Quote of the week

“His favourite is the garlic bagel, but I didn’t dare send garlic bagels—they’d stink up the whole place.” —Rhonda Shlafman, daughter of Fairmount Bagel owner Mona Shlafman and cousin of Montreal-born astronaut, current International Space Station resident and bagel fan Greg Chamitoff. He took 18 sesame with him for his six-month stint in space.

Mines, books, suits

Unlike some countries in Africa, we don’t do firing squads in Canada. But we do have courts, which seem to have enough spare time to consider such cases as Barrick Gold Corp.’s lawsuit against a small Quebec publisher, Éco-Société, that released Noir Canada, a hard-hitting exposé of Canadian mining companies’ malfeasance in African countries.

Barrick Gold is suing the book’s publishers and authors for what they say are defamations in the book, over an excavation by mining group Sutton Resources (subsequently taken over by Barrick Gold) in Tanzania that allegedly left some 50 people buried alive. Alain Deneault, co-author of Noir Canada, says Barrick isn’t out to line its pockets, but to intimidate publishers and researchers from reporting the findings of mining watchdogs.

Noir Canada does not make any charges against Barrick Gold, he says. “All we did as academics was to notice there was a great amount of resources about [mining exploitation].” In the book, “We give Canadians access to these resources: we summarize and analyze them,” he says.

Deneault will give a talk on mining in Africa and the lawsuit on Tuesday, June 10 at Concordia (1455 de Maisonneuve, # 760), 7 p.m. The talk is sponsored by Montreal group Citizens in Action. E-mail nadia.alexan@sympatico.ca for more info.

Keeping dropouts in

In February, a small group of parents launched their Declaration for Equality in Education’s Journey, a manifesto of sorts to improve their stake and say in their children’s learning. The three big local school boards, they say, were shutting them out of the educational process.

Since then, Parents in Action for Education have been touring the city and its surrounding communities, sounding out other parents’ concerns over the same issues. This Saturday, June 7, the group will be touring the city with l’Autre Montréal, an urban history group, offering their take on the history of public education in Montreal. The tour will be followed by a group forum to exchange ideas on curbing the high dropout rate among Quebec students.

“In some areas, we’re seeing dropout rates between 30 and 40 per cent,” says the group’s Lillian Boctor. “And the numbers aren’t going down, they’re going up.” Boctor says children from poor and marginalized neighbourhoods, and those of immigrants, suffer the worst.

The forum takes place at Centre Georges-Vanier (2450 Workman). Breakfast at 9 a.m., buses leave at 10 a.m., returning for lunch at 1 p.m. with a discussion following until 5 p.m. For more info, see www.parentsaction.ca.

by PATRICK LEJTENYI

Berri dog ban demo

If you’ve been strolling through Berri or Viger parks lately, wondering where all the dog shit has gone, you’ve got the MUC police to either praise or blame for its absence. Because while it’s nice to lie in the grass with your sweetie and shoot narcotics, smoke a joint or maybe even have a picnic without worrying about rolling around in fecal matter, the Collective Opposed to Police Brutality (COPB) claim the city has somewhat more nefarious reasons for banning dogs from these public areas—namely, to keep street kids and their pets out of the parks as well.

Given that these two locations have long been the stomping grounds for many a homeless citizen, it’s certainly suspect to find them singled out for the ban, which went into effect one year ago. To mark the anniversary, COPB have organized a demonstration set to go down at 2 p.m., Sunday, June 8 at Berri Square.

In addition to letting their displeasure with the situation be known, organizers are promising there will be food, music and an on-site info-kiosk on how best to deal with the Man when it comes to civil rights and legal issues.

For more information go to cobp-mtl.ath.cx/.

by CHRIS BARRY

Point centre

The Centre sociale autogéré (CSA), an autonomous, self-managed community centre, is opening its doors in the Point this week with a party. Kicking off the “Réclame ta Pointe!” event is the screening of the movie The Point, with filmmaker Joshua Dorsey present on Friday, June 6, at 2356 Centre.

The impetus for the centre, which will be seeking permanent digs this year, came from a group of local activists who wanted a space to turn the community’s ideas into action, especially in light of increasing gentrification in Pointe St-Charles.

“It’s never been ideas that were missing; it’s always been the space,” organizer Judith Cayer says. “We knew that elected officials were not listening to popular demands and, in this context, instead of aiming at a politics of demands, we want to aim toward a politics of direct action.”

While some of the activities are social-justice-oriented, like urban solidarity presentations on how to “re-appropriate your neighbourhood,” the launch will take the form of an old-fashioned block party with stuff like giant puppet-making workshops, meals made from dumpster diving forays and a cabaret dance party at 255 Ash.

A full program is available at csa.revolte.biz.

by LINA HARPER

Rear-view mirror

13 YEARS AGO - JUNE 8–15, 1995

On the cover: A scrappy-looking kid, for “The Mirror’s 10th-anniversary-redesigned-reformatted-‘Hot Summer Guide’-it’s-hot-out-and-we-want-to-party issue.”
• Included in the issue is a 20-page “scrapbook” featuring selected photos, quotes, stats and staff lists.
•“Hot this summer,” according to the guide: An unnamed, 20-DJ-and-acts party on July 22; Another Roadside Attraction in Verdun July 21; Waterworld, Judge Dredd and Batman Forever; The Inside Story: One Hundred Years of X-Rays at the McCord; Repercussion Theatre’s A Comedy of Errors and As You Like It; The Philosopher Kings and Groove Collective at the Jazz Fest; Charles Aznavour, Éric Lapointe, Kashtin at FrancoFolies.
•La Presse editorialist Alain Dubuc tells Mirror news editor Chris Sheridan to “Go fuck yourself” when asked if the daily is fair in its treatment of Muslims. In his column, managing editor Peter Scowen writes, ”Maybe Dubuc’s just jealous that he doesn’t work at the Mirror and can’t be part of our 10th anniversary.”
•Vol. 11 No. 1 is 92 pages.

Angel >> Central Canada With two thirds of the country’s population, Quebec and Ontario wield an enormous amount of influence in this country, fairly or not. Sometimes, that influence can be used as a force for good, as it was this week when Jean Charest and his Ontario counterpart Dalton McGuinty gave the Harper government the finger and announced they’d start their own inter-provincial cap and trade system for carbon emission credits by Jan. 1, 2010. The feds are angry, but their weak proposed system of emission intensity reduction has been laughed out of most developed countries, including the U.S. With climate change an ever-increasing concern, it’s good to see sensible proposals going ahead and leaving the Ottawa ostriches, with their heads still buried in the sand, behind.

Insect >> Cluster bombs The good news coming out of Dublin over the weekend was an international agreement signed by 111 countries, including Canada, that calls for a total ban and dismantling of cluster bombs within eight years. The bad news: the biggest makers and users of the lethal, civilian-killing bomblets—the U.S., Russia, China, Israel, Pakistan and India—aren’t part of the deal. The Dublin agreement brings back memories of the successful ban on landmines—another one the U.S., among others, wasn’t party to—with companies making them stigmatized and the target of divestment campaigns by shareholders. But any treaty hoping to ban cluster bombs would certainly benefit from a wiser White House administration than the current one.