Quote of the week

“I will do everything in my power to ensure it doesn’t happen.” —Mayor Gérald Tremblay, vowing to never let the Montreal Canadiens move out of the city. Pierre Boivin, president of the currently sucking team, admitted American owner George Gillett is considering selling off parts of his sports and entertainment empire, including the Habs.

Getting
Galloway in

Organizers of British MP George Galloway’s Canadian speaking tour filed an emergency injunction in an Ontario court this week in an attempt to reverse Citizenship and Immigration Canada’s decision to bar the outspoken politician from the country.

Originally, the government said it based its decision on Galloway’s statements about the war in Afghanistan, but has since claimed it was due to alleged financial support for Hamas, a charge he denies.

Laith Marouf, national branches co-coordinator of Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights, says the charges are “ridiculous.” “His delivery of medicine, ambulances and fire trucks to Palestinians living under siege in Gaza is the reason they’ve banned him.”

Marouf says preparations are going ahead for Galloway’s scheduled appearance at Concordia’s Hall Building (1455 de Maisonneuve W.) on April 1, 7 p.m., $10–$20.

Galloway, who’s drawn fire over the years for his flamboyant, sometimes clownish behaviour, is currently in the U.S., where he had no problem gaining entry. If legal manoeuvres fail, supporters will try to escort him across the border into Quebec on March 30. If that doesn’t work, he’ll deliver an online address live to universities across the country the same day. For more info visit sphr.org.

by Christopher Hazou

Lights out for Earth

From its humble origins in Sydney, Australia, only two years ago, as the glaciers melt, the oceans rise, capitalism crumbles and the end of days nears, the World Wildlife Fund’s [WWF] Earth Hour initiative has spread to some 2,140 cities in 82 countries with more burgs jumping on the eco-bandwagon all the time, our beloved Montreal being one of them. So this Saturday, March 28, at 8 p.m., when you notice that the cross atop Mount Royal, the floodlights illuminating City Hall and the eminently purposeful Place Ville Marie searchlight have all been extinguished, don’t cry out to Jehovah that Armageddon is finally upon us—it’s more likely just your fellow citizens doing their symbolic thing for the environment.

If you’d like to play your part in postponing Doomsday an extra week or two, then you might want to consider turning out the lights and any “non-essential appliances” in your digs as well, maybe even tell your neighbours why you’re doing it and let them know it’s high time they also got eco-righteous.

Says Tara Wood of the WWF, “Do it to show your support for action on climate change. There are small steps each of us can take every day that add up to make a huge difference.”

by Chris Barry

Land, loss and war

March 30 is Land Day in Palestine, commemorating protests that took place in February 1976 after Israel issued a decree to seize new areas between Palestinian villages in Galilee. During the ensuing protests and a general strike, six demonstrators were killed by the Israeli Defense Forces.

The Coalition for Justice and Peace in Palestine (CJPP) is marking the occasion by planting an olive tree outside the Israeli Consulate (corner Greene and Ste-Catherine W.) on Monday, March 30 at 5:30 p.m. then heading over to the Atwater Library (1200 Atwater) at 7 p.m. to hear Montreal activist/photographer Ehab Lotayef’s eyewitness report about his recent trip to Gaza.

“Besides depicting the destruction from the [most recent] invasion, I also documented the people. They have a strong will to exist and not be defeated,” says Lotayef.

But behind this determination, there’s a lot of pain. “Social workers I talked to are really afraid of the pain that’s buried in people’s psyches. It’s really hard to look at a young boy, younger than 14, who tells you he lost four friends in the war and doesn’t want to make any friends anymore because he could lose them,” he says.

For details of the event and photos, see lotayef.com.

by Matt Jones

Lefties vs. G20

The lefties, trade unions and various other non-moneyed folk of the world will be demonstrating and hollering for a different way to run the world when the leaders of the rich G20 nations meet in London, England next week. In Montreal, a demonstration will be held in front of the Guy Favreau Complex, the Canadian federal government’s Montreal home. Among other things, says Claude Vaillancourt of ATTAC-Québec, the demo’s organizer, will be calls for a reformed taxation system and broader, more democratic consultations when it comes to international agreements on trade, labour and the environment.

“The idea of worldwide demonstrations on March 28 came out of the World Social Forum in Belem, Brazil, in January,” Vaillancourt says. “We don’t consider the G20 legitimate, for two reasons. First, they don’t represent all countries—the last time I looked, there were more than 20 countries in the world. And second, the majority of the leaders who will be there are the ones whose policies led to the crisis.”

Vaillancourt says he isn’t expecting much to come out of the G20 meeting April 2. “It will be all half-measures that will solve nothing,” he says.

The demo takes place at René-Lévesque W. and Bleury on Saturday, March 28 at 1:30 p.m. See quebec.attac.org for more info.

by Patrick Lejtenyi

Rear-view mirror

11 YEARS AGO - MARCH 26–APRIL 2, 1998

On the cover: Lucien Bouchard portrayed as a pirate (complete with peg leg) and Pierre Bourque as a penniless barrel-wearer, as Philip Preville investigates Quebec’s fleecing of a politically neutered Montreal. “[Municipal Affairs Minister] Rémy Trudel is now the mayor of Montreal,” says veteran city councillor Marvin Rotrand.
•David Kirchgessner of skacore band Mustard Plug has this to say about the annual Sno Jam mini-fest: “The funny thing is, this Sno Jam coincides not only with the whole springtime new age rebirth, but also with the moonbeam in the seventh plane of Jupiter.”
•With Grease re-opening for its 20th anniversary, recently out director Randal Kleiser admits to the film’s gay sensibility. “The costumes were Felliiniesque and outrageous. And there are a lot of campy jokes all the way through. [Producer] Allan Carr [who is also gay] put a lot of those things in that simply weren’t part of the play.”
• Insect: James “King of the World!” Cameron, for his “unbridled hubris and crass piety” when accepting his Oscars for Titanic.

Angel >> Chilling in Canada Cleaning up someone else’s mess is always a drag. So when a group of hacks on FOX’s late-night Red Eye show decided to go for some cheap gags at Canadian soldiers’ expense last week, just days before four of them were killed, it naturally struck a chord—so much so that politicians on both sides of the border condemned the show, despite host Greg Gutfeld’s BS apology. His equally clueless guest Doug Benson described Canada as a place to chill if you don’t want to fight. Given the American military’s truly stunning run of successes in Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq, maybe avoiding another pointless, badly led war is a good idea.

Insect >> The death penalty The good news, according to an Amnesty International report issued this week, is the fact that more countries and American states are shelving the death penalty. The bad news? Other countries, notably China, are picking up the slack. There were almost double the number of executions in 2008 (2,390) over 2007 (1,252). As if executing prisoners was another gold medal sport they could win, China snuffed at least 1,718 people last year, accounting for 72 per cent of the global total. China also sentenced to death 7,003 others last year alone. With the number of North Korean executions unavailable, Iran (346), Saudi Arabia (102), the U.S. (37) and Pakistan (36) round out the top five.