Quote of the week

“I think it is going to bring noise, and it is going to be a pain in the ass, but it’s going to be more good than bad.” —Ste-Catherine E. store manager Tyler Clark, on turning the strip in the Village into a pedestrian-only mall until Labour Day.

Apologies and cuts

Just what the federal government’s policy is on First Nations these days is anyone’s guess. Stephen Harper’s apology for residential schools last week may have won him some applause, but is it enough to drown out criticism for voting against the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples last September?

Organizers of the annual First People’s Festival may not think so, especially after Canada Economic Development, an agency of the federal government, pulled the plug on its funding for the festival four weeks before it opened. “The sad part is that the program is for economic development and it’s important that people see that First Nations are not only a cultural richness but also an economic partner,” says organizer André Dudemaine.

The festival, which began on June 12, is heading into its final weekend, offering art showings, film screenings, digital media workshops, as well as Innu, Abenakis and Mohawk language classes.

Saturday night’s closing event at Place Émilie-Gamelin features Innu ambient-folk singer Kathia Rock and headliner Richard Guétare (aka Richard Desjardins). The evening will end with an open-air screening of Desjardins’s film, Le Peuple Invisible.

The First People’s Festival runs until Sunday, June 22. For details, visit www.nativelynx.qc.ca.

Camping for homes

In honour of Quebec City’s 400th anniversary, the Front d’action populaire en réaménagement urbain (FRAPRU) is organizing a camping weekend in the heart of the provincial capital’s downtown, a sure-fire way to have some fun and experience the same type of squalid conditions in which many Quebec residents are forced to live.

The camping trip, from Thursday, June 26 to Sunday, June 28, is a chance for those who love the rustic outdoors and feel strongly about social housing reform to enjoy cook-outs, pitch tents and attend workshops and discussions on welfare policy, First Nations housing rights and the growing international network of social housing groups. Buses will pick up campers from several locations in Montreal for the free trip, and tents and sleeping bags will be provided to those without. Campers are simply asked to help out with general camping chores.

“We are using the 400th anniversary of our province to draw attention to the housing crisis,” says FRAPRU coordinator François Saillant. “The government needs to invest more money in social housing. There are still too many of us without roofs, rights or a voice.”

For bus departure and other info visit: www.frapru.qc.ca or call (514) 522-1010.

by Steve Zylbergold

Mines of ours

The social and environmental havoc the Canadian mining industry wreaks overseas is pretty low on the public agenda, but a group of Mexican activists and politicians coming to Montreal tonight, Thursday, June 19, hopes to change that. The delegation, which includes a member of the national congress, will meet with local social justice organizations and academics in an effort to catalyze opposition to Canadian mining activities in Mexico.

“I would like Canadians to be informed and to be sensible about these issues, and not to see Mexico as the backyard where they can just go and make a mess,” says Juan Carlos Ruiz Guadalajara, a delegate and professor of history at the Colegio de San Luis.

Earlier this week, the delegation met with Canadian opposition MPs in Ottawa and attended a demonstration in Toronto against Metallica Resources, whose operations near the town of Cerro de San Pedro have drawn fierce resistance. Critics say the Metallica mine is destroying an important mountain and contaminating the water—charges the company denies.

The forum is open to the public and begins at 7 p.m. in McGill’s University Centre (3480 McTavish).

by Drew Nelles

Meeting Stella

Calling all sex workers: if you’re not a member of rights organization Stella yet, then now’s the time to learn how they just might improve both your working conditions and overall quality of life. On Thursday, June 19, Stella’s annual general meeting gets underway at 5:30 p.m. at the Centre St-Pierre (1212 Panet, room 204), with a small welcome buffet followed by the assembly at 6 p.m.

“Basically, this is our annual meeting where sex workers can have their say with respect to the direction they want to see Stella move towards,” says spokesperson Jenn Clamen. “Over the next year, we’re going to continue doing what we’ve always done, which is meeting sex workers in their places of work and responding to their needs and wants. We’ll continue pushing for legal reforms, focusing primarily on municipal laws, and essentially keep trying to get more and more sex workers implicated in the cause. So this meeting is a great opportunity for sex workers to learn more about our organization, have their say about what we’re doing and let us know more about the needs that they have working in their industry.”

For more information, go to www.chezstella.org.

by CHRIS BARRY

Rear-view mirror

15 years ago - June 17 –24, 1993

On the cover: “A former inmate’s story of drugs and beatings in Montreal jails.” Going over prison’s informal rules, former Bordeaux inmate “Henry” says, “You never steal from another inmate. The penalty for that is death…. You never rat out another inmate. You get severely beaten for that… If you borrow something, you pay it back. I’ve seen guys get beaten badly over a packet of chips. Anyone who has raped a child will suffer. They will be maimed, or even castrated.”
•The Habs win the Cup, the city riots. Photos show rioters, injuries and one fat man in a Stones t-shirt pulling out his penis.
•Local label EnGuard Records releases four seven-inches: The American Devices/Megalo, the Stand GT, the Ripcordz and No Offense/the Shitheads.
•Discussing Who’s the Man?, “a ‘dramedy’ about cops and rappers,” co-writer and star Dr. Dre says, “Most writers don’t have a clue when they’re trying to write African-American characters. They use this old slang that’s totally outdated because they’re not in the scene.”

Angel >> Boosting recycling The city and some private companies are getting together to bring recycling back to Montreal’s streets, and to its leisure industry. Two years ago, the Plateau and Ville-Marie boroughs yanked the three-holed bins because they weren’t generating the ad revenue they were hoping for. This summer, in Ville-Marie at least, new ones will appear, thanks to a $6-million program involving 16 companies and government institutions. The fund will also go to providing recycling bins for hotels, bars and restaurants. The program will last for three years, but everyone expects the public and private funding to continue.

Insect >> C-61 The updated version of the Copyright Act of Canada is already achieving something remarkable: it’s managed to line up an impressive array of foes that is accusing Industry Minister Jim Prentice of being both a coward for caving in to American pressure, and of criminalizing erstwhile innocent Canadians for downloading movies, music and TV shows. Stiff fines—from $500 to $20,000—await anyone caught monkeying with copyright material, turning Canada, say critics, into a police state. That is, if it passes. If there is an election—and with a minority government like this one, there might well be one any time—it will die on the order papers. But even if it passes, it’s not expected to alter p2p sharing one bit.