Quote of the week

“Today, I get my right to speak back.” —Former Union Montreal councillor Josée Duplessis, who quit the mayor’s party to join Projet Montréal. Duplessis, one of seven Plateau borough councillors, complained that party politics prohibited her from voting according to her conscience.

Canada the evil

Author and activist Yves Engler seeks to dispel some cherished national myths with his latest, The Black Book of Canadian Foreign Policy, which launches this Sunday, May 3, at le Divan Orange (4234 St-Laurent), at 5 p.m. “I hope it makes a contribution to helping people see Canada’s role in the world in a more honest or critical way,” he says.

According to Engler, Canadian foreign policy, including our much-vaunted peacekeeping missions, has been motivated less by altruism than a desire to expand Canadian and American power.

As if to lend credence to his assertion that many Canucks are in denial when it comes to our government’s actions abroad, several well-known Canadian lefties declined his request to supply a blurb for the book jacket. So he turned southward, where American left-wing icon Noam Chomsky was happy to provide a glowing recommendation. “A lot of Canadian lefties consider Canada unimportant, so they spend more time writing about U.S. foreign policy,” says Engler.

For those who can’t make it Sunday, Engler also speaks the following day, Monday, May 4, at Concordia’s School of Community and Public Affairs (2149 Mackay) at 7 p.m. For more info, visit blackbook.foreignpolicy.ca.

Christopher Hazou

Sex as labour

Montreal’s sex workers’ advocacy group Stella is launching a work-themed edition of its magazine ConStellation on May Day, to remind folks that practitioners of the world’s oldest profession still have a ways to go to win recognition of their labour rights.

The magazine will be available free for sex workers, $15 for others, at a party thrown by Cirque de Boudoir at Academy (4445 St-Laurent) with DJ Frigid, Plastik Patrik and the Dead Doll dancers, at 9 p.m.

Stella spokesperson Émilie Laliberté says the edition, made by sex workers and featuring interviews and health, safety and business tips, is an essential guide for practitioners of a dangerous trade made all the more difficult by government criminalization.

“It makes sense to launch it on May Day, because we want rights like other workers,” she says. “We want our labour to be recognized by governments, unions and labour boards, so we can set out safety standards and protect ourselves against exploitation and violence.”

Laliberté says Canada’s labour and human rights standards lag behind other countries. In the U.K., Argentina and India, sex workers have official trade unions, while New Zealand’s decriminalization of the trade has led to improved work conditions.

For more info, see chezstella.org.

Martin Lukacs

No fly limbo

The campaign to bring Montrealer Abousfian Abdelrazik home from Sudan, where he’s been stranded in a nightmarish ordeal lasting nearly six years, ratchets up next week as his lawyers go to court to force the federal government to issue the documents he needs to travel. “We’re pretty sure the court will rule in his favour,” says Project Fly Home’s Sara Todd. “But that doesn’t mean the government will act.”

On Monday, May 4, demonstrations will take place in a half-dozen cities across the country, including Ottawa, where a contingent of Montrealers will join a rally outside the Prime Minister’s office. Organizers are urging the public to contact Minister of Foreign Affairs Lawrence Cannon and PM Stephen Harper to voice their concern.

Abdelrazik was detained by the Sudanese in 2003 at the request of CSIS, who suspected him of having terrorist connections. While in prison, he says he was repeatedly beaten and tortured. He’s since been cleared by Canadian and Sudanese officials, but has been unable to travel because he remains on a UN no-fly list. He’s been living in the Canadian embassy in Khartoum for the past year.

To catch a ride to Ottawa or for more info, e-mail projectflyhome@gmail.com or visit peoplescommission.org/abdelrazik.php.

Christopher Hazou

Walk with Jane

In the two short years since Toronto community do-gooder Jane Jacobs founded her initial Jane’s Walk tours, her idea of strengthening community ties by getting citizens together for informal walking tours of their city’s neighbourhoods has spread to numerous burgs across the continent. And this year, on Saturday, May 2 and Sunday, May 3, Montreal will be one of them.

“Jane’s walks are meant to be fun and participatory”, says Gessica Gropp, community organizer for the Montreal Urban Ecology Centre. “They’re all about local citizens giving free informational walks in different Montreal neighbourhoods, walks that promote community development. In Toronto, Jane Jacobs championed the interests of local residents and pedestrians over a car-centred approach to planning and made the case for refurbishing old buildings rather than tearing them down. This is the type of sentiment we’d like to see reflected in the Montreal walks this year.”

If you’ve got a few thoughts, observations, anecdotes of local lore or just feel like guiding your fellow citizens through a Montreal neighbourhood you care about, the Montreal Urban Ecology Centre is looking for you. To lead a tour or participate in one contact Gropp at gessica@ecologieurbaine.net or at (514) 282-8378.

For more information, go to janeswalk.net.

Chris Barry

Rear-view mirror

21 YEARS AGO - APRIL 29–MAY 12, 1988

On the cover: Bouncer Gros Michel’s big belly, for Foufounes Électriques’ fifth anniversary. Interviewing the owners, Marian MacNair “came away with a few slurred stories and a hangover.” “That is Foufounes,” says Gourd. “You come to get a story and instead you get drunk and laugh a lot.”
•In an article headlined “Refugees refused,” “Pedro Ramos,” a Salvadoran journalist living in Montreal under an assumed name says, “Any person in El Salvador who asks for work, for justice, is considered a communist.”
•With Australia celebrating its 200th birthday, Midnight Oil drummer Rob Hirst says, “We certainly understand why, in our bicentennial year, Aborigine people were not jumping up and down at the idea of a white celebration of 200 years, which has basically meant their genocide.”
•The CBC is re-running The Prisoner, “Patrick McGoohan’s fascist acid trip,” writes an excited Lynn Suderman.
•Coming to Foufs’ “Shock Art Festival” in May: “Ass-fuckin’, butt-suckin’, cunt-licken masturbation” by “shit artist” GG Allin and “Montreal’s most provocative all-girl band Shlonk.”

Angel >>Former Republican Senator Arlen Specter The 29-year U.S. Senate veteran joined 200,000 of his fellow Pennsylvanians this week by finally ditching the increasingly paranoid Republican Party and going Democrat. Saying the GOP had veered too far to the right, Specter announced he was joining the Democratic Party, which could provide them with the critical 60th vote needed to break obstructionist Republican filibustering (provided Al Franken wins in Minnesota). And while he remains a conservative—he still opposes an upcoming legislation that would ease workplace unionizing rules, for example—his distancing from the lunatic fringe might send some sane vibes north that our own Republican-lite government might want to channel.

Insect >>Satirically challenged Saudis Until this week, Faith Fighter, an obscure online Flash-based video game designed by a team in Italy, offered players a chance to engage in a real holy war involving the Old Testament God, Jesus, Buddha, Budai (the Chinese Laughing Buddha), Lord Ganesh and Mohammed beating each other up. “Give vent to your intolerance!” the instructions read. “Religious hate has never been so much fun.” Then dour Saudi mullahs protested, with the Organization of the Islamic Conference calling for the game to be removed. Molleindustria (the game designer) complied, saying their intentions of “starting a serious discussion about social and political implications of video games” were misunderstood.