AUTO DESTRUCT: Pro-cycling activists, pledging “velorutionary resistance” to the “violence” of car culture, hold a “Salon du vélo” outside the Montreal Auto Show at the Palais des Congrès Sunday afternoon. Curiously, some locked out Petro-Canada employees also demonstrated at the same time, urging passing drivers to boycott the former Crown Corporation. PHOTO BY RACHEL GRANOFSKY

Quote of the week

“Our performance is marked by very few bright spots.” —From a new report by
the Frontier Centre for Public Policy on the consumer friendliness of health care systems, which found Canada ranking at the bottom of a 30-country list

C-3 emergency

Members of the informal anti-war group Mile-End Neighbours for Peace are calling an “emergency meeting” tonight, Thursday, Jan. 24, for a last-minute effort to mobilize popular opposition to Bill C-3, the new security certificate law. Scheduled for a third and final reading when the House of Commons reconvenes on Monday, Jan. 28, C-3 has been strongly criticized by a wide swath of human rights groups as unnecessarily punitive and inherently discriminatory.

The meeting will focus on urging Liberal MPs specifically to vote against the bill, as the Bloc Québécois and NDP have already pledged their opposition. As the vote is supposedly a free one, says Mile-End Neighbour Peter Feldstein, wavering Liberals will be targeted with postcards and phone calls from their constituents urging them to vote against the bill—which most Liberals have pledged to support.

“All we have to go on is who was absent the last time there was a vote on security certificates”, says Feldstein. “There are about 30 fence-sitters, which, if they all voted against the bill, would be enough to defeat it. If your MP is one of them, then you are highly well-placed to make a difference as an individual.”

The meeting takes place at 4273 Drolet, at 7:15 p.m.

Essential action day

A coalition of some 180 non-governmental groups is organizing a wide-ranging day of action on Saturday, Jan. 26, to promote everything from ending the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to protecting the environment and labour rights. The coalition formed after a World Social Forum meeting held in Montreal last August.

Dominique Daigneault, vice-president of the Confédération des syndicats nationaux’s Montreal chapter, says the groups are also concerned with attempts to declare some occupations essential services in order to hamper the workers’ right to strike. “They want to extend essential services to everything,” she says.

The essential services idea was floated about during the recent strike at the Côte-des-Neiges cemetery, and business owners seem to be warming up to the tactic, she says. “A study by commerce groups in Quebec City wants to put hotel work as an essential service before the celebration of the 400th anniversary of Quebec City.” CSN is organizing a panel on the topic at 1 p.m., at the Holiday Inn (420 Sherbrooke W.).

The groups will then gather for an anti-war, anti-poverty, anti-tuition-hike and pro-environment demonstration, starting at 5 p.m. in Phillip Square, before holding a show and party at Société des arts technologiques (1195 St-Laurent). For more info, see www.appelsolidaireduquebec.org.

by SAMER ELATRASH

Boycotting B.C.

As the official hype surrounding the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver grows, so too does opposition to the games. Next Thursday, Jan. 31, West Coast native activists Kanahus Pellkey and Dustin Johnson will be in Montreal for a presentation, “Take back land or die trying! No Olympics on stolen land!”

“We’re asking people to boycott the Olympics, and to boycott tourism in the province of B.C.,” says Pellkey, a spokesperson for the Secwepemc chapter of the Native Youth Movement Warriors Society.

Last October, participants at the Gathering of the Indigenous Peoples of America in Mexico issued a declaration condemning the games taking place on the “sacred and stolen territory of Turtle Island–Vancouver, Canada,” and pledged to show up to protest.

“The spin-off of the Olympics will create a land grab that’s bigger than we’ve seen since the Gold Rush,” says Pellkey. “We already see the effects with the expansion of the Sun Peaks ski resort, which is right in our backyard. Every year, our hunters are getting less and less moose out of our back country, which we depend on for food.”

The presentation takes place on Thursday, Jan. 31 at 6:30 p.m., at the Native Friendship Centre of Montreal (2001 St-Laurent). Call (514) 848-7583 for more info.

by CHRISTOPHER HAZOU

Gandhi’s legacy

Next week marks the 60th anniversary of the assassination of Indian independence leader and icon of non-violent resistance, Mahatma Gandhi. And though it might seem that his message of non-violence has been lost on much of humanity, a group of locals known as the Gandhi Committee will gather Wednesday, Jan. 30, to celebrate his life and teachings.

“The main goal is to remember Gandhi and what he did for humanity,” says the committee’s Eugénie Francoeur. “Although we recognize that it’s important, we’re not so much interested in his activism. We’re trying to bring forward his spiritual legacy.”

The evening will feature 93-year-old Dominican Father Benoît Lacroix, as well as a video and power point presentation on the man.

The Committee, an offshoot of Artisans de paix, was formed last year to “better understand and make known the message and spirit of Gandhi, while committing to live and work according to his principles of non-violence and of truth,” according to its Web site.

At the Centre L’Émergence (7501 St-Denis, metro Jean-Talon), at 6:30 p.m. For more info, visit www.surlespasdegandhi.ca or call (514) 278-5615.

by CHRISTOPHER HAZOU

Rear-view mirror

12 YEARS AGO - JAN. 25–FEB. 1, 1996

On the cover: Ramadan. Mirror photographer Tshi submits a diary of his trip to Morocco during the previous year’s Muslim holy month, with an intro describing the rituals at a new mosque in downtown Montreal. Among Tshi’s adventures: “The man in the hat walks towards the lens, screaming. Shoot.”
• Sasha “recommends” boob jobs for women with the winter blahs, warning that “bogus biscuits” can shift, flatten, soften or harden with time. In the latter case, “softening” is required: “The doctor punches you in the chest till the boob learns to behave itself.”
• Wu-Tang’s Genius/GZA talks to Al South. “After he broke into a coughing fit during my first round of questions, I asked him if his voice was hoarse from performing. ‘Nah, man…I’m smokin’ a blunt…you know…[cough]…and it’s lethal right now.’”
• A full-page ad announces the grand opening of Sona on Feb. 3, 1996.
• Eager to shed her Merchant-Ivory image, Helena Bonham Carter shows off her nightlife battle scars. “‘God, that party last night has left me knackered!’ she confesses. ‘I’m a sucker for those Whitney Houston songs.’”

Angel >> R. vs. Morgentaler Twenty years ago this week, on January 28, 1988, the Supreme Court of Canada handed down a decision that changed abortion law in Canada forever. Ruling that the existing law, as written in Canada’s Criminal Code, violated Charter rights because it stipulated women wanting abortions could only get them at accredited hospitals with the proper certification from a Therapeutic Abortion Committee, it effectively struck the law off the books. There hasn’t been one since, making Canada the only Western country without an abortion law—subsequent governments have been loath to open up that particularly divisive can of worms. While it may be a good idea to draw one up now (although perhaps not under the current government), Canadian women have undeniably benefited from legal and safe abortions.

Insect >> Blue Monday Last Monday, Jan. 21, was pretty miserable. A freezing cold day to begin what’s considered the bleakest week of the year, it also saw a sharp plunge in the world’s stock markets, as reverberations from the sub-prime mortgage crisis in the U.S. shook investor confidence in the world’s economies. U.S. President George Bush promised a $150-billion stimulus package, but many investors don’t think that will save the country’s economy from a recession. And while Canada’s economy doesn’t appear to be in as dire shape as the U.S.’s, the Bank of Canada did slash interest rates on Tuesday, hoping to ease the coming crunch any downturn in the American economy heralds.