Quote of the week

“Tensions are growing and have been festering like an old wound.”
—Anonymous Kanesatake band elder, following the violence and barricade erected over the weekend. An emergency band meeting will be held tonight, Thursday, July 31.

Eco-Logic
in peril

It’s not looking good these days for Eco-Logic, the Côte-St-Paul eco-centre/flea market just west of Atwater, at 5024 Angers and St-Patrick. With July’s rent still due and summer revenues as dry, unless business picks up in the next few weeks, there’s an excellent chance the centre will have to shut its doors.

Which sucks on many levels, not the least being that 80 per cent of the “junk” they receive—broken toasters, stereos, furniture, appliances, antiques, clothing, books, materials that would otherwise be housed in landfills for the next 10 million years—is repurposed or, at the very least, properly recycled once Eco-Logic founder Diane Bertrand gets her hands on it.

“We’re located a little off the beaten path,” says Bertrand, “and while our rent is expensive because we need space, people looking to buy environmentally responsible items for very little money have trouble finding us. I guess the dream is that somebody will suddenly magically appear to sponsor an inexpensive locale for us, ideally near a student area where people can buy and drop stuff off easily, but for now I really don’t know what we’ll do.”

Call Diane at (514) 219-3254 if you’ve any good ideas.

Giant banana down

Cesar Saez, the Argentine-born, Montreal-based artist who planned to float an enormous helium-filled banana over Texas, has put an end to the project, citing financial difficulties. The banana was scheduled to make its debut in the fall, but Saez announced on Sunday, July 27, that the project was dead.

The art intervention, aptly named “Geostationary Banana Over Texas,” would have the 300-metre-long semi-rigid banana floating high in the planet’s stratosphere, somewhere around 30–50 kilometres above the ground. It would have been visible day and night, and have stayed up for about a month, according to the project’s Web site (www.geostationarybananaovertexas.com), until it disintegrated.

Saez wasn’t available for an interview by press time, but the point of the project, according to the site, was “to bring some humour to the Texan sky.” He admits it is “useless and absurd,” but that it was nevertheless “defiant like a cowboy act.” The technology and will were there, but the $1.5-million (U.S.) needed to bring the project to fruition was not.

Saez told the San Antonio Express-News on Sunday that, “If the money comes in tomorrow, I might change my mind and we’ll do it.”

by Patrick Lejtenyi

AIDS riders arrive

If you’re into sweaty, good-hearted Torontonian bike riders, there’ll be hundreds of them in the Village this Friday as the annual Friends for Life bike rally winds up in the middle of the Divers/Cité festivities.

Each year, hundreds of cyclists make the arduous journey through 600 kilometres of unremarkable scenery on the 401 as they ride from Toronto to Montreal to raise cash for the Toronto People With AIDS Foundation.

“It started with two friends who got together with 23 people to do the ride,” says rally organizer Todd Ross. “They raised about $40,000.”

This year’s 10th anniversary rally has a record 322 riders registered and is set to raise $1.1-million. They’ve been training since November and range “from professional competitors to retired grandmothers,” says Ross.

In the 10 years the rally has been going, Ross has seen many things change, but that doesn’t necessarily mean life is easier. “People are living longer, so there’s more demand for services,” he says. The foundation offers income support, a food bank, access to medication, counselling and health promotion.

To greet the riders, show up at Parc Émilie-Gamelin (corner Berri and Ste-Catherine E.) on Friday at 5 p.m. For more details, see www.bikerally.org.

by Matt Jones

Colombians in the Pointe

The Autonomous Social Centre of Pointe St-Charles presents the third in its series of summer workshops, “Communities in Resistance in Colombia: The Principles and Actions of Direct Solidarity,” this Monday, Aug. 4, at Carrefour d’éducation populaire de Pointe St-Charles (2356 Centre, métro Charlevoix).

“In the Colombian armed conflict, there are companies that are taking peoples’ land, for example that of Afro-Colombians or indigenous people,” says Blandine Gux, a member of the Projet Accompagnement Solidarité Colombie. “The paramilitaries are trying to kick them out, and they’re trying to take back their land in a peaceful way.”

On hand will be activists recently returned from Colombia, who will share their experiences working with the local people. “Direct solidarity means that we’re not just going there to help communities, we’re going there to share with them and learn with them,” says Gux.

The first two workshops in the series dealt with the anti-war movement and immigration. The fourth and final installment takes place Aug. 25, when the topic will be ecological urban transport.

The event takes place Monday, Aug. 4, at 7 p.m. Free. For more info call (514) 848-7582 or visit csa.revolte.biz.

by Christopher Hazou

Rear-view mirror

10 YEARS AGO - JULY 30–AUG. 6, 1998

On the cover: Eight of Montreal’s 20 Most Influential Queers, profiled in a series of articles for Divers/Cité. Among the 20 are: D/C co-organizer Suzanne Girard; activist Douglas Buckely-Couvrette; musician Rufus Wainwright; DJ Plastik Patrik; Dykes on Mykes host Deb VanSlet; politicians Réal Ménard and André Boulerice; academic Tom Waugh and writer Line Chamberland.
• John McKellar, of Toronto group Homosexuals Against Pride Extremism, says, “I think most … homosexuals are ashamed, embarrassed, degraded and disturbed by the whole aspect of gay activism and pride and what it stands for.”
•Controversy over serial killer cards reaches a fever pitch, writes the Mirror’s Ottawa correspondent Vincent Gogolek. “I think [the public] see the killer cards… as another instance of the values our society was based on being eroded,” says Reform MP Val Meredith.
•At Just for Laughs: Gilbert Gottfried, Bobcat Goldthwait and a 70-minute, twice-daily showing of the best Friz Freleng cartoons.
•Johnny François writes in a letter—three years after his brother Marcellus François was killed by police in a case of mistaken identity—that “the MUC is allowing the police to put their interest above that of the general public’s.”

Angel >> Summer rain Yes, it’s been a wet summer. Yes, there have been cancelled barbecues, spoiled weddings, dismal camping trips and an increase in mosquito bites. But here’s some good news: according to the SOPFEU, the provincial agency responsible for fighting forest fires, the rain has seriously decreased the number of fires raging this summer, and has saved the province some serious coin. SOPFEU says there have been between 175 and 200 fires this summer, down from an average 800. And only around $4-million has been spent fighting them, from an average $64-million—a 94 per cent decrease. So bitch away if you like, but those clouds do indeed have a silver lining.

Insect >> Youth conference without youth In between Paul McCartney and Celine Dion concerts, Quebec City is scheduled to host the World Youth Congress this summer. Problem is, thanks to Citizenship and Immigration Canada, there’ll be a whole lot less youth there than were anticipated. Organizers say up to 150 people, including all 17 delegates from Pakistan, have been denied temporary visas to enter the country. In all, some 150 people, out of a total of 600 planned attendees, were barred, all of them from developing countries. Apparently there were fears that, once here, the delegates wouldn’t leave. Some welcome mat to the world.