Southern civility

The Centre for Developing-Area Studies, an academic research centre at McGill, is turning 40 years old next week and is planning a big blowout. But don’t looking for party hats and free-flowing booze - between Feb. 19 and 21, the centre will be holding the Hemispheric Civil Society Conference, discussing such weighty matters as institution-building, conflict resolution, public policy, globalization and the role of civil disobedience and building civil society. The focus is on the fragile democracies in Latin America.

“The first object of the conference is to present a detailed analysis of improving the developing civil society in Latin America and the development of political institutions,” says Esteban Nichols, a conference organizer. “A healthy civil society is crucial to the development of a healthy political life.”

The conference will feature speakers from Brazil, Venezuela and Colombia, political hotspots all. “We are trying to present the reality to create increased awareness among the Latin American community, and the general public as well, and to generate a sense of the beginning of a dialogue,” Nichols says. “But the main focus is on civil society.”

The conference will be chock full with academic jargon and sagely nodding eggheads, but it is all free. The conference begins next Wednesday, Feb. 19 in the cavernous Leacock 232. For more info, see www.mcgill.ca/cdas/hemispheric/. : » Patrick Lejtenyi

Yanks want peace

Audrey Schirmer came to Montreal from Boston over 30 years ago, and knows an unpopular U.S. war when she sees one. “I came here during the Vietnam war, and I see an awful lot of similarities with what’s going on today,” says the 60-year-old American ex-pat. It’s the lying and hypocrisy she sees coming from the White House during these dark, gloomy days that is spurring her and a dozen or so fellow Montreal-resident Americans to hold a weekly vigil outside the U.S. consulate on St-Alexandre below Ste-Catherine, the first of which was held last Tuesday, Feb. 11 between noon and 1 p.m.

“What’s happening now is terrible, and I’m scared to death,” she says. “I think Bush is crazy. The implications after the war will lead to many more 9-11s.” She says she and her fellow Americans will hold the vigils, every Tuesday until, she says, “the threat of war or the war itself ends. There are vigils going on everywhere across the States. We won’t be silent.” Schirmer invites everyone, regardless of nationality, to join the vigils.

Meanwhile, if you’ve missed the big peace marches, this Saturday, Feb. 15, may be your last chance to get in on the protest. Organizers from Échec à la guerre, the main anti-war group here, are saying that the march may be the last before bombs start falling over Baghdad. The march takes place at 1 p.m. at René-Lévesque and Peel. :» Patrick Lejtenyi

Biddle memorial pondered

The face of jazz in Montreal might be gone but the memory will live on, according to Mayor Tremblay, who has embraced the suggestion that some sort of monument or landmark will be named in honour of dearly departed jazzman Charlie Biddle.

“He wants to ask around,” says press attaché Darren Becker. “It may take a month or two, but everything is on the table.” One idea, originally suggested in a letter to the editor in the Gazette, suggested that the Lionel-Groulx metro be renamed in Biddle’s honour. The gesture would eradicate the name of the old philosopher/cleric whose writings are now considered racist and offensive to many. The Biddle name might also look good at the transportation hub of the largely black Little Burgundy area, but Robin Philpot, of the Societé St-Jean Baptiste, says that Groulx remains an important figure.

“Historians will tell that one thing Lionel Groulx succeeded in doing is making people realize that the Conquest wasn’t a gift from above,” says Philpot, who says that Biddle’s years in provincial backwaters taught him to empathize with the sufferings of small-town francophones.

Metro authorities also believe the metro name switch would be hard to pull off, considering that virtually all stations are named after nearby streets. “Such changes are very, very rare,” comments STM flak Odile Paradis, who says she’s aware of the motion to rename the Lionel Groulx station but says she hasn’t seen any formal request to consider any name switch. : » Kristian Gravenor

Angel >> Protecting Mount Royal While the city seems keen on sacrificing Île Notre-Dame to whatever development schemes may come, at least our beloved mountain will retain its bucolic status quo. Last week the province announced that the mountain would be declared a protected landmark, meaning that the crown of green space, including Mount Royal Park, will be declared a nature preserve, while an outer ring of old buildings will be declared an historic district. The three summits, in Westmount, Outremont and the Park, will now enjoy provincial protection, to be managed by the city.
Insect >> Second-rate propaganda There was much to-do last week when U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell presented to the UN Security Council his “irrefutable evidence” that Iraq was hiding weapons of mass destruction. The problem: some of the evidence may indeed have been refutable, dating as it did, in some cases, back 10 years or more. Pointing to a British government report, Powell seemed to either not know or care that much of the material was plagiarized from an old academic journal - spelling and grammar mistakes included - written by a California grad student. If this kind of behaviour was discovered in a university, Powell may well have been expelled, but for some reason, the U.S. press didn’t seem to think it worth reporting.