Quote of the week

“I want to cultivate land, grow organic products and give my grandchildren and poor children jobs.” —West End Gang boss Gerald Matticks, on his post-prison plans. He is to be paroled soon, after serving eight of a 12-year jail sentence for drug trafficking.

Mtl North goes public

This weekend, residents of Montreal North will be trying to dance away their troubled relationship with the city’s police as the second annual Hoodstock festival and Montreal North Social Forum take over the streets.

The festival takes place two years after the death of 18-year-old Fredy Villanueva at the hands of Montreal police officer Jean-Loup Lapointe and features live music and conferences on problems faced by residents of the ’hood.

“Fredy’s death is very important to us, but we also want to take on other issues like the injustice that goes on in this neighbourhood and police repression,” says Hoodstock spokesperson Stephanie Germain. “This year we’re especially focusing on taking back public spaces in Montreal North. We shouldn’t forget that Fredy Villanueva died because he was playing dice in a park.”

The group’s website notes that police overregulation of the area includes a prohibition against causing “turmoil” in a park by singing.

The festival will also include a march organized by the Coalition Against Repression and Police Abuse that takes place on Sunday, Aug. 8 at 4:30 p.m. at what will be unofficially christened Fredy Villanueva Park (at the corner of Rolland and Pascal).

See hoodstock.ca for details.

MATT JONES

Bixi busts out

It’s been a big week for the Bixi, Montreal’s bike-sharing service. It made its London debut on July 30, generally to positive reviews with only a few complaints about the bike’s weight, clunkiness, lack of locks and empty stands.

But its popularity here remains undiminished, and the city this week expanded the service to Ville St-Laurent and LaSalle, with Ahuntsic-Cartierville and Verdun set for Bixification by mid-month. As the expansion is a pilot project, each borough will only have five stands each, all of them near public transit stops, businesses and institutions. Once traffic data has been collected and studied, a longer-term decision will be made.

That’s small consolation to the residents of Côte-des-Neiges/NDG, though. The west end borough is still Bixi-less. The culprit, short-trip cycling enthusiasts moan, is next door Westmount. Peter Trent, its mayor, has been ambivalent about bringing the Bixi to his independent municipality, saying the streets are busy enough as is and that he has not heard any loud clamour to bring the service to his town.

Manon Barbe, the executive committee member responsible for transportation, tells the Mirror that she has heard from other boroughs that want the service just as badly as NDG, and she will start with them.

PATRICK LEJTENYI

Griff culture

Griffintown locals are drawing attention to their neighbourhood’s cultural wealth by transforming Ottawa Street into what they call a Cultural Corridor, and where it meets Dalhousie Street, a formerly derelict dead end, is now an arty outdoor space. Free jazz starts there tonight, Thursday, Aug. 5, at 8:30 p.m., launching an events series for which proposals are now being accepted.

“The idea is that it’s a space for the community,” says Judith Bauer, with the Community for the Sustainable Redevelopment of Griffintown. Tucked between the CN Viaduct and the New City Gas building, adjacent to a new community garden, and with art and sound installations, she said, the spot is now welcoming.

In February, after a popular Nuit Blanche event, Bauer said her group was inspired to emphasize Griffintown’s architecture, heritage and cultural potential. Several big scale development plans had been widely opposed in the past two years, including one that might have turned Dalhousie into a major bus corridor. With sites like the Griffintown Horse Palace, St. Ann Park and New City Gas, Bauer said, Griffintown’s redevelopment is important, but must be integrated with what’s there now.

“Why not valorize some of these sites and develop the cultural offerings here?”

For more info, visit griffintown.org/corridorculturel.

JOANNE PENHALE

Camp for climate

To express opposition to the proposed construction of a Trailbreaker pipeline pumping station near Dunham in the Eastern Townships, while simultaneously demonstrating the possibility of a sustainable, fossil-free world, the Quebec Climate Action Camp is being held from Aug. 7–23.

The Trailbreaker, brought to us by Enbridge, the same Calgarybased company responsible for the pipeline that burst in Michigan’s Kalamazoo River last week, runs from Alberta’s tar sands to the Eastern seaboard, with the Dunham pumping station set to be a major part of its infrastructure.

“The Climate Action Camp idea started in the U.K. a few years ago and is a project where camps are set up to confront particular environmentally destructive projects, and to facilitate building broadbase social movements,” says camp spokesperson Cam Fenton. “The camp will be using sustainable energy sources, essentially creating a demonstration village of the sort of world we’d like to see.”

Things really kick into gear during Convergence Days, from Aug. 18–22, when numerous workshops, panels and entertainment events are scheduled to take place.

The camp is located at Hameau l’Oasis de Dunham (1964 Scottsmore Road, Dunham). For details, visit uncampement.net or call (450) 263-6056.

CHRIS BARRY

Rear-view mirror

11 YEARS AGO - AUG. 5–12, 1999

On the cover: An image reflecting 50 Tales From the Main. Among them: a New Jersey tourist had his testicles blown off at Café Canasta (1214 St- Laurent) in 1962; students chanted “Down with Jews” and smashed shop windows in 1942; a man trying to burn down 3847 St-Laurent (now Euro Deli) was seen running around the street after setting himself on fire in 1983; the 1940s saw the city’s first strip bar, the Gaiety, operate “just off the Main.” The street was first built in 1720, named Côte-St-Lambert. It became the east-west address dividing line in 1905.

• “My audience now is white people,” says Jamaican ska legend Laurel Aitken. “Most black people say, ‘Oh, Laurel Aitken, big pop star from Jamaica,’ and that’s it.”

• “As a Jew, I found his anti-Semitism most offensive—just the outrageousness of his slander,” says Dan Hedaya, on Richard Nixon, whom he portrays in Dick.

• Among Upside/Downside’s Highs: “Deep Blue Sea Insane shark posse!” Lows: “Medievalists The new hippie. Stop this nonsense, Quebec!”

Angel >>Fighting the bikers fee gouge Motorcycles can be loud, dangerous and obnoxious (like their owners), but the Quebec government may be getting just a little too eager to dig ever deeper into their wallets. So now, hawg owner Michael Mosca has sicced civil liberties guru Julius Grey on the SAAQ, saying that the provincial auto insurance corporation’s outrageous registration and licence fees—up to $600 per year—are unfair. The SAAQ says the rates are higher because the cost of treating injured motorcyclists is higher, but Grey argues it doesn’t have the stats to back up the claim.

Insect >> Music-hating South Shore NIMBYs Arcade Fire’s newest album may be a nostalgic ode to suburbia, but do the suburbs love them back? Maybe not. Residents in St-Lambert, across the river from Parc Jean Drapeau, are complaining that after three weekends of punk (Vans Warped), metal (Heavy MTL) and indie (Osheaga) rock, they’ve had it. Unhappy residents are complaining that the ongoing music fests are ruining their sleep and rattling their windows, and want the number of concerts limited. Montreal, thankfully, has little intention of complying. No wonder a life in the suburbs is generally considered one to escape as soon as feasibly possible. Need further proof why?