SHOPPING DAYS ARE HERE AGAIN: Staff and customers at Friperie St-Laurent on the Main—along with over 300 other establishments—celebrate the end of 14 months of construction hell with a strip-long party Saturday. Some shops served booze, and most stayed open until 11 p.m. And an added bonus for shop owners and customers alike: there’ll be free parking all winter long. PHOTO BY RACHEL GRANOFSKY

Quote of the week

“I’ve no doubt that he will be the best damn inmate the U.S. federal system has ever seen… and maintain his equilibrium. But what a bloody waste.” —Globe columnist Christie Blatchford, still kissing the ass of her former employer, Conrad Black

Sex work and safety

With the ongoing case of convicted serial killer Robert Pickton looming large in the background, local sex worker advocacy group Stella and its allies will hit the streets with red umbrellas next Monday, Dec. 17, for the fifth International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers.

Calling for the decriminalization of prostitution, demonstrators will march through the Hochelaga-Maisonneuve district, stopping in places where sex workers have experienced violence.

“Violence is not in and of itself part of the industry,” says Stella spokeswoman Jenn Clamen. “[It’s caused by] the working conditions that are created because of criminalization.”

The first such demonstration was held in the U.S. after Gary Ridgway, known as the Green River Killer, confessed to murdering 48 women, most of whom were prostitutes, over a period of 16 years.

“We see the same kind of situation reproduced in Vancouver, where it took 20 years for the police and for society to pay attention to what was going on,” says Clamen. “Thankfully, people are now listening and acknowledging that violence isn’t part of the job.”

The march begins at 5 p.m. at Frontenac metro. For more info, call Stella at (514) 285-1599.

by Christopher Hazou

Angry dad still suing

The volunteers who run lefty bimonthly À bâbord! are digging deeper in their pockets this Christmas a year after foul-tempered fathers’ rights activist Andy Srougi sued the magazine and activist Barbara Legault for defaming his group, Fathers 4 Justice. Srougi says he suffered stress and lost sleep after Legault’s article described the group in a footnote as “masculinist,” a type of anti-feminist who “blames women for men’s problems,” according to Legault. He wants $24,000.

À bâbord! and Legault anticipate at least another year of litigation, after a conciliation meeting last September failed, Legault says.

A Quebec Superior Court ruled that Srougi was a quarrelsome litigant last March, requiring him to ask for court approval before filing more lawsuits. But the ruling did not apply to his case against Legault and À bâbord!, which had already been filed. “Now he needs authorization to start more lawsuits, thank God,” says Legault.

À bâbord! and Legault publicly appealled for donations and solidarity to cover their legal fees. Still, the defendants are scrounging to cover the expenses. “It has cost us over $1,000,” says Legault. “And it’s just getting started.”

Donations may be sent to Casier postal 67, succursale C, Montréal, Québec, H2L 4S7.

by Samer Elatrash

Circus shelter

Domenic Castelli may be the ringleader of vaudevillian talent show Diary of a Lost Circus, but he also understands how the holiday season can be tough on children caught in the crossfire of conjugal violence.

That’s why he’s donating a fifth of the proceeds of his next show to Maison l’Océane, a second-step women’s shelter that provides temporary housing for families victimized by domestic abuse. Every year, the shelter celebrates Christmas with some of the families—current residents and some of the previous ones—but with around 65 children to buy gifts for at $20 a pop, it can get a little pricey.

“The holiday season is often a period of big changes and a critical time for families,” says Marie-Lyne Deshaies of Maison l’Océane. “It’s important for these women to have an exchange, to find some support and solidarity.”

As Maison l’Océane’s location must be kept secret to protect the families, Castelli will be collecting donations the night of Dec. 21 at Théâtre Ste-Catherine (264 Ste-Catherine E.). Diary of a Lost Circus tickets are $10, or you can stop by and drop some change in the donation jar.

by Tracey Lindeman

Diversity works online

In their rush to cover the Bouchard-Taylor commission on reasonable accommodation, Canada’s big media forgot about Digital Diversity, a Montreal-based, nation-wide online competition of short films and podcasts on diversity and immigration, launched by Radio-Canada International. Over the course of its run, from late September until last week, only two major newspapers made any mention of it.

Still, despite the paucity of mainstream attention, Digital Diversity’s 118 short films—59 in English, 59 in French and nearly half from Montreal—had a big impact on the Web. By the time the competition ended, its films were viewed more than 58,000 times, with 5,500 comments posted.

“It was a sort of forum where people expressed their point of view and frustrations,” says Xuân-Huy Nguyen, one of the competition’s organizers. “A lot of people said that these films should have been shown to Bouchard-Taylor.”

The fact that Digital Diversity coincided with the reasonable accommodation commission’s tour of Quebec was “a good coincidence,” he says. “People can see artwork that deals differently with diversity than the things heard at the commission.”

All of Digital Diversity’s films can be seen online at rcinet.ca. The winners will be announced online this Monday.

by Christopher DeWolf

Rear-view mirror

14 YEARS AGO - DEC. 9–16, 1993

On the cover: Two actors from Steve Galluccio’s play Sexual Success in Montreal. “It started with me and four women talking about sexuality,” he says. “Society suggests that they can be sexually free but they all suffer the repercussions for any kind of sexual ‘liberation’ they might enjoy. They’re still called whores or sluts if they enjoy sex.” The article calls him “Montreal’s King of Gonzo.”
• “The government calls people who work under the table crooks,” says Ian, in an article about the dismal job market. “So I guess I’m a crook. But for a crook who makes only $600 a month, I’m not a very good one.”
• The Velvet Underground’s Live MCMXCIII is Disc of the Week.
• Oskar Schindler is “slick in a nouveau riche kind of way, a swaggering cad hard to trust,” reads the review of Schindler’s List.
• Le Bon Dieu Dans la Rue celebrates its fifth anniversary with news that it will be opening a rooming house for kids.

Angel >> Extending bar hours The Quebec Bar Owners’ Association is lobbying the provincial government to extend opening hours until 6 a.m. But not drinking hours—last call would still be served at 3. The logic behind the request revolves around staggering the number of drunks pouring out into the streets at the same time, fighting, barfing and driving into each other. It would also cut down drunk driving, they believe, because merry-makers could dance their last three drinks off before they go home. There’s no real scientific proof that it would work, but it couldn’t hurt. And while we’re at it, what the hell, give us another hour to drink as well.

Insect >> Canada’s green reputation While environment ministers from around the world gather in Bali, Indonesia this week to discuss post-Kyoto targets, Canada’s reputation as a green leader is sinking fast. Canada was singled out not only by the head of the UN’s climate change agency for being hypocritical by insisting that developing countries cut their emissions (while we have increased ours by at least a third since 1990), but also by scientists and other negotiators. The Nobel laureate head of the International Panel on Climate Change called the Harper administration a “government of skeptics,” and other countries are saying Canada is a leader only in opposing binding emission-cut commitments. Federal Environment Minister John Baird (pictured) denied it all and said Canada is being “constructive.”