Quote of the week

“It was great to go to war with him, but obviously not to get hit.” —Boxer Micky Ward, who fought the late Arturo Gatti three times and later developed a great friendship with the Montrealer, who was buried on Monday.

Going hungry for Iran

The political unrest in Iran may have disappeared from the headlines in recent weeks, but the fate of thousands of political prisoners remains very much on the minds of Iranian ex-pats. “For my generation, it’s a reminder of what happened in the 1980s, when many political prisoners were executed,” says Iranian-Canadian photographer and political activist Shahrzad Arshadi. “We’re afraid there’s going to be another massacre.”

To draw attention to the prisoners’ plight, a day-long hunger strike will be held in Montreal beginning on Friday, July 24, part of a global “Week of International Solidarity with Iran” timed to coincide with the inauguration of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whose victory in last month’s election, widely seen as fraudulent, has sparked Iran’s most serious social upheaval since the 1979 revolution.

According to Amnesty International, more than 2,000 people have been arrested, including protest leaders and journalists. The Iranian government says at least 21 people have been killed, but human rights groups believe the actual number is much higher.

The hunger strike begins July 24 at 10 a.m. at Dorchester Square (corner René-Lévesque W. and Peel), and winds up the following day at 5 p.m. For more info, e-mail montrealhungerstrike@yahoo.ca or call (514)-258-8186.

CHRISTOPHER HAZOU

Laughs for
Pot Prince

Once again this year, as a complement to the JFL comedy festival, ex-Montrealer Howard Dover will be hosting his annual comedy ExtravaGANJA in support of that giddiest of all substances, doob. Or, to be slightly more precise, medical doob.

On Saturday, July 25, at Café Chaos (2031 St-Denis), beginning at 11 p.m., the It’s Another Medical Marijuana Comedy Show ExtravaGANJA will be going down featuring a slew of acts, including Kandi Abelson, Russell Roy, Bryan Bruner, and “special guest drop-in appearances of whoever might be in town that night.” Tickets are 10 bucks at the door, with all monies collected going to Green Therapy and poor old Marc Emery’s legal defence fund.

“It’s pretty disheartening to see that Emery, a true pot activist and warrior, is being extradited to the U.S. for a crime that’s not even a crime in our country, selling pot seeds,” bemoans Dover. “I mean, he’s facing five years in a U.S. jail, so even though the ExtravaGANJA is more about raising awareness and getting the word out that medical marijuana is a legitimate issue and a legitimate medicine, we’ll be sending some of the money we collect at the door his way, because every bit helps.”

CHRIS BARRY

Twanging
against cancer

On Wednesday, July 29, at Café Campus (57 Prince Arthur E.), the good folk over at Hello Darlin’ Productions will be presenting Country Kicks Cancer, a benefit gig for Team in Training and the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, beginning at 8 p.m.

“About a year ago this week, a good friend of ours was diagnosed with leukemia,” says event organizer Matt Large. “She’s only in her mid/late 20s and we were all pretty shocked by the news. Her condition really inspired all of us at Hello Darlin’ to take pause and look at what we were doing, coming to the conclusion that it’d be foolish not to try and put something together where we could raise some money to combat this horrible disease.

“The Montreal music community has really come together to help us stage this event and we’re incredibly pleased with the amount of support we’ve gotten thus far. Every single cent we bring in will be donated to Team in Training.”

Among the many acts on the bill will be Lake of Stew, Notre Dame de Grass, Colin Moore and Yonder Hill, with tickets being a paltry $10, available only in advance by calling either (514) 524-9225 or by visiting hellodarlinproductions.com.

CHRIS BARRY

Thoughts on rush hour

Any frustrated pedestrian or cyclist or transit rider has, at one point or another, shaken their head in disbelief at the ever-increasing traffic jams caused by single-driver cars, rooted almost permanently to the asphalt every rush hour logjam. So the clever people behind urban art troupe Action Terroriste Socialement Acceptable (ATSA) will point out that very fact to the bored, frustrated drivers in an entirely peaceful demonstration the morning of Tuesday, July 28.

Holding up placards reading “Encore seul(e) dans ton char,” (“Still alone in your car”) the demonstrators hope to draw attention to the damage bumper-to-bumper traffic wreaks on the air we breathe and its contribution to climate change. ATSA coordinator Charlotte Calais says they will “not make contact with the drivers, we won’t approach them, but we will just stand there with our placards. We don’t get into people’s space.” She says she hopes the demonstrators’ smiles will get people thinking rather than confrontational.

This will be the fourth such action, and the group plans to repeat them the last Tuesday of every month. The demonstration takes place at St-Denis and Marie-Anne between 7:30 and 9 a.m. All are invited to participate. For more info, call (514) 844-9830 or e-mail. production@atsa.qc.ca.

PATRICK LEJTENYI

Rear-view mirror

17 YEARS AGO - JULY 23–30, 1992

On the cover:City councillor Claudette Demers-Godley, a rare ethical politician who quit the Democratic Coalition of Montreal. “My hope was that the DCM was unstructured enough that we could look at alternative ways of doing politics,” she says. “But I found myself in the same party machine, using the same form of electoralist politics.”
• Montrealer Albert Nerenberg’s 1949: The Cheapest Movie Ever Made, is hailed as punk film. “I don’t think every asshole should get a camera,” he says, “but the point is that it’s very hard to get a film made, and people spend 10 or 15 years on one dumb project which can end in disaster.”
•If you close your eyes and groove a little bit, I’m sure our music’ll take you where you want to,” says Coleen, singer for Montreal’s industrial blues band Rhododendron. “Or not.”
•The July 2 Sex and Violence Cartoon Festival ad—featuring a threatening Porky Pig and screaming, bra-wearing Bugs Bunny—provokes two angry letters. Writes one: “Rape is not funny, amusing, creative or entertaining.”

Angel >>Getting foreign doctors working One of the frustrating ironies about the Quebec medical system is the large number of foreign-trained doctors living here but who are out of work despite a chronic shortage of health care professionals. But this week, a committee mandated by former health minister Philippe Couillard suggested a proposal that might have legs: have foreign-trained medical professionals, including MDs, spend six months interning and training at St. Mary’s Hospital. The 30 or so annual candidates would spend two months studying at McGill and familiarizing themselves with the Canadian medical system, while the next four would be spent working in their specialized field. It’s not perfect, but it’s better than having trained doctors driving taxis.

Insect >>Official Abdelrazik apathy According to the Globe and Mail, in 2006, the Sudanese military intelligence agency was all set for a “permanent solution” regarding Abousfian Abdelrazik unless the Canadian government allowed him to go home. But instead of raising a fuss over the implicit death threat, Ottawa ordered its diplomats in Khartoum to give a non-committal response and tried to wash their hands of him. Luckily for Abdelrazik, in his case the notoriously brutal regime held its trigger finger long enough for him to find asylum in the Canadian embassy before a federal court had to order the Harper government to bring him home.