Quote of the week

“I did not have sufficient any more combativeness in me to turn over in the major ones.” —Éric Gagné, speaking to RueFrontenac.com, announcing his retirement from Major League Baseball. The preposterous translation is courtesy of Babel Fish, linked from an LA Times blog. It means Gagné lacked the desire to keep playing after being cut by the Dodgers.

Party for the Earth!

With Earth Day celebrating its 40th anniversary today, Thursday, April 22, local organizing branch Jour de la Terre and Éco-quartier Peter-McGill are planting 40 trees on two strips of triangular-shaped land by the 720 highway, between Lucien l’Allier and de la Montagne. The land is ideal because it belongs to Quebec’s transportation department and isn’t in danger of development, and more importantly, isothermic maps reveal that it is one of the biggest heat traps on the island, says Jour de la Terre’s Pascal Bertrand.

According to the plan, sunlight absorbed and reflected by the concrete highway and the neighbouring asphalt-roofed buildings will be partially offset by the 40 trees of various species. The nursery trees are mostly indigenous except for five Ginkgo Bilobas, the species known for withstanding the atomic bomb at Hiroshima in 1945. “If they can survive Hiroshima, they can survive in downtown Montreal,” said Paul-Antoine Troxler, coordinator for Éco-quartier Peter-McGill.

In the evening, Jour da la terre will host an outdoor Earth Day concert featuring Xavier Caféïne, Land of Talk, DJ Dr. Octoboobies, DJ Annie Q and Domlebo at the Parc Lafontaine chalet (3933 Parc Lafontaine), 8 p.m., free. Space is limited, so visit jourdelaterre.org to reserve tickets.

GIUSEPPE VALIANTE

Griff redo
a go

The city has officially okayed the second planned facelift of long-neglected Griffintown, this one a scaled-down version of the original, monolithic and widely panned version that collapsed due to financial constraints two years ago. But critics are still unhappy with developers Devimco and the city’s urban planning boss, Projet Montréal’s Richard Bergeron.

“Devimco is going into building 70-metre high condo towers,” says Jeff Dungen of the Committee for the Sustainable Redevelopment of Griffintown. “The neighbourhood is historic, and this doesn’t bring out much history.”

Dungen says that, contrary to Bergeron’s public assurances, the plan will erase two historic streets—Shannon and Young—and will not engender a sense of community as advertised. “The question we want to ask is, why do we have to go so big, so new? In its heyday, this neighbourhood had 30,000 people living here, and the buildings were never higher than four or five storeys.”

Calling the project “a period piece,” he says that in 10 years, “the towers will look like 10-year-old buildings. In 50 years, they’ll look like 50-year-old buildings. Most towers age into slums, so why would they want to condemn Griffintown again?”

Construction may begin as early as the fall.

PATRICK LEJTENYI

Phone for
Abdelrazik

After spending six years exiled in Sudan, where he was incarcerated and allegedly tortured before finally finding refuge in the Canadian embassy, Abousfian Abdelrazik, a Montreal man who by all accounts has never been deemed guilty of anything, remains on the UN’s highly controversial 1267 list. The 1267 regime imposes sanctions preventing Abdelrazik from earning a salary, receiving money or maintaining a bank account, effectively making efforts to rebuild his life impossible. Worse, in the finest Kafka-esque tradition, there’s little recourse to get him off the list unless the federal government, which has acknowledged his innocence, finally decides to take action.

In the effort to pressure them to do so, Project Fly Home is organizing a “Sanctions Busting Telethon” that will be taking place at the Georges Vanier Cultural Centre (2450 Workman) on Wednesday, April 28, from 7–9 p.m. and simulcast on rabble.ca.

“The telethon isn’t only to show solidarity with Abdelrazik, but to bring people’s attention and opposition to this 1267 sanctions regime,” says Mary Foster of Project Fly Home. “As for Abdelrazik, as a UN member state, Canada could see the sanctions against him lifted, but while the government acknowledges he should be removed from the list, they continue to implement these sanctions against him.”

CHRIS BARRY

Cancer by
the book

To be diagnosed with cancer is a nightmare at any age, but imagine being 21 years old and learning you may well not make it to 25, and, of course, that the next few years of your life will be marked by bouts of unbearable pain, never-ending hospital visits and countless tears being shed by everyone who ever cared about you—not to mention the couple you might shed for yourself every once in awhile.

On Wednesday, April 28, in room L6-500 at the Montreal General Hospital’s Livingston Hall (1650 Cedar), 14 young adults living with cancer and affiliated with a creative arts therapy group at Cedars CanSupport/Faire Face will be on hand for the book launch of Cancer Under the Radar, a collection of photos, art, prose and poetry they created addressing their unique experiences as young people afflicted with the disease.

“Some of the pieces are funny, some tragic, but every one is compelling,” says contributor Jane Shulman, who is currently celebrating the first anniversary of her own cancer going into remission. “We hope the book will raise awareness about our age group’s specific needs, which are notably different than those of kids or older adults with cancer.”

To RSVP, e-mail aya.radar@gmail.com or call (514) 843-1666.

CHRIS BARRY

Rear-view mirror

20 YEARS AGO - APRIL 19–26, 1990

On the cover: Laura Mitchell in Jane Gilchrist’s Ratamacue, one of 10 plays performed for the weeklong Quebec Drama Festival. According the article, the play, “centred around a couple and a retarded boy,” will make “even die-hard horror fans feel queasy during some passages.”

• Gay and lesbian bookstore l’Androgyne’s owner Lawrence Boyle says 75 per cent of his shipments from the U.S. are routinely opened by Canada Customs. “Customs agents do not detain shipments due to their content but according to their destination.”

• An anonymous group of women distributed 5,000 pamphlets warning women about male violence in the city. The group says future actions may include “a weenie-roast” at a federal politician’s office.

• U.K. goth band the Mission’s singer Wayne Hussey says he’s “far more happy these days” than he was writing their 1988 album Children, calling it “a record of despair.”

• Ridley Scott’s Black Rain, released on video, is “a nauseating piece of American propaganda [that] belittles Japanese culture and shows off Yank ethnocentricity in all its ugliness.”

Angel >>Malcolm McLaren’s minute of mayhem The late promoter, prankster and manager of the New York Dolls and the Sex Pistols was never one to shy away from the spotlight, so at his funeral in London today, April 22, he issued special instructions to his mourners from beyond the grave: party. According to his son, McLaren asked his friends, family and devotees to observe “a minute of mayhem” when he is buried in London’s Highgate Cemetery around noon. “Put on your favourite records and let it RIP!” he exhorts. Sounds like a pretty good funeral. McLaren may have been an extraordinary egomaniac and bullshit artist, but at least he’s going out in style. He was 64.

Insect >> Maxime Bernier Stephen Harper’s buffoonish former foreign minister—he of the hot biker babe girlfriend and forgotten NATO documents— is apparently sick of backbenching and is determined to claw his way back into the spotlight, dignity and common sense be damned. In February, he criticized the Conservative government being too serious about fighting global warming(!). And last week, he called Quebecers “spoiled children” for their over-reliance on equalization payments. The Canadian right-wing blogosphere has since proved its American counterpart has no monopoly on imbecility by lauding Bernier’s “cajones” [sic]. If Bernier is seeking a higher national profile, the Canadian satire industry will owe him a huge debt of gratitude.