Quote of the week

“I definitely don’t think he got enough of a sentence in this Mickey Mouse system.” —Earl Jones’s brother Bevan, after the fraudster and thief was sentenced to 11 years in jail. If good behaviour is considered, Earl Jones might be out of jail as soon as the fall of next year. .

Main safe, Cleo not

Eric Paradis is happy the lower Main between René-Lévesque and Ste-Catherine won’t be razed after all, but is still worried about the block’s remaining holdout and his favourite hangout spot, Café Cleopatra. Paradis, organizer of the Club Sin nights at Cleo (1230 St-Laurent), says the City of Montreal and the Société de développement Angus, the developers behind the lower Main makeover, have scaled back the project due to problematic financing and not because of any public outcry. But the ongoing Cleo expropriation fight is still raging.

The changes include reducing 2-22 Ste-Catherine from a 12-storey glass tower to five-storey brick one, but Paradis says artists like the ones who practise their craft at Cleo will remain unwelcome.

“It doesn’t mean anything,” he says. “There is no inclusion of artists in the project.”

Paradis says Cleo owner Johnny Zoumboulakis’s resistance to expropriation helped de-rail the original project. “Sometimes, if there is a delay of two or three or four months, that can unsettle the financing,” he says.

In the meantime, Culture Montreal will soon announce an upcoming attempt to bring all the players to the same table in order to hammer out an agreement that would keep actual artists in the Quartier des Spectacles.

Black watch

February being Black History Month, two local groups will be tabling a panel discussion next week addressing the level of state surveillance activist members of Montreal’s black community were subjected to during the 1960s. Organized by Project Fly Home and the Alfie Roberts Institute, the event “is part of a mini-campaign to create popular awareness about the situation Abousfian Abdelrazik now finds himself in,” says PFH spokesperson Mary Foster.

Abdelrazik, a Sudanese-born Canadian citizen, was accused of terrorism offences in 2003 while visiting his native Sudan. Repeatedly beaten and tortured over the course of his lengthy incarceration, he has since been cleared of all suspicion by both Sudan and CSIS, the organization that provided Sudanese authorities with the bogus information. Yet in spite of Abdelrazik’s absolution in 2007, his name remains on the UN’s 1267 list, which among other things brands him a terrorist, keeps his financial assets frozen and forbids him from boarding an airplane.

“This panel will provide some historical context to the racism and national security agenda that’s playing into Abdelrazik’s case right now,” promises Foster. The event takes place on Wednesday, Feb. 24 at Dawson College, Room 4C1 (3040 Sherbrooke W.), 7 p.m. Go to peoplescommission.org for more information.

Street
radio

Radio producers of CKUT’s eighth annual Homelessness Marathon will again brave the cold weather this Tuesday, Feb. 23 as they gear up for 14 hours of live radio from the street corner at the Native Friendship Centre (2001 St-Laurent). Starting at sunset and ending at sunrise on Wednesday, CKUT 90.3 FM will share hosting duties with campus radio stations in Halifax, Vancouver and Thunder Bay.

Re-broadcast on over 30 other stations, the marathon aims to create an exchange among homeless communities around the world as well as facilitate discussions about homelessness and gender, First Nations, HIV, mental health issues and more. This year, hour seven at 11 p.m. EST is live from the streets of Vancouver to talk about the displacement of the homeless during the Olympics.

“It’s the one opportunity that we have to view this in a live talk show format,” says Gretchen King, Marathon and CKUT news co-ordinator. “We actually get to talk amongst ourselves—the communities that are listening, the poor and homeless people, and people calling in on the toll-free line—we all get to have that conversation and talk about housing as a human right but we also get to talk about possible solutions.” Listen online at ckut.ca.

LINA HARPER

World workers welcome

Montreal’s immigrant proletariat just got more room to organize for their rights since the Immigrant Workers Centre (IWC) moved to bigger digs last month. They’re throwing a housewarming 5 à 7 to inaugurate their new space at 4755 Van Horne on Thursday, Feb. 18.

For 10 years, the IWC has been providing educational and practical resources to the underprivileged underbelly of Montreal’s workforce, from fighting for job protection to teaching computer literacy.

Next week, they’ll be testing out the space as a venue for film screenings when they show Made in L.A., a documentary about another region that’s battling the vanishing North American textile industry, on Friday, Feb. 26.

“The textile industry has been declining in North America as part of the policies of globalization,” says the IWC’s Joey Calugay. “Many workers—a lot of whom originated from the same countries work is now being sent to—found themselves thrown out of work, often with no compensation, no retraining. Often the companies totally bypassed Quebec labour law.”

Current and former textile workers are especially welcome to the screening, which will be followed by a discussion about strategies to defend workers’ rights in that industry. More info at iwc-cti.ca.

Rear-view mirror

15 YEARS AGO - FEB. 16–23, 1995

On the cover: Models Elizabeth, Sasha and Rocko in a heart-shaped hot tub, for the Mirror/Mix 96 Sex and Love Survey. Some results: Twenty-six per cent of the 645 total respondents (46 per cent male, 54 per cent female) have engaged in “threesome/group sex.” Seventy-seven per cent of males said they would like to, while 45 per cent of women agreed. The average number of sex partners in a lifetime is 27. For women, 18; men, 37; heterosexuals, 19; homosexuals, 95; Bisexuals: 69. Fifty-three per cent (51 per cent women, 55 per cent men) have cheated.

•Local house duo and 1994 Juno winners Red Light will not be nominated for the award in 1995, despite being told they would be. “They phoned back the day after and said there had been a mistake,” says Miguel Graça.

•Me Mom and Morgentaler will break up, says Morgentaler Gus. “After seven years, everybody was sort of interested in doing other things.”

• William Shatner will attend the upcoming Montreal Star Trek convention.

Angel >>More public transit commuters Maybe all the hectoring and nagging is finally working. More likely, it’s the endless traffic jams and the soaring cost of gas and parking. But either way, more Montreal-area office drones than even are coming into town via commuter trains, according to a recent study by the Quebec Ministry of Transport. Based on a fall 2008 survey, the study found a 15 per cent increase in public transit use. The Metropolitan Transport Agency happily and apparently in all honesty claims the rise is due to improved service, although grumpy regular users could point out that the rise is surprising because it came despite relentless fare hikes and regular rush hour crushes.


Insect >> Redbourne Properties Last week, a patron complained to the Cinema du Parc’s landlords about a photo exhibit they’re currently hosting of the Gaza Strip (read our story here: bit.ly/6HuSfI). Redbourne’s lawyer demanded the Parc take the exhibit down, claiming the cinema had violated its lease agreement. The Parc countered by saying the agreement isn’t clear and wouldn’t comply (though some flyers were removed), and the Parc has held around 40 exhibits without once hearing a complaint from Redbourne. The landlord refused comment when contacted by the Mirror, and the dispute may be court-bound. What’s clear is the obvious attempt at censorship should bother anyone concerned about free speech.