Quote of the week

“We need more judges like you!” —an anonymous woman at the sentencing hearing of Norbourg fraudster Vincent Lacroix, who was given a 12-year jail sentence for bilking 9,200 investors out of $84-million over five years.

Army fights on campus

While politicians in Ottawa continue to bicker over Canada’s military mission in Afghanistan, a student-led drive against army recruitment kiosks in Quebec schools shifts into high gear this week.

“Right now, we’re in the biggest military recruitment campaign since the Second World War,” says McGill student and coordinator of the Non-Violence Resource Centre, Alexandre Vidal.

“Obviously it’s not to their advantage to tell people all the bad things about being in the army.”

In addition to a cessation of recruitment activities in schools, organizers are calling on the federal government to cut military spending, increase funding for education and end all participation in “occupation wars.”

“In Quebec, a lot of students, mostly from low-income families, are joining the army because it’s an easy way to pay for their education,” says Vidal.

“We don’t think people should have to learn how to kill just to be able to pay tuition fees.”

Upcoming kiosk “disruptions” are scheduled for McGill (Jan. 31), Cégep de Drummondville (Feb. 1), Cégep du Vieux Montréal (Feb. 6), Vanier College (Feb. 7) and UQÀM later in March.

For more info, visit www.antirecrutement.info.

Reasonable youth?

Gérard Bouchard and Charles Taylor may be huddled away somewhere preparing their report on last year’s political haymaker, reasonable accommodation, but until the report is released sometime this spring, there’s still time for more talk. Next Tuesday, Concordia’s School of Community and Public Affairs will be holding a panel discussion on the subject, but with a perspective that’s been by and large ignored during last year’s hearings: that of young (or young-ish) people.

Along with a member of the Institut du Nouveau Monde, panelists will include representatives of the youth wings of the three major provincial parties.

Tanya Bednarczyk, a student at the School, says she doesn’t know what perspectives the panelists will present. “During our research, we were unable to find solid answers on where each party stood,” she says. “We’ve never known what position they’ve held.”

Bednarczyk says there is a wide generation gap in attitudes towards foreign customs. “The youth have a very different outlook than older people,” she says. “Not in the sense that they’re apathetic, but I think they are a lot more tolerant.”

The panel discussion takes place on Tuesday, Feb. 5 at Concordia’s Samuel Bronfman Building (1590 Dr. Penfield), 6–8 p.m., reception to follow.

by PATRICK LEJTENYI

Pushing a dark Earth

Snowdon city councillor Marvin Rotrand wants his mayor, fellow councillors and indeed all Montrealers to sit around in the dark come March 29. That’s the date of the second annual Earth Hour, a Sydney, Australia-born initiative that invites consumers to turn their lights out for one hour—from 8 to 9 p.m.—in order to raise awareness about energy consumption and global warming. Rotrand introduced the motion at a city council meeting on Monday evening.

“I think it’s an excellent initiative,” says Rotrand. He points out that Toronto was the first city in North America to sign on, and other Golden Horseshoe towns like Oakville, Mississauga, Vaughn and York are taking part as well. Globally, participating cities include Brisbane, Tel Aviv, Copenhagen and Manila.

“Two million people took part in the first Earth Hour” in Sydney, says Rotrand. “And they found that electricity consumption dropped that day by 11 per cent. It’s a great educational tool for young people.” He notes that the city will have to take security and legal liability issues into account, but believes that “there’s lots of time to get the information out there.”

He notes that Beaconsfield, Baie d’Urfé and Côte-St-Luc have already passed resolutions pledging to support Earth Hour, and Ottawa may be onboard as well. For more info, see www.earthhour.org.

by PATRICK LEJTENYI

Suzuki’s
sustainability

Business students at McGill ponder a different kind of green this week as the fourth annual McGill Business Conference on Sustainability, featuring keynote speaker David Suzuki, takes place from Thursday, Jan. 31 to Sunday, Feb. 3. This year’s theme is “Looking Backward to Move Forward.”

Third-year management student and conference co-chair Sadaf Kashfi says organizers hope to inspire future entrepreneurs and business leaders to make their endeavours more eco-friendly. “We’re trying to trigger serious thinking about how their future jobs in corporations can be more sustainable, or how they can create their own sustainable businesses,” she says. “The mistakes of the past need to be addressed, but we need to move on as well.”

Tickets for Suzuki’s lecture may be sold out by publication, but the venerable scientist, environmentalist and broadcaster will be signing books today, Thursday, Jan. 31, at the McGill Bookstore (3420 McTavish) from 4:30–5:30 p.m. Likewise, registration for the conference itself will probably be full, but a free “Sustainability Fair” will be open to the public on Friday, Feb. 1, from 3–5 p.m. at the Shatner Ballroom (3480 McTavish). For more info, visit mbcs.mcgill.ca.

by CHRISTOPHER HAZOU

Rear-view mirror

13 YEARS AGO - JAN. 27– FEB. 3, 1994

On the cover: Quebec filmmaker Léa Pool. Her Mouvements du désir, about two people who fall in love on a cross-continental train, is based on personal experience. “There aren’t too many films that deal with that moment, which is so fleeting, when you become aware of this intense connection with another person.”
• Michel Ste-Marie, president of the Lower Canada Arms Collectors Association, offers advice at a South Shore gun show. “You want to make some real money? Quit the Mirror, go to New York and sell [illegal] guns. You can get $1,500 a gun there.”
• John Arnott, of Toronto’s the Lowest of the Low, recalls some difficulties with former producer Don Smith. “He lost a bit of interest halfway through the project because he found out that he had just been accepted to produce the next Rolling Stones album.”
• A Mirror editorial addresses the tobacco smuggling controversy. “What to do? We say do nothing. Let it blow over like a puff of smoke in a badly ventilated café.”

Angel >> Reasonable rent hikes This week the Régie du logement said it would recommend an annual rent hike of only 0.7 per cent for unheated and un-renovated lodgings—which sounds reasonable, even to low-income housing advocate groups like FRAPRU (but certainly not to landlords). Unfortunately, 0.7 per cent is far below the real average hikes. In fact, in a report released by Canada Mortgage and Housing, the federal housing agency, the monthly rent of an average two-bedroom apartment in Montreal rose by 27 per cent between 2000 and 2007. Rent is always determined by an agreement between tenant and landlord, but housing groups say tenants are often wary of pushing for their rights out of fear of reprisals, and are calling on the provincial government to introduce mandatory rent control.

Insect >> Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach A seagull manager is someone who flies in, makes a lot of noise, shits on everything and then flies out. That could also be used to describe Progressive Conservative Premier Stelmach. On Monday, he flew into Vancouver to attend the two-day provincial premiers’ meeting, where he squawked how greenhouse gas emission controls would lead to “a total shutdown—a total shutdown—of the oilsands,” and dismissed any short-term plans to combat global warming. Then, churlishly, he flew home Monday night, snubbing B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell’s climate change conference on Tuesday. Stelmach will probably call an election next week, but since the PCs have been in power for nearly four decades, it’s likely he’ll still be around to fight any sensible emission control proposals for the time being.