Quote of the week

“Dope is banned forever, and dope comes inside sometimes, so I don’t see why tobacco wouldn’t make it here.” —Dale Tremblay, an inmate at the federal prison in Ste-Anne-des-Plaines, on the imminent smoking ban in jails.

Birthday critics

This month marks 60 years since the modern state of Israel was created, and while there will be celebrations a-plenty among Montreal’s Zionist community, not everyone is as enthused about this historical landmark as some might expect.

Among them are Independent Jewish Voices Montreal, a group who will not be joining the festivities because, according to spokesperson Scott Weinstein, “We think that celebrating while the state of Israel—founded in response to the painful history of racism, exclusion and execution experienced by Jews—continues to violate the human rights of the Palestinian people is both shameful and a disgrace. Israeli actions encourage anti-Semitism around the world.”

Instead, Independent Jewish Voices Montreal will be holding a counter-rally “to show our support for justice and the implementation of human rights policies for the Palestinian people,” on Thursday, May 8, beginning at 11 a.m. at Phillips Square (corner Ste-Catherine and Union) and winding up outside Place du Canada at 11:45 a.m.

Also making their voices heard this weekend will be the Coalition for Peace and Justice for Palestine, who have organized their own march leaving from Dominion Square (Peel at René-Lévesque) on Saturday, May 10, at 1 p.m.

Anarchy month

You know spring has sprung when you hear rumblings about Montreal’s annual May tradition, the Festival of Anarchy, going down around town. From the Anarchist Theatre Festival at Concordia’s D.B. Clark Theatre on May 13–14, featuring Bread and Puppets, to the ninth annual Anarchist Book Fair in St-Henri on Sunday, May 18, to the dozens of workshops that will be taking place over the weekend of May 17–18, a fun, informative, black-cloaked good time is in store for all. Certainly among the highlights will be appearances by noted U.S. anarchist theorist/author John Zerzan.

“Zerzan is definitely a controversial figure and we’re expecting fall-out from his appearances here,” informs Bernard Cooper, spokesperson for “green-anarchist” group La Mauvaise herbe, who are hosting the events.

“He’s already received one death threat and people are promising to picket his appearances. You know, you have these old-school anarchists peddling this very 19th century communist outlook, where Zerzan is really more about radical ecology, and this is what’s important now, not when the workers are going to be taking over the fuckin’ factories. Still, not everyone agrees with that.”

For full schedule information, go to anarchistbookfair.ca.

by CHRIS BARRY

Online nixes classes

Roughly 10 part-time professors were put out of a job at Concordia last week as the university continues placing courses online, says June Riley, a part-time economics professor. Concordia’s Part Time Faculty Association, which recently called off its rotating strikes after accusing the university of planning to hire replacements, has been demanding the university to cancel or limit its online courses.

“No really reputable university has courses online,” says Riley, adding that evening introductory economics courses have been placed online in her department. Riley says the evening students will receive poorer instruction than students who take the classes in the daytime and are taught in classrooms. “We’re really struggling with this,” she says, “and online sessions kill our jobs.”

Riley says the classes have been one point of contention between the part timers’ union and the university in negotiations for a collective agreement. The union is asking for better work conditions and a pay increase to match the salaries of part-time professors in other universities.

“We wanted equity with UQÀM. Now we’ve conceded that and are asking for equity with UdM,” says Riley, adding that the university wants to claw back health benefits for union members.

by SAMER ELATRASH

Caravan for dignity

The 35th annual Semaine des personnes assistées sociales kicked off on Monday and aims to have Quebecers looking at the province’s downtrodden with a bit more respect. 

“Then there is the notion of productivity, which means we define a person’s value by their position in the job market,” says Marie-Christine Latte, of the Organisation populaire des droits sociaux (OPDS), an advocacy group for welfare recipients.

Not helping this campaign is the fact that the Quebec government will be closing 10 of Montreal’s 24 employment centres this year, making it more difficult for the out-of-work to have access to counselling.

The OPDS is planning a demonstration on Thursday, May 8 at 1 p.m. to protest discrimination against the unemployed. The organization is calling for a decent and unconditional revenue for everyone in Quebec, at least at the level of the poverty line.

Buses will be picking up protesters in Villeray, Hochelaga and St-Michel on Thursday at 1 p.m. and converging at a secret destination. “We prefer to call it a surprise location,” says Latte. The group’s Web site specifies only that the destination has something to do with food, shelter and transport.

To reserve a seat call the OPDS at (514) 527-0700 or see www.opdsrm.com.

by MATT JONES

Rear-view mirror

10 YEARS AGO - MAY 7–14, 1998

On the cover: Montreal photojournalist Roger Lemoyne’s award-winning picture of Rwandan Hutu refugees, one of many others on display at Isart. “Poverty in Montreal means Kraft Dinner; in Africa, it’s sucking on the dry bones of a dead camel,” he says.
•John Zorn hates interviews. “It seems like every time I open my big mouth I get misunderstood, I get misrepresented, I get misquoted, and the information I give [the media] is sensationalized,” he laments. “But once in a while it’s fun.”
•The British film Preaching to the Perverted, about a young Christian man’s experience in the S&M scene, “while visually stimulating, would be far more powerful if [director Stuart Urban] knew anything about pacing, dialogue and character development.”
•Sasha has a “deplorable fixation” on preppy boys. “The J. Crew catalogue (especially the fall issue—guhh—cable-knit sweaters) is my favourite spank mag, and don’t even say the word ‘regatta’ around me.”
•Upside/Downside Highs: $1 straw cowboy hats, the last Seinfeld, Nashville Pussy’s bassist. Lows: CanCon, “Abstract” (“the most overused musical word of ’98!”), moustaches.

Angel >> More wind power Environmentalists are welcoming a decision by Hydro Québec to approve 15 new bids for wind power plants that would provide the province with 2004 megawatts of electricity. The new plants will come online between 2011 and 2015, and, say their boosters—including well-known green types like Steven Guilbeault of Équiterre—the move towards wind will help reduce our dependency on fossil fuels and contribute to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. The new energy will cost 10.5 cents per kilowatt hour, which is considered highly competitive, according to Hydro. The projects’ combined cost is about $5.5-billion—and it looks like money well spent.

Insect >> The Big Owe And then there are some things that aren’t. The Olympic Stadium and Village has already cost us almost $1.5-billion, and while the last payment on the Jean Drapeau/Roger Taillibert boondoggle was made in November 2006, the bill never seems to go away. SNC-Lavalin is reportedly going to build a rigid, new roof, beginning perhaps as early as November this year, making the stadium useable year-round (it’s currently closed from November to April). The roof has always been problematic: the first orange Kevlar one didn’t retract properly, a support beam collapsed in 1991 and, in 1999, a part tore as workers were preparing for an auto show.