Quote of the week

“The two police officers are honest. I didn’t worry that their testimony would be tainted.” —Sgt.-Det. Bruno Duchesne, testifying at the newly reopened Fredy Villanueva inquiry, on why the two officers involved in shooting the teenager last year were never questioned by SQ investigators.

Kader free at last

After more than 1,300 days of holing up in St-Gabriel’s Church in Pointe St-Charles, refugee claimant Abdelkader Belaouni was able to step out into the obnoxious cold of Montreal last week without fear of being nabbed by Immigration Canada. On Thursday, Belaouni received word that his request for permanent residency on compassionate grounds had been accepted.

“I’m shocked; I’m still shaking,” says Belaouni, now 42. The decision came almost four years after the blind Algerian-born musician received a deportation order that would have sent him back to his war-torn native country. Several dozen demos, barbeques, radio-shows and benefit concerts later helped him win the right to stay.

“It’s been a big mobilization, with people writing in to MPs, putting pressure on the government. There was even one international day of action, with events in Europe, Latin America and a couple on the African continent,” says Mary Foster of the Committee to Support Abdelkader Belaouni.

Belaouni acknowledges the difference that made: “The government knew how much support I have. If I was by myself, I couldn’t do anything,” he says. For now, he’s looking forward to “going back to work, getting my apartment and launching my new CD.”

Details of the campaign can be seen at soutienpourkader.net.

MATT JONES

Rabbi reaches out

The executive director of Israel’s Rabbis for Human Rights, Rabbi Arik Ascherman, stops off in Montreal next week on his way home from the first national conference of the upstart liberal Jewish lobby group J Street in Washington D.C.

“There are two prongs to his trip [to Montreal],” says Leanore Lieblein, a member of the steering committee of the Montreal chapter of Friends of Rabbis for Human Rights. “One of which is education, the other of which is fundraising. Both are very important.”

Ascherman will make three appearances during his visit, targetting three different audiences. On Tuesday, Nov. 3, he speaks at the Islamic Community Centre (5905 La Grande-Allée) in Brossard, starting at 6 p.m. The following day, Nov. 4, he will address the Centre for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism at McGill in New Chancellor Day Hall (3644 Peel, Room 312) at 12:30 p.m. Finally, also on Nov. 4, he delivers a talk about Jewish and Muslim coexistence to the local Jewish community at Congregation Beth El (1000 Lucerne) in Mont-Royal, beginning at 7:30 p.m. A $5 donation will be requested at the last event.

“Everyone is invited to all of them,” adds Lieblein.

For more info, call (514) 489-5651 or e-mail leanore.lieblein@mcgill.ca

CHRISTOPHER HAZOU

Con U watching you

Concordia University is pushing the limits of surveillance technology—and not just by installing ominous-looking cameras on top of the Library Building. Its upcoming “Every Breath You Take” conference aims to show that the school’s dealings with surveillance technology go further than being a consumer. Panels in the morning feature speakers from the faculty as well as the RCMP and the Sûreté du Québec on combating fraud using cyberforensic technology, while the afternoon will look at the science behind facial, retina, fingerprint and handwriting recognition technology. If that sounds like Concordia is becoming a research centre for the expanding eye of the state, the evening session will try to redeem the university as faculty cast the concept in a critical light.

“Surveillance is legitimized in the news media through constant talk of terrorism and risk,” says speaker Yasmin Jiwani. Her work looks at how surveillance makes use of data mining: collecting information from consumer satisfaction forms and passport applications to create profiles of suspicious citizens. “How much privacy is there when everything is exposed to the eye of the state?” she asks.

Every Breath You Take goes on all day Wednesday, Nov. 4 at the D.B. Clarke Theatre (1455 de Maisonneuve W.). Details at concordia.ca/presidentsconferences.

MATT JONES

Pagan party

If you’re feeling witchy this Halloween weekend, check out the Montreal Witches Masquerade Ball, happening Friday in NDG’s Rosedale-Queen Mary United Church (6870 Terrebonne). The ball is organized by the Montreal Pagan Resource Centre, which connects members of Montreal’s pagan community.

The event kicks off at 6 p.m. with a Samhain (pronounced “saw-wan”) ritual that will honour loved ones who have passed away in the last year. The ritual is free and for adults only. The ball starts at 8 p.m., featuring a DJ and an outdoor Celtic labyrinth and is open to all.

Hobbes, the president of the Pagan Resource Centre who only goes by one name, promises plenty of “rug-cutting and shin-digging,” and says organizers anticipate a heavy turnout from local pagans and the general public.

“A lot of peoples put on costumes, but fail to realize they are in a costume year-round, and Halloween is when they actually take their costume off and get to be themselves,” says Kevin-John Chaplin, a volunteer at the centre.

Profits will go to the Centre, a volunteer-based drop-in located inside Mélange Magique, a pagan bookstore.

The ball is alcohol-free and open to all ages. Tickets are $12 at the door. For more info visit paganuniverse.com/mprc/.

ELISABETH FAURE

Rear-view mirror

10 YEARS AGO - OCT. 28–NOV. 4, 1999

On the cover: A Nosferatu-carved pumpkin, for the Macabre Film Festival and the Halloween party guide. Screening at the film fest are the original Frankenstein and Dracula, as well as Nosferatu, Halloween, Friday the 13th, Rabid, Psycho, Steven Spielberg’s Duel and Evil Dead, which Rick Trembles calls “Ipecac for the eyeballs!”
•A plan to transport 251 grams of weapons-grade plutonium from Russia and the U.S. to the Chalk River nuclear facility for processing has many up in arms. “It makes for a very attractive target for terrorists,” says Gordon Edwards, president of the Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility.
•“If I ever saw that singer guy, I would be forced to punch that guy in the mouth,” says Supersuckers’ singer/bassist Eddie Spaghetti of “a certain band that rhymes with Limp Wristed,” writes Johnson Cummins.
•“Strange But True” asks Sasha for advice about a problem: “About an hour after my girlfriend swallows my semen, she gets diarrhea. Every time.” She’s probably allergic, Sasha writes. “My advice? Buy her a nice spittoon.”

Angel >> Guaranteed Milk Bottle’s new look On Monday, following several weeks of work and $200,000 in privately raised donations, Montreal’s six-tonne, 79-year-old landmark’s facelift was revealed to the public. And it looks good, fresh and white as, well, a bottle of milk. The over-sized pint bottle has gone through some hard times, having faced consignment to the recycling bin of history earlier this decade, only to win a reprieve thanks in large part to the efforts of Heritage Montreal. Now restored, rust-proof and with its original lettering intact, the beloved oddity looks as good as new.

Insect >> Copenhagen gloom With a new Pew Research Centre poll showing a staggering decline in Americans’ belief in global warming and humanity’s role in it, there’s reason to doubt that December’s climate treaty talks in Denmark will accomplish anything meaningful. The poll revealed that only 57 per cent of respondents believed there is evidence the Earth’s temperature has warmed over the past few decades; and of that, only 36 per cent said it was mostly due to human activity. With the most powerful country in the world populated by people this ignorant, it’s unlikely Stephen Harper is facing any outside pressure to aim higher than his pathetically low target of a 20 per cent reduction of emissions by 2020, using 2006 as a baseline.