Quote of the week

“Canada’s reasoning for granting Huntley a refugee status can only serve to perpetuate racism.” From an African National Congress statement about Canada’s acceptance of white South African Brandon Huntley, who claimed he was beaten and denied jobs due to his race. Reaction in S.A. has ranged from outrage to ridicule.

Perverts with a cause

As the fifth annual Montreal Fetish Weekend gets ready to kick into gear for three glorious days beginning this Friday, Sept. 4, organizers have more on their minds than leather, latex and good old-fashioned butt-paddling.

With the lower Main in considerable danger of being bulldozed into submission, taking Montreal’s traditional red light district and the event’s de facto HQ, Café Cleopatra, along with it, the 2009 edition of the Fetish Weekend promises to have an activist edge to it, with head organizer Eric Paradis being directly on the frontline of the Save the Main campaign (save- themain.com).

“The lower Main means a lot to us,” states Paradis. “These politicians and people in power think they’re untouchable, that they can do anything they want. But we can and will stop them if we band together and focus our energies. Let them go make their money on another piece of land where there’s no culture or heritage.” For a complete schedule of this weekend’s activities, go to fetishweekend.com. Contre Courant!, a Save the Main event at the Medley (1170 St-Denis), happens on Friday, Sept. 4 at 8:30 p.m.

CHRIS BARRY

A smarter citizenry

If dealing with the pressing issues of our age involves heavy science, should we reserve such matters for professionals or does ordinary rabble deserve a say?

At next week’s edition of University of the Streets Café, which brings weekly public conversations to local coffee shops, Concordia assistant professor David Waddington will raise this question in a session titled “How much should citizens know about science? Or, should we leave it to the experts?” and revisit an old debate between U.S. eggheads John Dewey and Walter Lippmann.

“Basically, Dewey argued we needed to create an intelligent citizenry prepared for the modern world’s challenges. Lippman thought that average people don’t have the inclination to educate themselves, and that creating science-savvy citizens was a waste of time. Issues of science and technology should be left to a government of experts or technocrats,” says Waddington. “But if we’re going to have intelligent debates about global warming, don’t we need educated citizens? Fundamentally, I have faith in the citizen’s capacity.”

The conversation takes place on Tuesday, Sept. 8, at le Dépanneur Café (206 Bernard W.) at 7 p.m. For the complete fall schedule, visit univcafe.org.

MARTIN LUKAC

Queer media meet

The National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association will hold their annual conference in Montreal from Sept. 10–13. About 400 journalists will gather at the Hyatt Regency Hotel (1255 Jeanne-Mance) to discuss issues that matter to gays and lesbians in the press, such as how gay media publishers are surviving the recession, how the Internet age has affected the LGBT movement and whether Barack Obama is the first gay (friendly) President.

This is the first time that the Washington D.C.-based group is holding its convention outside of the U.S. Avila says that Montreal was chosen due to the recognition and prominence of the LGBT community within the city.

A special session entitled “Oh... Canada” will educate the group of mostly American journalists about their northern neighbour.

“Same sex marriage and being able to serve in the military is a fact of life in Canada,” said convention organizer Thomas Avila. He says that one of the conference’s objectives is to allow American journalists to mingle with their Canadian colleagues “for whom these issues have been resolved.”

To register—and no, you don’t have to be lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender to attend—go to nlgja.org/convention.

JULIE MASIS

Fashion bartery

Recessionistas take note. Though shopaholics suffering from the economic downturn might be ignored by government bailouts, the third annual Take Off Your Clothes event this Saturday could help ensure closets are filled with pretty threads and newly treasured garb.

Co-founder Aleece Germano says it’s about practising an alternative model of economy. “Clothing is currency,” she says, “and we’re giving you a way to use it.”

Citing an Environmental Health Perspectives study, Germano says garment waste statistics worry her. “Four per cent of the North American landfill is clothing, so if we can convince people to swap, we’re already starting to make a dent,” she says.

Over 200 bags of clothing were collected from Montrealers at the most recent blitz of pre-pickups. The S.W.A.P. team invites folks to heave their own bag of “gently used” garments (no socks and undies please) and head over to the three-day event, part of Piknic Électronik on Ile Ste-Hélène. Participants will be issued one-for-one tickets for exchanges, and all leftover items will be donated to the Salvation Army.

Take Off Your Clothes runs from Sept. 5–7, 2–8 p.m. Admission to Piknic Électronik is required: $10. Details: theswapteam.org.

LINA HARPER

Rear-view mirror

13 YEARS AGO - SEPT. 5–11, 1996

On the cover: Actors Leni Parker and Bruce Dinsmore (the latter twice, playing two roles) in the yuppie love story Blue Valentine, written by Marianne Ackerman. The cast, writes Gaëtan Charlebois, is “being asked to walk the tightrope over what theatregoers—a most conservative lot—expect from a love story and what is artistically true in the age of AIDS, lingering political correctness and the war between the sexes.”
• In his Inappropriate Behaviour column, Josh Bezonsky theorizes that key figures in our provincial government—which had just blamed high unemployment on “job-destroying weather”—are secretly “competing to see who can most seem as though they smoked a big bowl of crack prior to holding a press conference.”
• A female caller tells Rant Line™, “I can’t stand THEM anymore. And when I say THEM, I mean the fucking Backstreet Boys.”
•Fresh from rehab, Kelley Deal of the Kelley Deal 6000, and formerly of the Breeders, reveals that her goals are more modest now that she’s clean. “When you don’t do drugs, you don’t have a need for a million dollars. It’s really weird how that works.”

Angel >> L’Itinéraire The biweekly magazine by and about the homeless celebrates its 15th anniversary this week with a two-part, 150-page special edition. In its pages are articles about those who have benefitted from being part of the project, as well as activists and advocates for the impoverished. The magazine, which covers homeless issues beyond the usual wintertime pity stories, sells 60,000 copies per issue. The vendors buy the magazines for $1 a pop and sell them for $2, and the majority make enough money to move off the street and into apartments. Incidentally, L’Itinéraire has, for the past six months, devoted two pages per issue to English-language articles.

Insect >> Pie protester persecution One chocolate cream pie. That’s all that Lily Phan was armed with when she lobbed her message about poverty and homelessness at Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach at 2007’s Calgary Stampede, accidentally hitting a nearby sheriff instead. But the medium overshadowed the message. This week, the unremorseful, unapologetic 32-year-old woman was sentenced to 30 days in jail and three months’ probation. Past Calgary pie protesters have received the same sentence, but in Quebec—home of the defunct but not forgotten Entartistes—it has been reduced and suspended sentences. In an unrelated story, George W. Bush is speaking at Montreal’s Fairmont Queen Elizabeth Hotel on Oct. 22.