Quote of the week

“We are not going to draw back from those threats. It’s a question of freedom of expression.” —From a statement issued Tuesday by Écosociété, a small local publishing firm whose latest book, Noir Canada, has enraged Toronto-based Barrick Gold Corp., the world’s largest gold mining company, by linking it to the deaths of 56 Tanzanian miners in 1996. Barrick threatened to sue Écosociété last week for libel.

Eye on CN yards

When Alstom moved out of the CN railyards in 2003, it left a gigantic, 3.5-million square-foot hole in southwest Montreal. But over the past few months, nearby residents in Pointe St-Charles have started to ask about the future, and have come up with a neighbourhood-friendly development plan that they believe just might work.

The plan was nursed into life by the Table de concertation Action-gardien, an umbrella organization of community groups from the southwest. It envisages a mixed neighbourhood of affordable housing, social housing, local amenities and a commercial artery that could inject some life into the area. It also sees a green belt park where train tracks once lay, and access to the river. It’s ambitious, says Action-gardien’s Karine Triollet, and spans 10 years, but it would maintain both the Point’s heritage and its people.

“We are thinking regionally in terms of including all of Montreal in the project, but without turning our backs on, or to the detriment of, the residents of Pointe St-Charles,” she says.

The plan isn’t available online yet, she says, but talks are continuing with the city and are said to be generally positive.

Tremblant gambles

Mont-Tremblant is best known as the eastern branch of the Whistler brand, family-friendly, crowded and more than a little expensive. But with a new casino, whose plans were unveiled this week, it might get a little seedier. The $61-million facility will host 400 slot machines, 20 tables, five Texas Hold ’Em electronic games and a room for high rollers, but at least one local gambling critic says it’s inevitable that crime and addiction will rise once locals start pouring in.

Sol Boxenbaum, the CEO of Viva Consulting, a local problem gambling and education resource, and host of late-night addiction program Last Call With Sol Boxenbaum on CJAD, says Loto-Québec didn’t hold impact studies before green-lighting the project and will be unprepared for the influx of locals eager to throw their money away. He says about 65 per cent of Tremblant’s clientele is from outside the province, but with a new casino, he predicts 95 per cent of gamblers will come from the local area. And with them will come the money launderers and the loan sharks.

“I found it interesting that the province can approve the construction of a casino within one year, but for a superhospital it takes them 30 years,” he says.

by PATRICK LEJTENYI

Derby fever is back

“I lived in roller skates as a kid,” says Susan Moss, so it’s only fitting that the Montreal-based photographer’s first published book is a collection of photos of Montreal’s own roller derby league. From Moss’s insider perspective, the full-colour hardcover book Roller Girls seizes the sexuality and toughness of modern rollergirls in all their gold lamé and fluorescent glory. Moss gets close, then gets closer, capturing the intimacy, competition and sports(wo)manship in roller derby, along with the speed and intensity of the game. And who can forget the crotch and ass shots?

“I know some of the girls are proud to have their crotches in the book,” laughs les Contrabanditas’ Trash N’ Smash. “[But] I’m happy it’s not mine!”

Roller Girls will be available for $25 at MTLRD’s season opener, an all-day, 16-team tournament on April 19 aptly called Beast of the East, with teams coming in from all over Ontario and New York. The carnage starts at 10:30 a.m. and goes until around 10 p.m. at Arena St-Louis (5633 St-Dominique). Tickets ($15) are available at X20 (3459 St-Denis), Scarlett (254 Mont-Royal E.) and les Saints (30 Ste-Catherine W.), where, on Friday, April 20, the new derby doc Hell on Wheels will be screened, 10 p.m., free.

Roller Girls will be launched separately on April 24 at Blizzarts (3956A St-Laurent), 8 p.m.

by TRACEY LINDEMAN

Coalition
of the greening

With Earth Day—Tuesday, April 22—quickly approaching, many of us are trying to make up for years of ecological neglect by turning off the tap while brushing our teeth, not flushing the toilet after number one and other environmentally conscious gestures. Sadly, once Earth Day mania winds down, so does the guilt concerning our mistreatment of the planet and most of us go back to our old ways. Fortunately, organizations like Montreal’s Green Coalition feel guilty year-round.

If you’re interested in learning what can be done to reverse some of the damage, the Green Coalition’s annual general meeting takes place Thursday, April 17 (7–10 p.m.) at Sarto Desnoyers Community Centre (Salon A, 1335 Lakeshore, Dorval), featuring keynote speaker Christian Simard, the director general of Nature Québec, and a sing-along with Lewis “Mr. Ozone” Poulin (think Weird Al singing about environmental issues).

“There are many groups in southwest Quebec working to preserve what is left of our natural space,” explains Green Coalition president Albert Hayek. “Species of plants, fish, birds, frogs, snakes and even the red fox are becoming endangered. We need to preserve our natural inheritance.”

For info: greencoalitionverte.ca.

by STEVE ZYLBERGOLD

Rear-view mirror

17 YEARS AGO - APR. 18-25, 1991

On the cover: Tom Stoppard, directing the film adaptation of his play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. The story, set within Hamlet, is “about two people who never find why they’re killed and how funny it is.”
•Prison officials are ignoring unsafe sex and drug use behind bars. Condoms are banned from the prison population because they can be used to smuggle drugs, says a Corrections Canada spokesman.
• “People have a taste for something more musical, less machine,” says Vilain Pingouins’s Rudy Caya, explaining his band’s success with its rootsy, guitar-based rock ’n’ roll. “They’ve had an overload of cold, preset, non-personal, synthetic music.”
•In the “Female Persuasions” column, Julianne Pidduck attacks “corporate feminism.” “Thinking about my employment history, it shocks me to realize that two of my worst experiences have been in the employ of feminists,” she writes. “When push comes to shove, that old patriarchal no-no, hierarchy, kicks in: ‘sister’ becomes ‘boss,’ and there’s no space for dissidence.”
•Coming to Foufounes: KMFDM, fIREHOSE, Dayglo Abortions, Pig Face.

Angel >> Polly and Roger, UdeM’s peregrine falcons In the spring, a young peregrine falcon’s thoughts turn to love. That’s what Ève Bélisle, an office worker at the Université de Montréal, discovered recently when, gazing outside her window, she noticed a pair of falcons getting busy. She contacted McGill ornithologist David Bird and Milwaukee urban falcon specialist Greg Septon, and they put together a plan to build the happy couple a nest atop UdeM’s iconic tower. It’s not known if Polly and Roger—similar to the falcon shown here—are in a family way yet, but if they are, good for those two kids: peregrine falcons are highly endangered in Quebec.

Insect >> Drug-sniffing dogs in schools On Friday, students at the École polyvalente Saint-Jérome had a visitor, in the guise of Tim, a four-legged narc sniffing around their lockers. The high school’s principal hired a private firm to deal with an alleged drug problem at the school, saying she was looking out for the health and safety of the students. Tim did find small quantities of pot, hash, E and speed, but serious privacy questions are being raised, as high as the Supreme Court, who are trying to decide whether a drug-sniffing dog’s arrival with police at a Sarnia, ON, high school amounted to unreasonable search and seizure and a Charter violation. Nothing against the hard-working dogs, who are only doing their jobs, but will we start seeing them on the streets, in movie theatres or at work?