Rental Board looks west

As irony would have it, the Olympic Village—perhaps the biggest residential boondoggle in the city’s history—became the one and only home of our local Rental Board in 1996, when cutbacks led the province to close other rent courts in Verdun, Côte-des-Neiges and Ahuntsic. Critics raged that the Olympic Village was prohibitively inaccessible for many city dwellers, particularly those who use public transit. The trek to the Rental Board was a difficult one for many elderly folk forced to either brave a hilly walk up from the Viau metro or hop one of a number of buses. Tenants activist Arnold Bennett immediately cried foul and loudly announced that the consolidation sucked, but the province wouldn’t budge.

“They said they had no place to rent, that it’s too expensive and not in the budget. It was complete crap. It showed where their damn priorities were,” says Bennett. But the current blazing apartment market has changed all that. In recent years, the number of cases before Rental Board judges have hit all-time highs—for example, rent-hike disputes have risen 212 per cent over the last three years, according to Rental Board rep Mary-Andrée Jobin. The overflow has led to evening court dates and a couple of trial sessions in Westmount and St-Laurent. Permanent new offices in such western areas are a possibility, says Jobin. “We’re having negotiations, but nothing is signed yet,” she notes.

Bennett says the city has offered the province cheap use of now-unused former courthouses in several westerly ex-municipalities. : » Kristian Gravenor

Coast to coast
peace calls

Building on a series of smaller events held across the country over the last month and a half, a massive anti-war rally will be held here on Sunday, Nov. 17, in conjunction with a dozen-plus others from Halifax to Victoria over the weekend. Organizers from Échec à la guerre, a coalition of some 40 different groups, are hoping the rally draws thousands, if not tens of thousands, to the streets, voicing their opposition to American war rumblings over Iraq. The coalition includes representatives from student bodies, unions, international development agencies, Christian, Jewish and Muslim organizations and dozens of others, including the Fédération des infirmières et infirmiers du Québec (FIIQ), whose Web site is hosting one of the protest flyers (www.fiiq.qc.ca/echecalaguerre.htm).

“Nurses see the consequence of violence and, perhaps more than other groups, are very sensitized to it,” says Lise Martel, the FIIQ treasurer and executive committee member. “We know what kind of disastrous consequences a war can have on entire societies.”

The march, which will meet at noon on Sunday at Park Lafontaine, will wind its way through the city to the Complexe Guy-Favreau on René-Lévesque W. Its aims: to oppose any attack on Iraq; to get the Canadian government to condemn any such attack and refuse any kind of participation in it; and to encourage all countries to resist U.S. pressure on the UN to approve it. : » Patrick Lejtenyi

White label boycott

Ever notice that there seem to be fewer and fewer national bank ATMs out there, yet there never seems to be a shortage of the private “white label” variety? You probably have, and that’s because the proliferation of private automated money machines has mushroomed in the past few years, to the extent that they now account for over one-third of all ATMs in Canada. And their numbers are growing. Two consumer groups, Montreal-based Option consommateurs and the Ottawa-based Public Interest Advocacy Centre, last week launched a national campaign calling on consumers to boycott the privately owned ATMs and point-of-sale terminals, charging that they demand unfairly exorbitant fees.

“When you add on the service fees that the banks charge on top of everything, you can easily find yourself paying as much as $4.50 just to withdraw $20 from your account,” says Maryse Guenette of Options consommateurs, “and that simply isn’t acceptable.”

Noting that merchants who install the private ATMs and point-of-sale terminals in their establishments are profiting unfairly on the backs of their customers, the consumer groups are urging the public to “Just say no” to the machines, or to any merchant who refuses to honour your debit card and directs you towards their “conveniently” located private terminal.

“If we don’t stop the advance of these machines now,” warns Guenette, “it will soon be difficult to use your debit card at all without having to pay convenience fees.” : » Chris Barry

Angel >> Government-sanctioned safe injection sites Revealed last weekend was federal Health Minister Anne McLellan’s proposal to introduce “safe injection sites”—shooting galleries—in Canada’s three biggest cities—Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver, a concept that’s been advocated for years by street workers. The sites aim to do three things: get users, and their used needles, off the streets; provide clean needles, and provide treatment and counselling should clients require or request it. Public consultations are scheduled for the end of November, and the first site could open within a year.
Insect >> Parking Montreal The company responsible for the city’s parking meters bought $300,000 worth of fancy new parking meters in 1999 only to discover that they’re useless. Why? Because the meters, supposed to be placed curbside, interfered with snow removal. So they were placed further back, near buildings. But the meter window faces the building, thus impossible for Green Onions to read. Now, the company wants to spend $270,000 on meters with “backward screens” that can be read by perambulating parking police. Following several previous embarrassments, the city is expected to nix its deal with the company and resume parking responsibilities itself.