More Haiti help

Here are more Haiti-related events in the coming week:

On Saturday, Jan. 30, the Grande Marche de solidarité et d’espoir pour Haïti starts at 4 p.m. at Peel and René-Lévesque and ends at Jeanne-Mance.

The “Masala Sono #4” benefit, with Mr. OK, Lunice, Freeworm, Riddimwise, nOula, Dramane Koné and Black Out Sound, will raise money for Kay Fanm Haïti, a women’s shelter in Port-au-Prince, on Friday, Jan. 29 at Club Lambi (4465 St-Laurent, 10 p.m., $10).

Saturday, Jan. 30’s “Tous 1” fundraiser at Club Soda (1225 St-Laurent, 2 p.m., voluntary donations) features artists include Jeff Cléophat, Mylk & Sugar, Black Parents and the Haitian Mass Choir.

Also on Saturday, the Yellow Door Choir performs “In the Key of Dignity,” a fundraiser for Equitas and the Canadian Red Cross at the NDG Church (5333 Notre-Dame-de-Grace, 8 p.m., $20 adults, $15 students).

And on Monday, Feb. 1, at la Sala Rosa (4848 St-Laurent, 8 p.m. $10–$20 suggested), the “Solid’Ayiti” show features Vox Sambou with Nomadic Massive, Paul Cargnello & the Frontline, DJ Kobal, Karma Atchykah and the Narcicyst. Cash goes to the Lycée Jean-Baptiste Cinéas school in Limbé, Haiti.

Other events and more info at agendapublic.net.

Cops and
violence, Pt. I

The coroner’s inquest into the killing of Fredy Villanueva heats up this week as Jean-Loup Lapointe, the officer who pulled the trigger on the unarmed 18-year-old, will be called to testify in public for the first time about the events of Aug. 9, 2008. Lapointe was cleared of all wrongdoing in a Sureté du Québec investigation following the incident. The police investigation was heavily criticized for failing to call either of the officers involved to testify, but critics worry the public inquiry has no teeth.

“The public inquiry cannot attribute any criminal responsibility to anyone, including Jean-Loup Lapointe,” says Alexandre Popovic of the Coalition contre la répression et les abus policiers (CRAP). “Not only was he cleared of any criminal charges, but there is a publication ban of any pictures of him. He’s also got four bodyguards each time he attends the public inquiry and he got special permission to carry his firearm 24 hours a day.”

The public is allowed to attend the hearings, which take place in room 5.15 of the Palais de Justice (10 St-Antoine E.) this Wednesday, Feb. 3, starting at 9:30 a.m. The CRAP is organizing a welcome committee to greet Lapointe, which will be assembling outside at 12:30 p.m. More info at lacrap.org.

Cops and
violence, Pt. II

So long as you’re not a cop or member of the “corporate media,” you can consider yourself cordially invited to participate in the Forum Against Police Violence and Impunity that will be taking place from Jan. 29–31 at the Centre communautaire de Parc-Extension (419 St-Roch, near Parc metro).

Co-organizer Samir calls the Forum an effort by “grassroots social justice activists and community organizers to create a space that will allow for discussion, sharing experiences and developing strategies in the on-going struggle to live free of police violence. The main idea of the forum is to bring people together who’ve either dealt with police violence directly or who are involved with groups that are organizing against police violence, with our ultimate goal being to develop strategies to combat police violence in Montreal.”

Of special interest will be the forum’s opening panel Friday night, featuring three former police officers who ultimately left the force to become activists. Samir says the primary activities will include workshops, roundtable panels and skill shares, all culminating with a concert on Sunday evening, Beats Against the Police, at Il Motore (179 Jean-Talon W).

For a complete schedule, go to forumcontrelaviolencepoliciere.wordpress.com.

Gaza witness

Dr. Mads Gilbert thought he’d seen the worst when he worked in Beirut during the 1982 Israeli invasion. Then he went to Gaza in 2008.

“I thought Beirut would be the worst experience of my life, but it was truly horrific what we saw,” says Gilbert. “The large amount of injured, the types of weaponry the Israelis had used, the large number of civilians, in particular children, and the lack of any possibility for the Palestinians to escape the war was very different.”

Gilbert has been travelling from Norway to Palestine for 30 years on medical and educational missions. When Israel shut the borders to Gaza prior to the December 2008 invasion, he and colleague Dr. Erik Fosse found themselves the only foreign doctors allowed into the country.

“This was a special situation because normally in such disasters you will have large groups of international relief workers, but not in Gaza. The Israelis blocked all international media and international relief efforts to enter Gaza,” he says.

Gilbert is launching Eyes in Gaza, a book he co-wrote with Fosse about their experience in Gaza. He’ll be at McGill on Friday, Feb. 5 at 6:45 p.m. in Room S 1/4 of the Stewart building (1205 Dr. Penfield). Call (514) 927-0166 to reserve tickets.

Rear-view mirror

12 YEARS AGO - JAN. 29–FEB. 5, 1998

On the cover: Boxer Otis Grant and VJ Marlyne Afflack, discussing Black History Month. Afflack, who moved to the West Island from NYC at 13, says, “I went from Brooklyn, where every day is Black History Month, to Île Bizard.”

• Spaceshits bassist Blacksnake explains his tussle with a female member of the Gore Gore Girls in Detroit. “It was like, uh, rough flirting,” he says. “We exchanged some words, and finally we ended up in the back alley, and she jumped me and pounded my ass.”

• Film critic and Spice Girls fan Matthew Hays hears rumours “from a reliable source of gossip and hearsay” that “Bulimia Spice, Trannie Spice, Herpy Spice, Underage Spice, GHB Spice, Dyke Spice, Multiple Personality Disorder Spice (known to her friends as Sybil Spice) and Old Spice” are furious they didn’t make the band.

• Believing local goth singer Chriss Lee’s faked suicide (and the Mirror’s credulous reporting of it), letter writer Sam Tabar says Lee “was the epitome of everything right and wrong about Montreal.”

Angel >>Debt relief for Haiti As the world prepares for the long, hard and expensive slog to rebuild shattered Haiti, now would be a good time to write off the country’s $900-million-plus external debt. Servicing the debt is pointless, since the vast majority of the country lives (or used to, before Haiti’s infrastructure, and with it countless jobs, was destroyed) on less than $2 a day and what’s left of the government can hardly afford to part with what little money it has. Which is not to say that the foreign aid promised this week in Montreal should be spent recklessly. Haiti certainly needs money—but it has to go where needed.


Insect >>Newfoundland’s Gerry Byrne The Liberal MP is on the warpath against PETA after an anti-sealing activist mashed federal Fisheries Minister Gail Shea in the face with a tofu cream pie this week. The stunt was silly, of course, and the activist will face assault charges, but that’s not enough for Byrne. He says PETA deserves to be designated a terrorist organization because it “seeks to impose a political agenda” on fearful Canadians. Byrne might just want to ease up a bit here. It’s not like PETA wants everyone to go all Georges Laraque here and besides, it was a tofu cream pie. It might be bland and tasteless, but it isn’t dangerous.