Montreal Mirror - The Front Page : News

Last week’s Assembly of First Nations’ annual meeting in Kahnawake may have been a great photo-op, but it sure didn’t do much, especially where women are concerned. So charges the Quebec Native Women’s Association’s secretary-treasurer Ellen Gabriel, saying that these kinds of high profile events are as exclusionary as they are rhetoric-heavy.

“The Native Women’s Associations [across the country] are working on all kinds of issues, but are never invited to participate,” Gabriel says. “The situation is different for the Quebec Native Women’s Group, but in general, the national organizations don’t invite us. I know the AFN doesn’t do enough for women’s rights.”

Gabriel believes that native women are “the front-line workers” in the battles involving substance and sexual abuse, education, family violence and land governance. As such, she believes that they deserve a much more powerful voice when discussing policies, initiatives and recommendations relating to native affairs.

The numbers themselves are telling: in Quebec, there is one woman chief out of 42; across Canada, there are 80 women chiefs out of a total of 633.

As for the AFN meetings in general, Gabriel doesn’t seem too impressed by them. “It’s not that productive,” she says. “There’s a lot of rhetoric but not that much concrete action. It’s like they’re just spinning their wheels without really going anywhere.” :
-Patrick Lejtenyi

Crime data released by Statistics Canada last week suggests that Quebec is among the safest places to live in Canada. But that figure may be misleading, due, police critics believe, to a concept that is supposed to bring the police closer to the people they’re serving and protecting.
Community policing in Montreal requires that a victim report most non-violent crimes in person at a police station, as police will only respond to a call if a situation is considered life-threatening. But to many, the hassle of actually going to the police station to fill out a report isn’t worth the bother. The apparent decline in overall crime, then, has raised concerns over the numbers of crimes that are actually committed but not included in the latest figures.

Yves Manseau, coordinator of police watchdog-group Mouvement Action Justice, suggests that the advent of community policing in Montreal in 1997 has led to widespread citizen frustration.
“That was automatic,” says Manseau. “You couldn’t reach anyone at the big centres. There are less calls being answered, less police available around the clock.”

The StatsCan figures show that of 2.4-million incidents reported across the country in 2001, 13 per cent were violent crimes, 52 per cent were property crimes, and 35 per cent were “other.” Theft accounts for an estimated 25 per cent of all crimes, although that figure is considered low because theft is among the least reported offences. :
-Chris Paré

Tremblay administration authorities have their finger in the dyke of the cash flow needed to restore the historic Cinema V building on Sherbrooke, according to those who want the building turned into a cultural centre.

“These grants are weird,” says Peter McAuslan, treasurer of the Empress Cultural Centre (aka Cinema V). “We never received a letter from somebody saying, ‘You don’t have the grant,’ but we’re putting two plus two together.”

Although former mayor Pierre Bourque passed a bylaw promising funds to the group, the current administration hasn’t proceeded with the grants. Had that money been given, matching provincial and federal grants would have kicked in automatically, which would have inspired private money also to flow, according to McAuslan. “You can’t get a public fund-raising campaign going if you don’t have your ducks in a row,” he says.

McAuslan recently met federal MP Marlene Jennings, and says she suggested that NDG borough president Michael Applebaum was twisting arms against the project. “Marlene told us that we need the support of the municipal guys at that neck of the woods, and if we don’t have that support, then things aren’t going to happen,” he says. Applebaum and local councillor Marcel Tremblay have forwarded a mixed-use plan involving condos above the building, but McAuslan dislikes the proposal.

An open house and rally in favour of the proposed cultural centre will be held at the site on August 11 at 2 p.m., and a petition has been distributed through many NDG commercial enterprises. More info is available at 488-7887 or www.vivecinemav.com (coming soon). :
-Kristian Gravenor

Angel >> Musicologist Alan Lomax By saving thousands of recordings by artists from the 1930s on, Lomax, who died last Friday at 87, preserved a unique and influential period of American music. Working alongside his father with blues, jazz and folk musicians, he recorded, photographed and interviewed people like Ledbelly, Woody Guthrie, “Jelly Roll” Morton, Muddy Waters and countless lesser knowns, giving what he said was a “voice to the voiceless.” He also did extensive work researching traditional music in the U.K., Spain, Italy and the Caribbean. He hoped to compile an authoritative survey of world folk music, leading to a greater understanding between peoples.

Insect >> Funding cuts based on conservative family values The Bush administration announced this week that it will withdraw funding to the UN Population Fund, saying the fund promotes forced sterilization and abortions on women in China. Both the Chinese and the UN deny it, and counter by saying that the move will in fact promote back-alley abortions, unwanted pregnancies, a rise in AIDS and death from childbirth. The cut, some $34-million (U.S.), effectively eradicates 13 per cent of the organization’s budget. Previous investigations by British and U.S. teams found no evidence linking the fund, either directly or indirectly, to programs that promote sterilization or abortions.