainee advocate with clearance to view classified evidence, doesn’t sufficiently address concerns over secrecy and lack of due process.

“We think it’s very bad legislation, and we’re trying to convey that message to the members of parliament who are being asked to vote on it,” says Mary Foster of the Coalition Justice for Adil Charkaoui.

Delegations will visit the offices of at least a dozen Montreal-area MPs who supported Bill C-3 during its second reading in late November, when both the Bloc Québécois and Liberals (with two exceptions) voted in favour. If it passes third reading, only the famously docile Senate stands in the way of it becoming law.

Groups or individuals interested in participating are asked to e-mail justiceforadil@riseup.net. Organizers also urge people to contact their local MPs and voice their opinion. For info, visit www.jerome.koumbit.org/adil.

by Christopher Hazou

Main rebirth bash

You could be forgiven for beginning to think it might never happen, but finally, after almost a year and a half, the city has managed to put St-Laurent back together again. And not a minute too soon, as the seemingly endless infrastructure repairs have been nothing short of brutal upon the Main’s merchants, most of whom pay top dollar for the privilege of renting real estate on the famous strip.

Understandably keen to spread the good word that the street is once again navigable and open for business, the Main’s 300 boutiques, cafés, restaurants and bars are cordially inviting one and all to their big inaugural celebration on Saturday, Dec. 8, with more promotional events and festivities galore scheduled to go down over the course of the holiday shopping season.

“It’s finally finished,” says Société de développement du boulevard Saint-Laurent spokesperson Sylvie Deslauriers, “and are people ever happy about it. It’s been incredibly tough for these merchants to come to work every day and not see any customers around. They’ve really been through a lot, so let’s just say they’re very ready to start celebrating this weekend.”

For details on what they’ve got lined up, go to www.boulevardsaintlaurent.com.

by Chris Barry

Holistic housing solutions

Housing activists with the Reseau solidarité itinérance du Québec head to Quebec City next Wednesday, Dec. 12, to demand the Charest government formulate a comprehensive plan to fight homelessness.

“Politicians want to solve the problem of homelessness, but they don’t want to work on causes like the lack of affordable housing units and the level of social assistance, which isn’t enough,” says RSIQ coordinator Nathalie Rech.

RSIQ’s own detailed platform, “Towards a Policy on Homelessness,” calls for a “holistic” approach to solving housing issues, including a reversal of the trend to criminalize homelessness, raising social assistance and a major increase in social housing construction.

Rech says Quebec is in need of an estimated 50,000 additional housing units, largely because the federal government stopped funding new social housing in the mid-1990s. “Quebec doesn’t have the same amount of money to put into housing that the federal government used to,” she says.

Buses leave Place Émilie-Gamelin (corner Berri and de Maisonneuve E.) for the National Assembly at 8 a.m. and return at 5 p.m. Bring your own lunch. For info, call (514) 879-1949 or visit www.rapsim.org.

by Christopher Hazou

Write for rights

If Johnny Cash was good enough to perform in prisons, surely we can find it in our hearts to write a simple letter to somebody serving a sentence for the crime of defending human rights. After all, prison can be a pretty lonely and depressing place, especially during the holiday season.

This Saturday, Dec. 8, in honour of International Human Rights Day (actually on Monday, Dec. 10), Amnesty International is inviting everybody to Café le Placard (2129 Mont-Royal E.) from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. to participate in the eighth annual Write-a-thon to write letters of support to political activists, journalists or defenders of justice currently rotting in jail or under house arrest. You can also write to those responsible for their captivity, or have some kind of influence over it, to convince them that maybe they should set their political prisoners free.

“Our goal is to get as many letters of support as possible,” says Anne Sainte-Marie, Amnestie Internationale section canadienne francophone’s communications coordinator. “It’s efficient in helping with the prisoners’ release and shows them they have friends all over the world.”

The Write-a-thon is being observed in over 30 countries around the world. For more info, visit amnistie.ca.

by Steve Zylbergold

Rear-view mirror

13 YEARS AGO - DEC. 8–15, 1994

On the cover: A psychedelic head morphed with a phone, symbolizing the Mirror joining “the virtual age” with its “brand new BBS, Babylon.”
• Foufounes has its alcohol license “permanently” revoked.
• Despite playing “sensitive blues-based folk music on an acoustic guitar,” Ben Harper says he’s no folkie. Purists, he charges, “don’t know the meaning of the word folk. They think it has to be on banjo or acoustic guitar or it’s not folk, and that’s garbage, man.”
• In town to screen the Sex and Violence Cartoon Festival at the Rialto, Toronto “film curator extraordinaire” Reg Hartt finds Canadian censorship puzzling. “It’s come to the point where censors don’t even know what an uncut version [of a Warner Bros. cartoon] looks like. And they don’t care. They just want to keep Bugs Bunny on the air and keep kids buying Bugs Bunny toys.”
• Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill! is coming to the Palace.
• Classified: “Large 7 1/2, furnished, Jan-April (negotiable) fireplace, cable, bright, hardwood floor, St-Laurent & St-Zotique. $375 + heat.”

Angel >> Listening to spies for a change U.S. President George Bush’s may still be trying to find a war he can actually win, but the latest intelligence findings might make it that much harder for Americans to be fooled twice. The latest National Intelligence Estimate reports that Iran shut down its nuclear weapons program in 2003, and it would be the middle of the next decade before it achieved nuclear delivery capabilities. With that now public, and U.S. public’s appetite for more Mid-East military bumbling at rock bottom, it looks like the chances of Cheney and co.’s hoped-for war starting are getting slimmer by the day. Given the present administration’s record, that’s a relief.

Insect >> Nationalist Santa Clauses It takes a lot of effort to be this petty, obnoxious and small-minded: On Saturday, about 50 members of Mouvement Montréal français—the same people behind last month’s Opération Press 9, who protested the option of government and customer-service phone systems offering English-speaking service—and Impératif français marched through the downtown shopping district dressed as Santa Claus to demand increased French-language service from retailers, saying that French is under-represented. Having some jerk dressed in a Santa suit harassing a hapless clerk is not what you need when you’re shopping for winter boots. Despite far more pressing needs, this holiday season, stressful enough as is, might see the ghost of language conflicts past haunting it.