Quote of the week

“You won’t be surprised to hear that I won’t be leading my party during the next general election in Quebec.” —Mario Dumont, announcing his resignation following Monday’s ADQ election night massacre.

Housing
and Khadir

Amir Khadir’s electoral victory on Monday is good news for all of the province’s lefties, but has a special resonance for the Front d’action populaire en réaménagement urbain (FRAPRU), an umbrella organization fighting for cheap social housing across the province. Khadir’s Québec solidaire party had vowed to fight for the construction of 50,000 new units of affordable housing over five years, and having that kind of voice in the National Assembly, says FRAPRU’s Jean-Claude Laporte, will put pressure on the other parties to act.

“We never took an official position [endorsing any particular party], but there is no doubt this is good news,” Laporte says. “We’re happy to see this kind of political engagement, and having a different voice in the National Assembly is nice, especially considering it’s a progressive voice.”

Still, the group was impressed with commitments made by both the Liberals and the Parti Québécois to build 3,000 units a year over five years. “I haven’t seen commitments made like that in, oh, centuries,” he chuckles.

FRAPRU maintains a policy of strict electoral neutrality but, during every campaign, hands each party a note outlining their position and their perceived needs regarding social housing in Quebec.

Dealing
with debt

Mounting personal debt is always bad, but this year in particular, things are looking grim for people living on the edge of poverty. According to France Boisclair, at l’Association coopérative d’économie familiale (ACEF) du Sud-Ouest de Montréal, a consumer protection organization serving the city’s residents in the southwestern parts of the island, registration for their monthly debt-servicing workshop is skyrocketing—so much so that they have been turning people away.

“We had to start offering the workshop in English,” says Boisclair, when asked how the current economic crisis is affecting registration. “Before, we would only offer one in French. And they are both full for this month.”

The workshops offer the 20 participants various methods of managing their debts, other than going through the bank. Speaking in general terms, the groups go over the list of potential solutions, examine each one’s pros and cons and determine which is the best for their own personal situation. Individual consultations and budget planning are also offered.

“We see people who have fallen into a trap they didn’t see coming,” says Boisclair. “We see mostly credit card debt, government debt and student loans. But credit cards are the worst.”

For info on registering, call (514) 362-1771.

by PATRICK LEJTENYI

NGOs for status quo

Most people think of community groups and non-governmental organizations as being agents of progressive social change. Some local critics, though, argue that they’ve become part of a system that helps to maintain the status quo. “Many community-based organizations have become subcontracted state service organizations,” says Concordia prof and author Eric Shragge. “They don’t have a radical change agenda at all. They don’t organize people to build power and to challenge the system.”

Shragge and his fellow lefty activists at the Rad School community group present a free workshop, “The Bureaucratization/Professionalization of Social Change or, What the F**k Are We Doing?” tonight, Thursday, Dec. 11, at McGill’s East Asian Studies building (3434 McTavish), from 6–9 p.m. “It’s more of a reflective discussion of the contradiction between these groups acting as organizations of social control and containment and also being places for attempts to build opposition and challenge ruling relations,” Shragge says.

Participants will include activists Aziz Choudry, Nik Barry-Shaw and Anna Louise Crago. Their remarks will be followed by an open discussion and potluck dinner, which Shragge urges attendees to contribute to.

For more info, e-mail theradschool@gmail.com.

by CHRISTOPHER HAZOU

Worm love

What’s not to love about composting? It spares the environment nasty global warming gases, the fertilizer it produces is the absolute best for growing reefer—or anything, for that matter—and, if you’re like this reporter and have a vermicompost residing somewhere under the kitchen sink, the relationship you develop with your worm colony after a few months is similar to one you may have with a cat or dog, except you don’t have to walk your worms and the shit they produce is a commodity to cherish, rather than something to leave behind for your neighbours to walk in.

On Thursday, Dec. 11 at 7 p.m. at Bar St-Laurent 2 (5550 St-Laurent), the folks behind Éco-Quartier Jeanne Mance and Mile End/Tourne-Sol Community Composting Centre will be throwing a fundraising bash featuring, among others, Nathalie Locas, Hugh Manatee Party, Bat Masterson and the Superstitions, in an effort to raise cash to keep their community compost project alive. “Tourne-Sol is outside our Éco-Quartier mandate,” says Blandine Vallée, the centre’s assistant coordinator. “It’s a separate entity, which is why we need private donations to keep doing it. But it’s very productive—last year we diverted five tons of waste from landfills.”

Admission is a suggested donation between $7 and $15.

by CHRIS BARRY

Rear-view mirror

12 YEARS AGO - DEC. 12–19, 1996

On the cover: Gordon McCall, taking control of the Centaur theatre company. “I want to reach out to the spectator—but not at the expense of good art,” he says.
•Terry Haig gleefully awaits the public humiliation of former NHL Players’ Association president and “one of Canada’s all-time creeps” Alan Eagleson, who faces 32 charges in the U.S. for fraud, embezzlement and racketeering, eight counts of fraud and theft in Canada and sundry other lawsuits against him.
•“Out,” according to the Mirror’s 1996 Arts Annual: “Bass, drums, guitar,” “PJ Harvey,” “post-rock,” “Britpop.”
• “In:” “Drum ’n’ bass,” “DJ Spooky,” “electronica,” “Brithop.”
• Reviewing the year in film, Joanne Latimer singles out two for high praise. “1996 gave the family values film-goers some thorns for their sides. If only Crash had some plot between the sex. If only Mark Renton wasn’t such an articulate and charismatic heroin addict, went the dish on Trainspotting. Whatever.”
• Johnson Cummins declares Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain’s oral history of punk Please Kill Me the year’s best read

Angel >> The new-look National Assembly Monday’s election was gratifying, despite the low turnout, voter apathy and general pointlessness of the exercise. Right-wing populist Mario Dumont’s Action Démocratique du Québec took a thumpin’, reduced from 41 seats and official opposition status to a miserable seven. According to National Assembly rules, it no longer has official party status, and Dumont is stepping down from the leadership of the party he created. The election also saw a new party, left-wing Québec solidaire, win the Plateau’s Mercier riding. QS doesn’t have official party status either, but Amir Khadir’s victory will at least draw attention to some pressing issues facing the province, and steer the discussion, with luck, in a more progressive direction.

Insect >>Weather “professionals” Who knew Montreal was about to be walloped this week by its first serious snowstorm of the year, other than a few prescient office poolers? Not the population at large, that’s for sure, judging by the traffic chaos that gummed up the works Tuesday. As late as Tuesday evening, bafflingly optimistic weather prognosticators were still predicting a mere couple of centimeters of snow. And Wednesday would be positively balmy. These unaccountable, faux-jolly pseudo-scientists have lulled us into inaction and complacency far too often. The people deserve an explanation!