Quote of the week

“There are so many former CSN members who are being recycled as Bloc activists or MPs that I sometimes ask myself if the Bloc isn’t in fact the CSN’s
senator in Ottawa.” —Former Bloc Québécois MP Richard Bélisle, charging that, by focusing on defending unions rather than promoting sovereignty, the party has lost its raison d’être.

Anti-war studies

The student activists of Opération Objection take to the street in front of the armed forces recruitment centre at the corner of Ste-Catherine and Bishop from 5:30–7 p.m. today, Thursday, Sept. 18, to denounce the war in Afghanistan and what they see as the disturbing militarization of Canadian society.

“It’s a day of action against military propaganda,” says Opération Objection spokesperson Alexandre Vidal. The demonstration will feature the testimony of former soldiers, street theatre and free food. Similar protests will also be held in Sherbrooke, Chicoutimi and Quebec City.

According to Vidal, Opération Objection’s campaign against army recruitment kiosks on Quebec campuses last winter was so successful that they had to cut it short after the military pulled their booths from schools prior to planned protests. “They cancelled their kiosks because they were afraid of the disruptions we caused the previous week,” he says.

For the new school year, OO is broadening its agenda to include an end to all cooperation between the military and Canadian academic institutions. “We’re working to demilitarize our campuses,” says Vidal. “Both in terms of recruitment and academic research that’s being funded by the army.”

For more info, visit www.antirecrutement.info.

Food, oil
and poverty

Maybe if rising oil prices only affected Hummer-driving global-warming skeptics, there wouldn’t be such a fuss. But next week, McGill is hosting a three-day conference that aims to look at how the crisis will affect the 800 million people in the world who not only live without gas-guzzling pseudo-military vehicles but also without enough food.

The McGill Conference on Global Food Security brings together academics, non-governmental organization workers, researchers from various think-tanks and reps from international financial institutions to try to figure out how to stop the world’s poor from paying with their lives for increasing worldwide fossil fuel addiction.

“One of the things we’ll be probing in the conference is, what is the impact of globalization and the WTO on producers? We’re bringing in experts from developed and developing countries to present the data,” says Chandra Madramootoo, dean of McGill’s Faculty of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences and organizer of the conference.

The price of rice doubled in 2007, from $200 (U.S.) a ton to $400, creating untold misery for the 600 million people in Asia who depend on rice as the staple item of their diet.

The conference takes place September 24–26 at McGill. Cost is $125 and includes all meals.

For details, see www.mcgill.ca/globalfoodsecurity.

by Matt Jones

Death to car culture

If you’re looking for a dramatic way to express your distaste for that ubiquitous 20th century invention which, for all intents and purposes, promises to help kill us all via smog, climate change, respiratory ailments and the like, then perhaps the Die-In taking place Monday, September 22 (which happens to be “In Town Without My Car Day”) at Phillips Square at 5:30 p.m. is just the thing for you.

“The Die-In is a symbolic, theatrical event like the bed-ins John and Yoko did for peace in the 1960s,” says event co-organizer Claudine Gascon. “Except here, participants mimic being dead at the intersection of two streets. What we’re expressing is just how damaging car culture is to public health.”

And sure, while driving your idiotic Cadillac Escalade is undoubtedly the most convenient, comfortable way to get your fat ass to the mall or the kids to hockey practice, remember, road accidents kill some 600–700 people every year in Quebec—not to mention the 1,500 annual deaths attributed to atmospheric pollution. But how’s this for a statistic: in Montreal, roughly five pedestrians are injured in car accidents every single day. Yikes!

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

by Chris Barry

Growing a green soul

If you want to save the planet and re-connect with your soul at the same time, this weekend’s Montreal-Shift event may be the place to do it. Beginning Friday, Sept. 19 and running through to Sunday, the inaugural event is being billed as a “weekend of skill-sharing and discussion on sustainability,” with a spiritual twist, says co-organizer Cameron Stiff.

Saturday’s workshops range from making jewellery out of recycled material to meditation and yoga. Sunday will feature a “more theoretical discussion with a focus on spirituality.”

The focus on the non-material is thanks largely to the event’s other organizer, the local Baha’i Centre, but don’t expect to be bombarded with Zoroastrian propaganda. The non-denominational weekend is meant to explain “how different religious traditions are responding to the environmental crisis,” says Stiff, a longtime environmental activist and community organizer.

Over the past few years of work, he says, he’s noticed a “huge lack” of spirituality among campaigners, and how that led to them “not relating to each other in a sustainable way, leading to burnouts or big egos.”

The event will take place at the Baha’i Centre (177 des Pins E.) and at the Montreal House of Friendship (120 Duluth E.). Visit www.montrealshift.com for more info.

by Patrick Lejtenyi

Rear-view mirror

16 YEARS AGO - SEPT. 17–24, 1992

On the cover: A collage of words like “Media,” “On the cheap,” “Disabled,” “AIDS+HIV,” etc. for the Survivor’s Guide. Categories for listings run from “Addiction” to “Bazaars.”
•The page seven photo shows a protester supporting controversial death row inmate Mumia Abu-Jamal outside the U.S. consulate.
•Management at the Alexis Nihon HMV are keeping reggae and rap CDs behind the counter due to fears of theft. Oren Bristol of black youth group AKAX says, “I have a hard time believing only rap music gets stolen.”
•Cameron Crowe calls his film Singles, a series of nine vignettes set against the Seattle music scene, “a visual music piece. … It’s like having various band members sing different songs.”
•Richard Bird offers tips on listening to grindcore, ahead of a Napalm Death show. “Focus on the pulsing, chugging and grinding of the guitars, because if you try bopping your head to the breakneck-speed drum beat, you’re going to, um, break your neck.”
•In the Female Persuasions column, Karen Herland writes about being stuck on a Montreal-Toronto train ride just as her period starts, and her without a tampon.

Angel >> Integrating foreign workers Canadians, and especially Quebecers, are constantly complaining about shortages in the medical industry. So the province, finally, is getting around to integrating foreign specialists into the workforce. It’s investing $2-million into 11 programs designed to inform and re-train immigrants according to provincial norms. Among the expected beneficiaries are dental hygienists, pharmacists, psychologists, midwives, chemists and agronomists. Recently arrived pharmacists, for example, will take a 17-month course affiliated with UdeM, including a four-month internship, in order to become fully qualified to work here. The program follows the recommendations of this year’s Bouchard-Taylor report, which said one top government priority must be to better recognize foreign-trained specialists.


Insect >>The Champlain bridge It’s old, ugly, constantly congested and now, according to Radio-Canada, it’s about to fall into the river. An investigation into the state of the busiest bridge in Canada—57 million vehicles cross it every year—revealed that corrosion has eaten away at some of its supporting girders, and three different reports say that they need immediate attention. One recommends replacing the bridge entirely. The corrosion in some parts is so bad, another says, that it’s difficult to inspect just how severe the damage is. The federal government, which is responsible for the Champlain and Jacques-Cartier bridges, is saying the bridge is safe, even though they found a metre-sized hole in a girder.