Quote of the week

“The wind was pushing, and my truck started to dance on the road, lifting from side to side, swinging back and forth.” —Trucker Réjean Chapdelaine, whose rig tipped over on the Champlain Bridge during Tuesday’s storm. The near-hurricane force wind over the bridge was described by Environment Canada as a “microburst.”

SLAPP happy

Suing your opponent out of existence is a well-worn tactic for those who can afford it, but a coalition of environment and human rights groups are hoping the province makes good on a promise to protect defendants of expensive, drawn-out lawsuits fielded by big companies against their critics. Many people are accusing Toronto-based giant Barrick Gold of using the tactic, called Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPP), against the small local publishing house Écosociété for its book Noir Canada, about Canadian mining practices in Africa.

The Ligue des droits et libertés, a Montreal human rights organization, together with l’Association québécoise de lutte contre la pollution atmosphérique, wants Quebecers to send provincial justice minister Jacques Dupuis letters urging him to present a new law—which he promised in April—before the summer recess. On Wednesday, June 11, the Ligue and others held a demonstration outside the Palais de Justice and presented a petition to the minister’s Montreal office.

Ligue spokesman André Trépanier says that besides Écosociété, several other important SLAPP cases are currently before the courts, all dealing with environmental issues.

There will be a benefit concert for Écosociété tonight, Thursday, June 12, at Kola Note (5240 Parc), 8:30 p.m., $20. For more info, see www.liguedesdroits.ca or slapp.ecosociete.org.

St-Ray’s new look

The corner of Upper Lachine and St-Jacques has been a mess of roadworks since the old interchange was demolished last fall. Now NDG-Côte-des-Neiges borough mayor Michael Applebaum has a plan to transform the site into 400 units of affordable homes, a welcome announcement for local housing activists. But will it go through, or will it end up a bureaucratic mess? Habiter St-Raymond, a research project of the NDG Community Council, is organizing residents to make sure they get their say.

Long neglected as the poorer underside of NDG, St-Raymond has seen significant investment since McGill announced that it would be building the MUHC superhospital in the area.

“There’s condo development on residential streets and industrial infrastructure like laboratories being set up,” says Alex Megelas of Habiter St-Raymond. Megelas expects as many as 500 hospital workers may want to move here in the coming years, potentially transforming the area’s demographics. A major affordable housing project could help ease the transition.

Also up for discussion is the ecological nature of the project and the role of private developers.

Habiter St-Raymond’s collective site-mapping exercise takes place Wednesday June 18 at 6 p.m. at the St-Jacques Community Centre (5600 Upper Lachine). Call (514) 484-1471 for details.

by MATT JONES

Movie
boot camp

More than a year ago, Jason Gondziola, manager of Concordia’s student-run television station, decided the station should help up-and-coming young filmmakers hone their skills.

“It seemed a good use of the station’s resources,” he says. “We have a lot of equipment, and people who know how to use it.”

The result, a two-week boot camp last summer, left students between the ages of 14 and 18 with the know-how on filming and production, skills that Gondziola says have become increasingly useful in the YouTube era. Student productions were screened at the end of the training to an audience of friends and family.

CUTV is again offering youth a chance to learn filmmaking skills this summer, having hired a number of Montreal filmmakers to instruct the students. Registration—the fee is waived for students who come from fixed income families—ends on Friday, June 27. Training starts on Monday, July 28 and ends on Friday, August 8.

In the first week of the program, students learn basic production techniques before they start shooting and producing their movies.

For information on the program and on how to register, contact CUTV at (514) 848-2424 ext. 7403 or cutv@alcor.concordia.ca.

by SAMER ELATRASH

Tech for Tibetans

If you’re looking for something to do Monday night that might actually make a difference to someone on the other side of the world, take note. Beginning at 8 p.m. at the Divan Orange (4234 St-Laurent), family-run Abitibi-based charity organization Technomonde will be sponsoring a benefit concert to help Tibetan refugees in India get themselves up to spec with the latest technology.

“We’re hoping to raise $2,500,” says Technomonde representative Joel Gagnon, “so we can donate two computers to the Delek hospital in Dharamsala in northern India. I’ll stay there for a few weeks after that to train the hospital staff on using them, and if there’s money left over, we’ll put it towards paying for an Internet connection. These computers will bring real benefits to the local people, providing a tool for doctors to consult their peers in other parts of the world while keeping them up to date with the latest breakthroughs in medicine. Some 3,000 Tibetans cross the Himalayas on foot every year seeking refuge in India, and the Delek hospital is the first point of arrival for them.”

Rocking the bill come June 16 will be, among others, none other than Joel Gagnon himself. Tix are $10. For more information, go to www.technomonde.org.

by CHRIS BARRY

Rear-view mirror

21 YEARS AGO - JUNE 12-JULY 2, 1987

On the cover: Carlos Santana, appearing at the Jazz Fest. “Jazz will always be the elite of music, because that’s what it’s all about: playing in a very spontaneous and non-preconceived setting,” he says. “It’s dangerous and scary, but that’s the beauty of it.”
•The USS Oliver Hazard Perry, which may or may not contain nuclear weapons, is en route to Montreal for a summer tour of the Great Lakes. Environmental and non-violence groups plan protests.
•Director Lizzie Borden researched “a whole new breed of yuppie madams who have come from the fashion industry” for Working Girls. But, reads the review, “somehow, among the Listerine and condoms, the women are lost.”
•The Mirror taps into the “trend sweeping the country lately toward those nostalgic days of the corner restaurant.” Reviewed are Bagel Etc., Lux, the Rosemont Deli, Hamburger , Casse-Croute Pepsi and Chez Frankie.

Angel >> Gérard Bouchard The Quebec sociologist, avowed sovereigntist and co-author of last month’s Bouchard-Taylor report on reasonable accommodation is pretty vexed at his fellow Vive-le-Québec-libbers. In an open letter published in La Presse and Le Devoir, he accuses the vocal hard-liners within the sovereignty movement of needlessly spreading fear, insecurity and anxiety over the report’s recommendations that Quebec should, maybe, open itself up to the world a bit more. Bouchard, Lucien’s brother, came under pretty sharp attacks himself last month when the report was delivered, mainly by the same people he’s criticizing now—among them PQ leader Pauline Marois and Bloc Québécois Gilles Duceppe.

Insect >> The CBC When you have one actually popular brand recognized from coast to coast, it’s best not to nickel-and-dime it. But that’s just what the national broadcaster did with its theme to Hockey Night in Canada, specifically its little old lady composer, Dolores Claman, 80. Talks between the Ceeb and Claman broke down over royalty rights, and CTV—owner of RDS, TSN and 2010 Olympics broadcasting rights—swooped in to pick it up. The good news for hockey viewers is, as HNIC continues its long decline into irrelevance, CTV’s stations will play the song throughout its beefed-up hockey broadcasts. The CBC, meanwhile, announced a song-writing competition for a new HNIC theme.