Quote of the week

“Because discriminatory attitudes and assumptions are so pervasive, it is vital that they be confronted, rather than censored.” —U of Windsor law professor Richard Moon, in a report released Monday recommending the Canadian Human Rights Commission stop trying to ban hate speech online.

Movies, dancing, AIDS

This week, AIDS Community Care Montreal (ACCM) celebrates 20 years of helping people cope with living with the virus, just in time to coincide with World AIDS Day, Dec. 1. “In the early days, our task was mainly responding to the virus as a death sentence. Now, with more people living with HIV and AIDS, there’s more focus on prevention and support,” says ACCM executive director Mark Hapanowicz.

Turning 20, a documentary that tells 20 stories of 20 individuals’ relationships with the organization over 20 years, is being screened on Sunday, Nov. 30 at Concordia’s de Sève Cinema (1400 de Maisonneuve W.) at 2 p.m., for free.

Faggity Ass Fridays also offers perhaps the funkiest way to start the festivities, with their World AIDS Week kick-off Friday, Nov. 28 at the Playhouse (5656 Parc). The weekly queer dance party will be reviving a tradition from the days of underground cruising with an “Ode to the Hanky Code.” Depending what gets your blood flowing, you parade around with a particular coloured hanky in your pocket: grey for bondage, hot pink for spankings and orange for hugs. Details at www.headsandhands.ca.

The main event remains the annual vigil at Parc de l’Espoir (Ste-Catherine and Panet) on Dec. 1 at 7 p.m. Details at www.accmontreal.org.

Women, Bouchard, Taylor

Last winter, we all enjoyed the spectacle as the Bouchard-Taylor commission toured the province, providing a forum for the disgruntled, the bigoted and the just plain dumb. More than six months after Gérard Bouchard and Charles Taylor released their final report, academics and pundits continue to pore over the commission’s entrails. This Friday, Nov. 28, the McGill Centre for Research and Teaching on Women (MCRTW) hosts a daylong seminar, “Feminist Responses to the Bouchard-Taylor Commission,” at McGill’s Leacock Building (855 Sherbrooke W., # 232), at 9 a.m., for free.

“The idea is to bring together different feminist perspectives on both the reasonable accommodation debate in general and the Bouchard-Taylor commission in particular,” says MCRTW member and conference participant Alia Al-Saji. “There isn’t one particular position that one could call feminist. There’s quite a bit of disagreement, so hopefully that will come out throughout the day.”

Along with Al-Saji, participants include Nancy Burrows of the Fédération des femmes du Québec, Samaa Elibyari of the Canadian Council of Muslim Women, Tess Tesalona of the Immigrant Workers Centre and Emilie Connolly and Robyn Maynard of Accommodate This! Registration is required and can be done onsite or online. For more info visit www.mcgill.ca/mcrtw.

by CHRISTOPHER HAZOU

Nothing at Maison verte

Along with other activists in over 65 nations around the world, the Co-op Maison verte will again observe Buy Nothing Day this Sunday, Nov. 30 (actual BND is Nov. 28) to protest against consumerism, right after American Thanksgiving. The cooperatively-run, ecological and fair-trade NDG store is an alternative to the corporate model, says Co-op member Kurt Houghton.

“We want people to consume less, consume better and, whenever possible, buy at la Maison verte,” he adds.

Houghton notes that the no-buying rule will be in full effect at the event, to which the covered shelves and cash register will attest. And what if someone has an emergency or desperately needs laundry detergent? “We will smile and say, ‘Sorry, but we really are closed today,’ and offer them a free coffee,” Houghton says.

La Maison verte is also quietly celebrating their eighth birthday, but the focus will be mostly on Buy Nothing Day activities. They’ll be serving up a big giant cake, SUV-themed piñatas for the kiddies to trash, free coffee as well as musical performances by Lake of Stew, Charlotte Cornfield and the Swift Years. The day runs from noon–5 p.m. at 5785 Sherbrooke W. (corner Melrose).

by LINA HARPER

City in action

From Wednesday, Nov. 26 until April 19, the Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA) will be presenting an exhibition called “Actions: What You Can Do With the City,” focusing on 97 actions that can instigate positive change in contemporary cities around the world.

“Basically,” says CCA curator for Contemporary Architecture Giovanna Borasi, “we see this exhibition as a way of introducing a shift in the way we use the city, so we picked four different actions that we felt were part of the everyday urban experience: gardening, recycling, walking and playing, and focused on them as ways of re-thinking how we use public space.”

Featuring international contemporary architectural projects, design concepts, research studies, and “ideas conveyed through a range of materials including architectural drawings, photographs [including work by Mirror photog Rachel Granofsky], videos, publications, artifacts and Web sites,” the exhibition will place particular emphasis on the tools used by activists to get their messages heard.

The exhibition will be open Wednesday to Sunday, 10 a.m.–5 p.m. and on Thursdays from 10 a.m.–9 p.m. Admission is $10 for adults and $5 for students, except for Thursdays after 5:30 p.m. when admission is free. For more information, call (514) 939-7026 or go to www.cca-actions.org.

by CHRIS BARRY

Rear-view mirror

10 YEARS AGO - NOV. 26–DEC. 3, 1998

On the cover: Kiss, playing a “3D show” at the Molson Centre. “Everybody that buys a ticket gets a pair of polarized glasses,” says Ace Frehley. “Plus, we have a live 3D camera. It’s awesome, awesome. It’s everything we’ve done in the past and a lot, lot more.”
•Ahead of the upcoming provincial elections, the Mirror polls local artists on who they’re planning to vote for. “It doesn’t matter who the hell is in power. It’s the same bullshit over and over again,” says playwright Vittorio Rossi. “I find [both the Liberals and the PQ] equally heinous,” says filmmaker Josephine Mackay. “I find it’s a matter of picking between two evils and it insults me,” says Tricky Woo’s Andrew Dickson.
•Matthew Hays rates the sex appeal of “various directors I met over the past few months.” Vincenzo Natali: “Italian stud of babe-like proportions.” Stanley Tucci: “the kind of guy who’d really be supportive of an hysterical mate.” John Maybury: “Hubba hubba!” Rose Troche: “One foxy dyke dish.”
•Under the logo: “Vote Frehley!

Angel >>Nailing spammers Adam Guerbuez, a 32-year-old Montrealer whose name has previously appeared in the Mirror connected to a white power murder trial and a vile Bumfights-style video business, is now close to a billion dollars in debt, thanks to a recent lawsuit against him by Facebook. He was found guilty of using the social networking site to distribute some four million spam messages to Facebook users—he got the required Facebook passwords and login information via various phishing methods and third parties to bombard users with e-mails offering the usual bogus products. Facebook likely won’t collect the money, but the company is hoping the decision will be a powerful deterrent to future spammers.

Insect >>Tearing down beloved landmarks Senneville’s eccentric, century-plus-old fieldstone Morgan tower is slated for demolition, courtesy of the prissy Senneville village council. Built originally by a castle-and-ruins-besotted James Morgan following a European tour, the former water pumping station is not just a cool structure, but also the site of many a good time for generations of hard-partying West Island teens with heads full of acid (according to a certain Senneville-raised editor of a certain local alt weekly). George McLeish, the suburb’s dour mayor, missed the point completely when he complained (as if it was a bad thing) that, “partying around it and climbing to the top of it has become a rite of passage.” West Island teen culture will be poorer with the tower’s passing