Quote of the week

“My whole campaign was for people to see my posters, and they took that away from me.” —Communist Party of Canada candidate Bill Sloan, who complained that his campaign posters in Westmount were torn down. Westmount public security agents were found at fault, and the city has apologized after being castigated by the Commissioner of Canada Elections.

W. welcome wagon

Ten months after the greatest boob in Oval Office history left his interminable fiasco of a presidency behind, George W. Bush will be regaling the Board of Trade of Metropolitan Montreal with his malapropisms and confused metaphors. And expect the local anti-war contingent to go correspondingly ape.

The call-out for protests has begun, as has the anti-Bush rhetoric: “Not even a year removed from his crimes of war, occupation and torture, as well as ecological and economic devastation, the apologists at the Chamber of Commerce have decided to provide George W. Bush with a platform to rehabilitate his image,” reads a press release.

The protest’s organizers are howling at the $100,000 speaker’s fee, the $400 price tag to listen to the former president struggle with English for 40 minutes and the guest list that “includes CEOs of Quebec companies whose military contracts are worth more than $5-billion per year.” Or, in the French version, “exploiteurs, de capitalistes, d’ostie de crosseurs.”

Should be fun. Attendees are encouraged to bring their shoes. The speech will take place Thursday, Oct. 22 at the Fairmont Queen Elizabeth Hotel (900 René-Lévesque W.), with the demo running from 11 a.m.–1 p.m. Info: georgebushmontreal.wordpress.com or georgebushmontreal@gmail.com.

PATRICK LEJTENYI

Worldwide activism

Those who find it tough to choose which protest, panel or picket to attend on the weekend will be pleased to learn they can have it all as that smorgasbord of activism, the Quebec Social Forum (FSQ), sets up shop at Cégep du Vieux Montréal Oct. 8–12.

“It’s a space to put forward alternatives to the dominant neo-liberal ideology,” says FSQ spokesperson Nathalie Guay. Said alternatives will be spread over some 360 workshops, art exhibitions, concerts and a mini-film-festival. In addition to the local groups that are hosting the bulk of the workshops, this year’s forum features numerous international speakers, from food sovereignty activists Via Campesina to the combative Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions to Malian novelist Aminata Traoré.

Guay emphasizes that the Forum is also an opportunity to experiment with alternative ways of organizing. “We’re going to be distributing free food recuperated from restaurants. It’s really a laboratory to put in place other ways of distributing, organizing and communicating,” she says.

The Forum kicks off Thursday, Oct. 8 with a concert at the Medley (1170 St-Denis) and closes Monday afternoon with a march through downtown.

Registration for the whole weekend costs $25. Full schedule available at forumsocialquebecois.org

MATT JONES

Rad ’hood flicks

If you’re inspired to learn a little bit more about Montreal’s various neighbourhoods from “a radical perspective,” then tonight, Oct. 8, you might want to head down to 2035 St-Laurent, just outside the St-Laurent metro station, to catch the first of what will be monthly film screenings sponsored by newly formed collective les Projectionaires.

“Over the next several months, we’ll be screening politically radical, anti-capitalist films in different Montreal neighbourhoods that will express the history of these neighbourhoods and hopefully encourage people to question the political system we live under,” says head Projectionaut Dimitri Salignat. “We want to bring people to neighbourhoods they might not be that familiar with and inform them about the social histories of these areas.”

This week, the collective will be screening two films, Adultes avec réserve, a 1962 NFB documentary about the Montreal Main by Mark Beaudet and Jack Zolov, along with Jean-François Brient and Victor Léon Fuentes’ De la servitude moderne, a more recent, 52-minute documentary that addresses “the human condition under the capitalist system.”

The fun gets underway at 6 p.m., with a selection of free food that organizers promise will appeal to vegans and carnivores alike.

CHRIS BARRY

Harvesting Duluth

If fresh, local fruit, veggies and herbs, live music and handmade crafts are for you, this Sunday, Oct. 11, would be a good time to check out the Duluth Farmers’ Market harvest fair.

Since its inception last June, the market has provided local, seasonal fresh goodies to Plateau dwellers unable or unwilling to make the trek to the Atwater and Jean-Talon markets. Run largely by its 60 or so volunteers, the market is a good example of what can be done by green-minded city folk with the patience to wrestle with city bureaucracy.

“Our priority is trying to promote local over organic producers,” says market co-organizer Sabine Alpers. “Not everyone has official organic certification yet, it’s a three-year process and can be quite expensive.”

To wrap up the year, the market will be hosting an arts and crafts festival featuring handiwork from local artists. Local bluegrassers Lake of Stew and classic ensemble Metro Trio will provide live music.

The harvest party takes place on Sunday, Oct. 11 from 10 a.m.–4 p.m., in the Arc-en-ciel schoolyard (4265 Laval, corner Marie-Anne). If the weather gets cold, the party will move into the school’s gym. Check out marcheduluth.com for more info.

PATRICK LEJTENYI

Rear-view mirror

11 YEARS AGO - OCT. 8–15, 1998

On the cover: DJ Mark Anthony, at Black & Blue. Referring to the good old warehouse party days, he says, “Police would come in during the parties and I would always be high on ecstasy. They must have thought I was a very happy guy.”
•The Ste-Catherine and Clark sex boutiques war comes to an end. Violating city zoning laws, the south side’s Boutique Séduction is forced to close; Club Sexe, on the north, wins. “The city’s zoning regulations basically prohibit nice establishments and encourage seedy porno shops,” fumes Séduction owner Claude Perron.
•On his apocalyptic Last Night, Don McKellar says, “I was hoping to draw people in with that irony and humour, and then all of a sudden make them think, ‘Omigod, he’s really going to go through with this.’”
•One letter-writer calls the Mirror “xenophobic” for referring to Indonesian dictator Suharto as “a truly creepy dictator,” and another “could hardly contain my rage and disgust” after reading a positive take on Lolita.

Angel >> Le Cendrillon goat cheese At the prestigious World Cheese Awards, held last week in the Canary Islands, le Cendrillon, a Quebec-made goat cheese, was voted the best cheese by a panel of 300 experts. That’s best cheese—not best goat cheese, not best non-French-from-France cheese, but best in the entire world. This being the first time a Canadian cheese wins the coveted award, the French (from France) cheese press was reportedly stunned. For our cheese-curious readers, le Cendrillon, made by La Maison Alexis de Portneuf (and owned by Saputo), is available widely, at $5 for 125 grams, and is best enjoyed with a white Vin de la Loire.

Insect >> Random breathalyzer laws Federal Justice Minister Rob Nicholson is considering toughening up the country’s breathalyzer laws to allow police to test drivers even if they don’t have reason to suspect the driver is impaired. Mothers Against Drunk Driving (and Jack Layton) are applauding the move, while civil libertarians are protesting about giving the police more powers—but the whole scheme looks cooked up and ill-conceived. Cops already have the power to conduct random searches: they’re called RIDE checks and roadblocks. So will the new law mean cops must breathalyze people they are sure are sober? Sounds like a waste of time and money. Or will it mean that cops will be allowed to pull over any motorist at any time and breathalyze them? Sounds like a terrible idea.