Quote of the week

“It was decided it would be more valuable to have the study stand up to the rigours of peer review before being released.” —a spokesperson for Defence Research and Development Canada, on the delay of an interim report on Taser use to be released at the Taser-sponsored Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police meeting in Montreal

Caravan for arts cash

In case you had bigger fish to fry over the summer and weren’t paying attention, the federal Conservative government announced that it intends to cut funding to the arts by some $44.8-million between now and April 2010. Not surprisingly, many of the movers and shakers among Canada’s cultural industries are up in arms over the news.

“The worst thing,” says Barbara Ulrich, executive director of the Quebec Council for Media Arts, “is that this isn’t the end of it. Apparently there are more cuts to come.”

With a possible fall election right around the corner, Quebec arts group M.A.L. (Mouvement pour les arts et les lettres), while describing the cuts in question as “catastrophic,” are calling on all concerned parties to join them this Wednesday, Sept. 3, for a Quebec City town hall meeting to try and work out a plan of action.

“Because M.A.L. represents everybody in the arts from across Quebec, we decided to hold this meeting in Quebec City so people from around the province could attend,” says Ulrich. “To that end we’ll have buses from Montreal providing collective transportation to the meeting.”

Consult M.A.L.’s Web site at mal.qc.ca for full schedule details.

Co-op village

The Fédération des coopératives d’habitation intermunicipale du Montréal métropolitain (FECHIMM) is marking 25 years of finding people cheap digs on and off the island. To celebrate, 400 member co-ops will be pitching tents at Parc Jean Drapeau this weekend to create a cooperative village.

“It’s really like a huge day-long picnic,” says Richard Audet, head of communications for the FECHIMM. “We want to show off the spirit of our movement.”

The day will feature a debate on the future of the co-op movement, workshops on efficient energy use, a photography exhibition, various kids activities and a concert in the evening in the tent city equivalent of the town square. Most of the services and activities are provided by co-op members themselves.

But in an age where everyone is lusting for a Plateau condo, is there any room for co-ops?

“We seem to have passed the era of large-scale co-op development that we saw in the 1960s and ’70s. People’s ideas are more individualist now. There’s no hiding the fact that with a co-op you save money, but it’s also about choosing to live co-operatively,” says Audet.

“Habiter la fête” runs from 12 p.m. to 11 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 30 at Parc Jean Drapeau. For details, see www.fechimm.coop.

by Matt Jones

Filmed slavery

To mark the upcoming 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Montreal Human Rights Film Festival (MHRFF) and the National Film Board (NFB) are teaming up for a monthly series of screenings leading up to the big day, Wednesday, December 10.

Human Rights Encounters kicks off Sept. 4, with the Montreal premier of Marquise Lepage’s Des billes, des ballons et des garcons. A follow-up to her acclaimed 1999 doc Marelles et des petites filles, which dealt with the difficulties faced by young girls growing up in places like India, Thailand, and Haiti, Lepage’s latest film examines the same subject but from the point of view of boys.

“They’re no luckier than girls, but girls have some hope in their eyes which isn’t there anymore for boys,” says Lepage. “They are very different in many ways, but they’re also very similar. They really want to be children, even though they’re working like slaves.”

The film screens in French, Portuguese, and other languages (with French subtitles) on Thursday, Sept. 4, at 6:30 p.m. at the NFB’s Cinérobothèque (1564 St-Denis), and will be followed by a discussion with the director.

Tickets are $5-7. For more info visit www.ffdpm.com.

by Christopher Hazou

Rad Frosh returns

It’s that time of year again, when packs of lovable, fresh-faced McGill students return downtown to puke on the streets of the Ghetto in celebration of the rite of passage known as Frosh Week. It’s a glorious, time-honoured affair which never fails to ingratiate the fun-lovin’ li’l tykes with their neighbours among the community at large, who, let’s face it, are always impressed by how much beer some 20-year-old Oakville, Ontario kid can shotgun before urinating on himself.

But wait, not every McGill freshman is a beer-barfin’ frat house rapist-in-waiting, and for at least a few of these social outcasts there is another, arguably more worthy tradition at McGill going down each fall: Radical Frosh, this year taking place August 29-31. “Rad Frosh has been happening for over 10 years now,” says co-organizer Ashley Fortier of QPIRG McGill. “It’s a two-day program focused on social and environmental justice. Once again this year we’ll be offering a wide variety of workshops and walking tours, a panel discussion, a loft party with film screenings and local DJs, and a benefit concert showcasing a number of Montreal-based and out of town artists like Shad, Jonathan Emile and Bonjay.”

For more info go to www.radfrosh.qpirgmcgill.org.

by Chris Barry

Rear-view mirror

12 YEARS AGO - AUG. 29-SEPT. 5, 1996

On the cover: The Fall Arts Preview’96.
•Releasing upcoming albums: Bran Van 3000, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Madonna, Billy Bragg, Dream Warriors, House of Pain, Chuck D., Curtis Mayfield, Aaliyah, Dee-lite, Tricky, Future Sounds of London.
•Concerts and performances: Johnny Cash, the Melvins, Smashing Pumpkins, Chemical Brothers, Derrick Carter, DJ Mark Anthony (many).
•Films: The People Vs. Larry Flynt, Bound, Beavis and Butt-Head Do America, Evita, Hamlet.
•Visual arts: Joe Fafard’s sculptures at the MMFA, the CCA honouring Frederick Law Olmstead, young Montreal artists Sebastian McDuff, Matthew Lévesque and Sylvain Arseneault at Foufounes.
• Plateau residents plan to demonstrate against a McDonald’s and a Petro-Canada super-station at the corner of Mont-Royal and Parc.
• Dominatrix “Miss Sylvia” Wahl plans to fight her arrest and the charges that she was keeping and running a common bawdy house. “I asked [her clients] if they’re aware that this is domination,” she says. “There’s no sex involved.”

Angel >> More minority cops With the city still trying to digest its latest ugly riot, the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police were meeting in Montreal this week for their annual meeting. Ontario criminologist James Drennan told the assembled crowd that police forces should reflect the communities in which they work, or else suffer the same kind of mistrust and antagonism that exploded on Aug. 10 in Montreal North. Saying forces were overly homogenous, Drennan said that despite recent efforts to bolster the number of minority officers across the country, a lot more needs to be done in gaining their trust. Cops, he said, must be “smarter, more humane and more tolerant.” Who can argue with that?

Insect >> Mario Dumont Playing up to the redneck vote once again, Mario Dumont this week took aim at the supposedly lamentable state of the province’s schools and urged a disciplinary crackdown to fight the alleged epidemic of thug life in the schoolyard. Just look at Montreal North to see what happens when kids don’t respect their elders, he said. Then, he made the bizarre comparison to the terrific American public school system, where kids, he said in all seriousness, wear high school sports jackets instead of gang colours. The sheer absurdity of Dumont’s statements are so out of touch with reality as to be laughable—except that they tend to play well in his rural electoral ridings.