Quote of the week

“It’s an astounding achievement.”—David Suzuki, giving props to Québécois for lowering the province’s total greenhouse gas emissions for the fourth straight year. An Environment Department study found that it’s the initiative of individuals, not industries, that has made the difference.

Prison pin-ups

Under outgoing U.S. President Bush’s reign, attention to the world’s political prisoners was largely relegated to those in Axis of Evil countries and their sometime allies in the Caribbean. But with the Bush era closed, a group in Montreal is working with activists in New York City to try to bring some focus to the U.S.’s own substantial prison population.

On Monday, Nov. 10, the Certain Days Collective is holding an evening of art and literature at le Cagibi (5490 St-Laurent) in support of political prisoners around the world, especially those in the United States.

“Many activists from the civil rights movement, from Black Panthers to anti-war and anti-imperialist organizers, have been in prison for as long as 30 years. They still have so much to offer, and even as we ask for their freedom, we also try to raise their voices in our everyday lives,” says Sara Falconer of Certain Days.

The event will see the launch of the group’s annual Freedom for Political Prisoners Calendar, which, at 42 pages, is chock-a-block with enough prisoner justice art and poetry to see you through a 3.5-year stretch in the pen.

See www.certaindays.org for details.

Radio bash

Only three days after the U.S. presidential blowout, Democracy Now! radio show host and indie media icon Amy Goodman returns to Montreal to deliver a keynote lecture, “Independent Media on War and Elections.” The talk is part of the 25th anniversary celebration of the World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters’ (AMARC).

“The first global conference on community radio was held here in August, 1983, at UQàM,” says AMARC Secretary-General Marcelo Solervicens. “From there it evolved into a permanent association of community radio stations.”

Today AMARC counts 4,000 members in more than 100 countries, and community radio has become a powerful tool for progressives and social activists, particularly in the developing world. “We can’t say that we created it, but we are part of an international movement that has created a third kind of radio, different from public, government-funded, and commercial radio,” Solervicens says. “We want listeners to participate in the programming. That’s the key element of community radio.”

Community radio operators from around the globe will converge on the McGill campus for the symposium this Friday, Nov. 7. Goodman’s talk, which is free and open to the public, takes place at the Leacock Auditorium (855 Sherbrooke W., #132) at 7 p.m.

For more info, call (514) 448-4041 (x6788) or visit www.amarc.org.

by CHRISTOPHER HAZOU

Mining is the pits

Mining companies have long found Canada the place to do business—57 per cent of the world’s public mining companies are listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange alone, financed to the tune of $17-billion in 2007.

The Dominion, a grassroots national media cooperative, wants to start the conversation about destruction left in the industry’s wake with “State of Mine,” a 60-page special investigative issue to be launched with a special event next Thursday, Nov. 13 at Casa del Popolo (4873 St-Laurent), at 5 p.m.

“Whether it’s indigenous people thrown in jail for blocking strip-mining on their land in Northern Ontario, Guatemalan villages razed to the ground or a genocidal war fueled by Western mineral lust in the Congo, the consequences of Canadian mining should be of concern to all Canadians” says Dominion editor Dru Oja Jay.

The Dominion’s last special issue on Alberta’s tar sands drew rave reviews from politicians such as NDP leader Jack Layton, as well as Canadian author Naomi Klein, who wrote that the fledgling magazine has “the guts to look at Canada without the fairytales about our national virtue that comfort and blind us.”

Free copies can be downloaded at www.dominionpaper.ca.

by MARTIN LUKACS

Street smarts and sustainability

For the better part of five years, the University of the Streets Café has been quietly fostering dialogue on a broad range of topics in an effort to engage and educate the public on important issues. “It breaks this idea that you have to be an expert to have an opinion,” says the Café’s coordinator, Elizabeth Hunt. “By creating a space where people can both hear from an expert and take part in conversation, you’re letting different kinds of knowledge surface, creating a more democratic way of learning.”

The Café has two conversations scheduled this week, both under the banner of “Building a Culture of Sustainability.” Tonight, Thursday, Nov. 6, taxation and the public good will be addressed with, “What role do taxes play in creating the commons?,” featuring speaker Kim Klein. This will be followed on Monday, Nov. 10, by “Can we teach (and not preach) new ways of sustainable living?” with speakers Geeta Nadkarni, environment columnist for CBC News, and green engineer Mitchell Leckner. Both take place at Concordia’s EV Building (1515 Ste-Catherine W., #2.260), 7–9 p.m., free. For more info, visit www.univcafe.org.

by CHRISTOPHER HAZOU

Rear-view mirror

15 YEARS AGO - NOV. 4–11, 1993

On the cover: “Exiles on the Main,” namely local writers Dany Laferrière, David Fennario, Ann Diamond and Jacob Richler, weighing in on what the future holds for Montreal following the previous week’s federal election, in which the Bloc Québécois swept the province for the first time.
•Inappropriate Behaviour! columnist Josh Bezonsky witnesses a pair of Leafs fans being expelled from the Forum, not for their team affiliation, but for offending Brian Mulroney (and his “Fort Knox-size security team”) with Doug Henning/Natural Law party placards. “The home of the Habs does not believe in freedom of expression,” writes Bezonsky, “at least when former prime ministers are in attendance.”
•Infamous anime film Legend of the Overfiend “makes cinematic history,” says Matthew Hays, for depicting a lesbian rapist who “transforms into a huge, hulking monster, erupting with tens of phallic testicles which are then thrust down the victim’s every orifice.” That’s not all! “There is premature ejaculation, masturbation, 69, a toe job” and all manner of violent sexual attacks. The plot of this “unapologetically misogynist” film is, he adds, “beside the point.”

Angel >>CKOI’s “Masked Avengers” Whether or not they had any impact on the American electorate—adding to an already high stack of evidence that Sarah Palin is a dim bulb—CKOI DJs Sébastien Trudel and Marc-Antoine Audette, aka les Justiciés Masqués, gave a welcome local spin to the U.S. presidential election story last weekend. Playing the roles of French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his aide, they kept Palin on the phone for six minutes, baiting her with Talking to Americans-style misinformation, asking her out on a hunting date (“Mmm, mmm, take away life, that is so fun,” said Audette) and commending her “documentary,” Hustler’s Nailin’ Paylin’. The befuddled Alaska governor was said to be “mildly amused” by the prank, which made international news.

Insect >>David Frum As the author of W’s infamous “axis of evil” speech, David Frum is Canada’s neocon shame. Although he’s been critical of his beloved GOP, from Bush to Palin, Frum continued to embarrass himself in recent weeks by endorsing John McCain on a series of U.S. talk shows. In his National Post editorial this week, Frum claimed that McCain has more character due to the suffering he experienced as a POW in Vietnam, despite what has otherwise been a life of privilege. By contrast, Obama has had it easy, he says, even though he “wears a black skin and carries an exotic name.” His mother continues to spin in her grave.