Quote of the week

“I don’t want Montreal to be placed on the map with a PQ minister.” —Former Vision Montreal vice-president Oksana Kaluzny, who resigned this week over the party’s decision to install former Péquiste Louise Harel as candidate for mayor in this fall’s municipal elections.

Plateau freshness

As of this weekend, Plateau residents will no longer have to hike it on over to the Atwater or Jean-Talon markets to purchase their fresh, locally grown produce. After “a good year and a half” of bureaucratic wrangling in the valiant effort to acquire the appropriate permits, the Duluth Farmers’ Market will finally be getting underway this Sunday, June 28, in the schoolyard of l’École St-Jean-Baptiste (4265 Laval, corner of Marie-Anne), with an opening day pancake breakfast, country and bluegrass bands, and even a good old fashioned face-painting clown on site to amuse the little ones.

“It’s about time we had a farmers’ market in the Plateau,” says Marché Duluth coordinator Rachel Starr. “It’s ridiculous we haven’t had one to date. We’re urging people to come out to this first one on Sunday because we want the farmers—who are business people, after all—to be as excited about the market as we are. We really want them to feel welcome and become more integrated into our community.”

Starr says the Duluth Farmers’ Market will be open every Sunday from 10 a.m.–4 p.m. until the end of the season, “which will be October most likely, depending on the temperature this year.”

For more information, go to marcheduluth.com.

CHRIS BARRY

No inquest for Anas

Four and a half years after Mohamed Anas Bennis was shot and killed by Montreal police on a Côte-des-Neiges sidewalk, his family is still searching for answers. On Monday, June 29, they head to court to fight a motion filed by the Montreal Police Brotherhood seeking to block a coroner’s inquest into Bennis’s death.

“The fact that they’re going to such great lengths to have this quashed reveals that they have something to hide,” says Samir Shaheen-Hussain of the Justice for Anas Coalition.

The officer who shot Bennis says he acted in self-defence after Bennis attacked him with a knife, but critics charge that proof of the officer’s injuries has never been produced, and that the knife that Bennis allegedly used was never tested for fingerprints. “Anas had no history of [criminal] problems, so for the police to claim that he came out of nowhere and attacked them with a knife raises a lot of questions,” says Shaheen-Hussain.

The motion is scheduled to be heard at the Palais de Justice (1 Notre-Dame E.). The coalition is asking the public to support the Bennis family by attending the hearing and/or a noontime rally in front of the courthouse.

For more information, visit justicepouranas.org.

CHRISTOPHER HAZOU

Crisis on
moving day

With the July 1 moving day rush rapidly approaching, the city has set up a housing hotline (514-868-4002) to answer questions from Montrealers who are having trouble finding a new place to live.

“We’re in an emergency situation again this year,” says François Saillant of housing advocacy group FRAPRU. “A lot of tenants are unable to find an apartment on their own, so they need help from the city.”

Saillant says the economic downturn has compounded what was already a serious housing crisis in Quebec, leaving many people, especially families, unable to find adequate lodging. “People with a modest income are finding it very difficult to find an apartment they can afford,” he says.

The hotline will assist people in finding accommodations, and if that’s not possible, direct them to a temporary shelter. Emergency rent supplements from the province are also available for people who meet certain criteria. The hotline is currently up and running and will remain so until July 10. If the city is unable to help with a problem, Saillant urges people to contact FRAPRU at (514) 522-1010, or local housing advocates in their area.

CHRISTOPHER HAZOU

UQÀM
NIMBYs fest

The annual Festival d’expression de la rue (FER), organized by and for street kids and those who have recently left the streets, used to take place in mid-August at Place Pasteur, on St-Denis and de Maisonneuve. This year’s edition, however, will have to take place elsewhere, since UQÀM, which owns the land, told organizers the spot would be occupied with activities marking the university’s 40th anniversary.

But Bernard St-Jacques, of homeless advocacy group RAPSIM, which offers FER logistical help, says something isn’t right. He says the much bigger and more tourist-friendly Just for Laughs fest will be using the space, and that the university’s fears that the FER will be a polemics hotbed are unjustified.

“In the 12 previous years when the festival has been there, there has never been any serious trouble,” St-Jacques says. “UQÀM is basing its fears on nothing.”

At least there is a silver lining: St-Jacques says that it’s looking increasingly likely the festival will just move a few blocks south and east, to Place de la Paix, on St-Laurent between Ste-Catherine and René-Lévesque. The festival will probably take place the last weekend of August.

PATRICK LEJTENYI

Rear-view mirror

19 YEARS AGO - JUNE 21–28, 1990

On the cover: Michel Pagliaro, playing la Fête Nationale. Asked about his status as a Quebec rock ’n’ roll legend, he says, “Me? A legend? Nah!”
• Joanna Roumeliotis investigates the homeless in Montreal. According to a Douglas Hospital study, of the city’s estimated 15,600 homeless, most are between 30–35, two-thirds are men, 90 per cent are white and 75 per cent are francophone.
•The Mirror runs a photo of Nelson and Winnie Mandela, from their three-and-a-half hour tour of Montreal.
•Although Dick Tracy is reviewed as “simple, scrubbed, escapist fun,” it is still “afraid to go deeper than its polished veneer and sophisticated effects.”
•In her Notes From Underground column, Jenny Ross plugs “Old Port: our own Mirror fifth birthday party, free!!, with Kali & Dub Inc., Nico Beji and Josephine under the Cirque du Soleil big top.”
•A classified: “Mass Love-In! 6 males and 2 females seek willing individuals for an orgy of fun & exhaustion! Affectionately, Me Mom & Morgentaler.”

Angel >>Not living in Toronto It’s an old observation, but it bears repeating, especially this week: Toronto sucks. It’s expensive, sprawling, smoggy and the traffic is terrible. And now, just as summer arrives, it smells, thanks to a municipal workers strike. Garbage is piling high and the rats are feasting. But to make matters much worse, it’s looking like the provincial liquor board’s workers will go on strike as well. Hapless Ontarians still have the Beer Store, but wine and spirits sales will be chaotic. The SAQ may not be much better—in fact, it’s often worse—than the LCBO, but at least Montrealers can still be getting wet while TO goes dry and stinky.

Insect >>SP snooping The Conservatives want you to know that they’re watching what you do online. New crime-fighting bills tabled last week would have Internet service providers install “intercept-capable” equipment and fork over users’ personal information at law enforcement’s request—without any need for a warrant. Privacy advocates are justifiably worried and say police have enough measures to fight online crime. But what makes these measures useless is the three-years’ grace smaller ISPs have in installing the measures. So any criminal can simply switch providers and happily continue their activity.