Quote of the week

“It wasn’t fun anymore—we were traumatized.”—Mathilde Léger, one of 28 people rescued from the Monster rollercoaster at La Ronde on Monday, when one of the cars stalled at the top of the 24-year-old wooden structure, in Tuesday’s Journal de Montréal.

Reflecting on Haiti and human rights

Haiti is on the agenda this week as the UN’s independent expert on human rights for Haiti, Michel Forst, comes to town to discuss his forthcoming report for the UN Human Rights Council.

“We’ve invited him to speak to the diaspora here in Montreal, and also to decision-makers in Ottawa,” says Lauren Ravon, regional officer for the Americas for Rights & Democracy.

Fresh off a visit to the impoverished island nation, Forst will be joined by Denise Gagnon of the Fédération des travailleurs et travailleuses du Québec, who will address the issue of labour rights. “In the past, UN human rights experts for Haiti focused on civil and political rights,” says Ravon. “This new independent expert is focusing on social, economic and cultural rights. His key message is that without attacking the problems of right to food, right to water and right to housing, all the progress that has been made regarding political stability and greater security is threatened.”

Forst and Gagnon speak at the Centre d’archives de Montréal (535 Viger E.), on Monday, May 25, 7 p.m., free. For more info, call (514) 283-6073 (x282).

CHRISTOPHER HAZOU

Safer
shooting

While it might seem among the most obvious things a government could do to support a healthy populace—so long as it isn’t taking place in your own backyard, of course—Quebec remains a land with no supervised injection sites where IV drug enthusiasts can shoot up.

Regardless of how you feel about junkies in general, one certainly needn’t be a drug addict to appreciate the benefits of such facilities. Think about it the next time you’re walking through the park and step on a dirty syringe, or, for that matter, the next time you find yourself in the company of a constantly itchy, jaundice-skinned streetwalker only to notice, once the act is completed, that your condom has broken.

A touchy issue politically, the struggle to see supervised injection facilities realized in Quebec continues with the Coalition de réduction des méfaits having submitted a 5,000-signature petition to the National Assembly earlier this week.

“There’d been some positive interest in pursuing the idea until a year ago,“ reports marijuana rights activist Marc-Boris St-Maurice, “but now, with Yves Bolduc, the new health minister, momentum has slowed considerably. We’re hoping this petition will help stimulate interest and push the issue forward again.” To get involved, go to coalitionrdm.org/

CHRIS BARRY

Multiculti
musical benefit

If you’ve been hurting for a healthy fix of multiculturalism, then you need look no further than the benefit gig in support of DESTA’s adult education program, going down next Thursday, May 28, at Il Motore (179 Jean-Talon W.), for $12 in advance, $15 at the door.

DESTA was founded in 2006 as an outreach initiative in Little Burgundy, and its adult education program serves black and Native youth between the ages of 18 and 25.

“[DESTA] has been developing a partnership with the Native Friendship Centre lately so we thought it would be great to include Samian on the bill—he’s a politically engaged Métis who raps in French and Algonquin, offering up hip hop that’s true to his community,” says event organizer Dave Dumouchel.

But should Algonquin hip hop somehow not be multicultural enough for you, also on the bill will be Nomadic Massive (last week’s Mirror cover stars), a collective of independent hip hop artists who do their thing in English, French, Arabic, Spanish and Creole. For more information, go to destanetwork.ca.

CHRIS BARRY

Politics
under stars

Canada the good and brave has got some nasty skeletons in the closet, according to two local filmmakers screening documentaries that expose the unsavoury side of our foreign policy and Alberta’s tar sands.

Myths for Profit: Canada’s Role in Industries of War and Peace takes aim at one do-gooder notion after another, criticizing Canadian peace-keeping missions, aid policies and development projects for being motivated by little more than profit or power.

“Unbeknownst to most Canadians, who are conditioned to think ‘all is fine,’ the government and big business use people for their own ends,” says director Amy Miller, just back from a 43-screening, nine-week, cross-country tour. “Whether it was from teenagers, pensioners or soldiers themselves, we kept hearing that it was about time for a film on this subject.”

The screening, outdoors at 2033 St-Laurent on Wednesday, May 27, 8 p.m., also features Shannon Walsh’s H2Oil, which crams the full litany of complaints about the tar sands mega-industry—the water depletion, the enrichment of a few companies at the expense of ecological catastrophe and the poisoning of First Nations people in downstream Fort Chipewyan—into little over an hour.

Blankets are recommended. For more info, go to wideopenexposure.com and h2oildoc.com.

MARTIN LUKACS

Rear-view mirror

16 YEARS AGO - MAY 20–27, 1993

On the cover: Ian Halperin, controversial student journalist turned busker, who would later write a series of scandalous books about celebrities. After bumming around England and South Africa, Halperin returned to Montreal and formed a band, State of Emergency. “I feel I must survive as a musician. I don’t want to have a day job. Unfortunately—for musicians—busking is looked down on here.”
•Peter Scowen rips into journalists’ poor penmanship, proposing a “war” between Montreal’s anglo publications. Newspapers “should despise each other,” he writes, and “be prepared to sacrifice all norms of civilized behaviour as they tear at each other’s throats. To the readers go the spoils.”
•Tunisian-Canadian Abdelhamid Gmati comments on anglo-rights advocates the Equality Party, whose demise is forecast due to the Liberals’ plan to “water down” Quebec’s sign law: “I don’t know if a single-issue party that defends only one minority in Quebec…contributes to democracy.”
•Under the logo: “Published by and for apathetic condescending SOBs,” a reference to former prime minister Kim Campbell’s comment about the politically disengaged masses.

Angel >> Trannie rights The NDP’s critic for LGBT issues, Bill Siksay, has introduced a private members’ bill to protect transgender and transsexual Canadians in the Human Rights Act and the Criminal Code. “Gender identity or expression” would be added to the list of prohibited grounds for discrimination in the former, and as distinguishing characteristics protected under the hate crime and sentencing section of the latter. It’s the third time Siksay has tabled this bill, which died twice due to Parliamentary dissolution and prorogation. If this minority government holds until fall, and barring interference from the Cons, the third time could be the charm.

Insect >>Gay rights, with a catch Alberta’s proposed Bill 44 will finally codify gay rights in the province 11 years after the Supreme Court dealt with the issue on a national level. But Bill 44 also allows parents to pull their kids out of classes dealing with “touchy” subjects—the provincial caucus admits that this measure is meant to placate conservatives who are upset over gay rights coming to Alberta. Parents will have to be forewarned of any potentially offensive material, meaning teachers could find themselves before human rights tribunals for allowing class conversations to go there, wherever parents deem “there” to be.