Funding cut irks NDG black group
 Last year Centraide collected $26-million for 300 local groups and projects. This year, for the first time in 17 years, the NDG Black Community Association won't be one of them. A vague disagreement over programs offered by the group has soured Centraide on the 30-year-old NDGBCA, now based in the city rec building at Decarie and Cote-St-Antoine. In past years, the group has received up to $107,000 annually from Centraide, 60 per cent of its operating budget.

"Centraide wields their monopoly power and this is the first time an organization stands up and says, 'We're not going to take this.' Now they're skating all around," says Dave McKenzie of the association that provides such services as summer camp, senior care, piano lessons, and basketball for both blacks and the melamine deprived.

The decision to cut funding was "difficult and painful," according to Centraide spokesman Brian McDonough. "What we wanted was an action plan solidly rooted in the emerging needs of the community. Furthermore, our expectations included adequate training and evaluation of personnel to be able to carry out that action plan."

Centraide's behaviour is "arrogant, rude, racist, condescending," says McKenzie. "This will be a litmus test of the resolve of the black community." He considers it an opportunity for the group to reestablish its administrative autonomy and points out that a similar group, Sun Youth, has thrived since quitting the Centraide fold.

Volunteers and donors can reach the NDGBCA at 481-3598.

Photo by George Maddux