Quote of the week

“You know we are very close to Quebec, but I will tell that we also love Canada very much.” —French President Nicolas Sarkozy, backing away from France’s traditional support for Quebec’s independence.

Know your rights camp

Canada’s contribution to the “war on terror” is increasingly banking on a public’s credulity and fear of terrorism threats, as five suspects continue to languish under security certificates and house arrest. The government is asking Canadians to accept its word that the suspects are threats to national security—suspects that in the past have included Maher Arar, an entirely innocent man sent with the RCMP’s blessings for a round of torture in Syria—although no charges have been brought against the suspects, nor any evidence provided.

The security measures “basically say that some people’s rights count more than others,” says Mary Foster, an organizer of an upcoming “People’s Camp,” a day of workshops, art exhibits and theatre about Canadian security regulations and security certificates. The event, taking place on Friday, May 23, at the park on the corner of Jean-Talon and Parc, will start with presentations and an exhibit at noon, then a rally at 1:30 p.m. and a picnic at 6 p.m.

“We want to break the fear and isolation surrounding people targeted by national security measures,” says Foster.

For more info, see www.adilinfo.org/en/node/380.

Algonquins roll in

Back in 1991, the small Algonquin community of Barriere Lake, five hours north of Montreal, signed a pioneering resource co-management and sustainable development agreement with Canada and Quebec. The agreement was designed to protect Algonquin land uses, conserve the forest and wildlife, and give the indigenous community a share in resource revenue from the logging and hydro projects on their territories.

“It was a precedent-setting agreement,” says Martin Lukacs of the Barriere Lake Solidarity Collective, “and because of that, the government is afraid to honour it. In 2001 the Canadian government walked away from the agreement while Quebec has been delaying its implementation for years. In the meantime, the Department of Indian Affairs has ousted the Customary Chief and Council and, in its place, illegally appointed a small faction that lacks legitimacy in the community. It’s outrageous, and it’s all because they don’t want to share resource revenue with the impoverished Algonquins, revenue that represents $100-million a year.”

The Barriere Lake Caravan will protest outside of Jean Charest’s office (McGill College at Sherbrooke) at noon, Friday, May 23.

For more information, go to barrierelakesolidarity.blogspot.com.

by CHRIS BARRY

Planet boogie

Jour de la Terre Québec is inviting all of you socially conscious toe-tappers to put on your boogie shoes and shake a tail-feather during the fourth annual E=MC2 (Every Move Can Count) Dance-O-Thon, taking place this Sunday, May 25, as of 2 p.m. at the Piknic Électronik in Parc Jean-Drapeau, to help raise money for several Quebec-based environmental organizations.

So how exactly is non-stop groovin’ to the hypnotic beats of local DJs going to help raise funds for Centre d’écologie urbaine de Montreal, Sierra Club and other like-minded do-gooder groups? Simple—you can dance for the good cause of your choice and get your friends to sponsor you by pledging whatever-dollar-amount for every hour you spend cuttin’ the rug, or you can sponsor the dancer representing your favourite organization.

“It’s a chance for everybody to plug in and get involved in helping to create a better world at a grass roots level,” says Pierre Lussier, director of Jour de la Terre Québec. “People have an opportunity to really make a difference and have fun at the same time. They will be dancing for an important purpose. This Sunday, every move really can count.”

For registration and information, visit www.jourdelaterre.org.

by STEVE ZYLBERGOLD

Studios
on display

If you’re a tortured artist living in a converted textile factory by the train tracks in Mile-End, now’s your chance to meet your neighbours. The Ateliers Portes Ouvertes du Mile-End will showcase 21 art studios in Montreal’s bagel and indie-rock capital. Starting Friday, May 23, the neighbourhood’s artists will be prying open their locks to let the public see what they’ve been up to.

“There’s something mythical about the artist’s studio,” says Mathieu Beauséjour of the Clark Studio. “We always think of artists as isolated, so this is a chance to open up their doors.”

Visitors can take in the works on display, go on a guided tour, walk or cycle up the “art route” or just chat with the artists. All exhibitions are free.

Although the north side of Mile-End still looks like the sweatshop district it used to be, it is brimming with artists who have snapped up cheap real estate and transformed it into a centre of artistic creation. More than 100 artists will be crawling out of the woodwork this weekend, including painters, sculptors, graphic designers, silkscreeners, photographers and videographers.

The Ateliers Portes Ouvertes du Mile-End runs from Friday, May 23 to Sunday, May 25. See www.clarkplaza.org for details.

by MATT JONES

Rear-view mirror

12 YEARS AGO - MAY 23–30, 1996

On the cover: Mayor Pierre Bourque, who “floats while his party and our city sinks.” His greatest weapon, according to Linda Gyulai, is “silence.” “You can’t be more innocuous or dull,” says city councillor Helen Fotopulos. “So he doesn’t instill radical reactions like pure love or pure hate.”
•Following a crustcore riot on St-Laurent—sparked, rumour has it, by a “few hardliners” denied re-entry into a show at Café So on Rachel—local veteran punks and police alike are giving the “fuckups, mescaline heads and glueheads,” in promoter Dom Castelli’s words, the cold shoulder and a hard time. A group of 70 punks, however, later apologized for the riot and offered to raise money to pay for repairs to the dozens of smashed shop windows.
•The Rant Line™ prints what is says is its “first and ONLY” wedding proposal (F, to “Will, my yang”).
•British actor Ian Hart, appearing in Ken Loach’s Land and Freedom, says Cannes is all about “wealthy people living in the south of France who are masturbating” and the movie industry “pimps."

Angel >> Learning English The Gazette got quite a scoop when they got a hold of an advance copy of the long-anticipated Bouchard-Taylor report (although some are suggesting the report they got isn’t genuine, or the final draft), which is to be made public today, Thursday, May 22. The report recommends, among other things, that francophones, especially those away from urban centres, learn more English. Well, yeah. The benefits are obvious: learning another language is an automatic shortcut to better understanding another culture, it helps bring down borders based on ignorance and fear, and it makes Quebecers more competitive in an ever more global job market. Plus, it drives people like Mouvement Montréal français bonkers, which is always funny. Which brings us to…

Insect >> Pauline Marois The leader of the PQ, along with BQ leader Gilles Duceppe, compared the report to Elvis Gratton, Pierre Falardeau’s often hilarious but slightly creepy cult comedy movie. The Bouchard-Taylor report has much to say about language, including how to change allegedly harsh terms like “accommodation” and “Québécois de souche” to something fuzzier. Both called for the report’s immediate release, since delaying it would only sow more confusion about what’s in it. But that didn’t stop either of them from making political hay out of it. The newly charged Marois, who said over the weekend she’d like to team up with other sovereignty-minded parties to speed up independence plans, looks like she’s got a full tank of gas and sure to get good mileage out of this.