Quote of the week

“We’ve still got a lot of work to do.” Mayor Gérald Tremblay, on repairing the city’s ageing infrastructure, after storm-swollen sewers in St-Léonard and Anjou backed up, causing flood damage to about 100 homes and businesses. Some businesses are threatening to sue the city for not upgrading drainage systems.

Khadr and cluster bombs

With pressure mounting on the federal government to get Omar Khadr out of the U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the Canadian Federation of University Women rolls into town this weekend for their annual general meeting featuring guest of honour Senator Roméo Dallaire, who will speak on the subject of child soldiers.

While his talk will focus on the lesser-known phenomenon of female child combatants, Dallaire has been an outspoken critic of the Harper government’s lack of action on Khadr’s behalf. Khadr is the only Western national still being held at Guantanamo Bay.

The CFUW’s incoming president, Patricia DuVal, says that while her organization hasn’t yet formulated an official position on Khadr’s case, it has a long history of supporting causes involving women and minors. “One of our concerns is the long-term effects of war on women and children,” she says.

Also on the agenda will be a resolution condemning the use of cluster bombs. “We’ve been active on landmines in the past, which are actually very similar [to cluster bombs] in their long-term effects,” DuVal says. “We’d like to get the government to be a little bit more active on this.”

All-natural food fiesta

If you find yourself disturbed by the idea of eating strawberries cross-bred with genes from an unknown source, beef from mutant cows and/or eggs laid by monster-sized chickens, Union Biologique Paysanne’s fifth Annual Fête Bio Paysanne at La TOHU, (2345 Jarry E.) on Friday, Aug. 8, 12 p.m.–8 p.m., Saturday, Aug. 9 and Sunday, Aug. 10, 10 a.m.–5 p.m., is a great opportunity to stock up on low-cost, locally grown organic food, get some information and learn about important local organic resources.

The three-day eco-organic fair features farmers’ markets, organic cosmetic counters, herbalist workshops, lectures, food tasting events, treasure hunts, face-painting, a bicycle rally, a performance of the children’s opera La Chèvre de Monsieur Séguin by Théâtre Vox Populi and the Latin-rock rhythms of the Psychotropical Orchestra.

“People are finding that their current lifestyle and eating habits are unhealthy and they are much more concerned about what is in the food they eat and how it’s made or grown,” explains Fête president Benoît Girouard. “Here, they can speak directly with the farmers and they can be sure of what it is they are getting.”

For more info and the event’s schedule, visit www.tohu.ca.

by Steve Zylbergold

Mural for freedom

Local artists are coming out in support of Algerian-born asylum seeker Abdelkader Belaouni with a “Weekend of Art” this Saturday, Aug. 9 and Sunday, Aug. 10 at St. Gabriel’s Church (2157 Centre) in Pointe St-Charles, where Belaouni has been in sanctuary for more than two-and-a-half years. “He’s hanging in there,” says Laura Macdonald of the Committee to Support Abdelkader Belaouni. “He has an incredible amount of patience.”

The centrepiece of the weekend will be the painting of a three-panelled mural depicting Belaouni’s story. Although the main body of the work has already been planned, members of the public, including children, will have the opportunity to get their hands dirty and do some painting of their own.

Things kick off at 10 a.m. on Saturday, with the start of the mural. There will be live music and activities for the kids running from noon to 4:30 p.m. On Sunday, the paint starts flowing again at 1 p.m., to be followed by more music and activities from 2–5 p.m. Finally, the finished mural will be presented along with performances by local poets and musicians from 5–7 p.m.

For more info visit www.soutienpourkader.net.

by Christopher Hazou

Your brain on music

Have you ever given any thought to as to how our brains perceive melody, or the influence music might have on the development of newborns, or even how much importance should be placed on music therapy in today’s clinical practices in the first place? If you have, or if any of these ideas interest you, then you’ll definitely want to be at O Patro Vys (356 Mont- Royal E.) on Thursday, Aug. 7, at 6 p.m. for Café Scientifique, an informal discussion on these issues and more that is being organized by the McGill University Health Centre and the Montreal Neurological Institute.

“It’s going to be an open, intimate, relaxed discussion between experts and anyone who wants to attend,” says Montreal Neurological Institute spokesperson Anita Kar. “Studying the effects of music is a phenomenal window into the brain. After the initial presentations by three experts on the subject, there’ll be an open discussion where everyone will be free to comment or ask questions, and later on, the Blue Monkey Project—neuroscientists who also happen to be musicians—will be playing until the end of the night.” Café Scientifique is a bilingual event, with free admission and no pre-registration required.

by Chris Barry

Rear-view mirror

17 YEARS AGO - AUG. 8–15, 1991

On the cover: Lyne Charlebois, Alain Desrochers and James DiSalvio, Quebec’s hottest music video directors. Desrochers says of Mitsou’s steamy “Dis-moi, dis-moi” video (banned by MuchMusic), which he directed, “MTV sent us a fax saying that while they couldn’t show the clip because breasts are shown, it was one of the nicest international videos they’d seen in a long time.”
•Different AIDS community groups are all competing for the same dollar, and hurting each other in the long run. AIDS Community Care Montreal was denied funding, says executive director Jock Newman, because it was supposedly duplicating services of other groups. “With so many people who are seropositive in Quebec, how can we possibly be duplicating services?” he asks.
•“To say the industry’s handling of the Ramones has been pathetic is to give the industry too much credit,” writes Richard Bird in an article on the band.
•Andrew Jones’ “Official Album of the Summer” is James Brown’s four-CD Star Time, “five hours and 72 songs worth of groundbreaking cold sweat.”

Angel >> Universal access to HIV-fighting drugs At the 17th annual AIDS conference in Mexico City this week, Bill Clinton had this happy statistic to throw around: since 2006, the number of children with access to antiretroviral treatments rose from 10,000 to more than 200,000 in 2008. Which is great, but everyone knows that much more needs to be done to get better treatment, cheaper drugs and improved prevention education to those who need them. But many conference attendees, including former UN special envoy for HIV-AIDS Stephen Lewis, are slamming governments and agencies for backing away from a commitment to provide HIV-AIDS treatment to everyone by 2010; they’re targeting 2015 now.

Insect >> Thieving scumbags After delivering a mind-blowing performance at Osheaga Sunday night, the Stooges found that they had joined a long line of musicians who’ve been robbed in Montreal. According to road manager Eric Fischer, persons unknown stole the band’s entire tour van, and with it all the band’s gear, outside the Embassy Suites Hotel on St-Antoine W. sometime between Sunday night and Monday morning. The plague of thieves has been the scourge of many a Montreal band—ask just about anyone who’s put their time in—and while Iggy Pop and Stooges bassist Mike Watt say they don’t harbour a grudge against the city, bands may start thinking twice before coming to play here.