Quote of the week:

"Je me souviens" - Greenpeace activists demonstrating Monday, urging the Quebec Liberals to make good on their campaign promise to make labelling genetically modified food obligatory by St-Jean Baptiste Day, 2004.

Partyers push for vote

The fight to save Montreal's afterhours scene is shifting into high gear, with a climax expected by mid-August. Now that the organizers of Collectif Montréal la nuit, a loose, ad hoc group of afterhours supporters, had a sit-down with borough brass yesterday, Wednesday, June 4, and deposited a 6,000-name petition to city council on Tuesday, June 3, the wheels are turning and the megacity's democratic mechanisms are in motion.

Next week's Journal Ville-Marie, a small community paper, will publish notice that a registry will be open on Monday, June 16, for residents opposed to new limits on afterhours operations to sign. Enough signatures will mean a localized referendum on the issue. Said referendum must be held within 60 days of the registry's signing.

Patrick Legendre, one of Collectif's directors, says the party people are going to take it in a landslide.

"We have more resources. We've been out campaigning, and the city hasn't," he says. "The only people who will vote for the new changes are those few neighbours right next to the clubs. The city is really isolated on this issue. Even the residents' association is against it."

The registry will be open for one day only, so Legendre and his co-organizers are mobilizing to get the signatures, and eventually, if all goes well, the vote out. He estimates that the registry will only need about 125 signatures to push for a referendum, which will be decided on a 50-per-cent-plus-one count, with no minimum number of votes needed. » Patrick Lejtenyi

Cop-Algerian
Ottawa dust-up

A group of Montreal Algerians who occupied Immigration Minister Denis Coderre's Ottawa office last Thursday night, and were later arrested, may press charges against police for alleged brutality.

"These people were already lying face-down on the ground," says Andrea Schmidt of the No One Is Illegal campaign. "Police tasered them on their backs and necks while they were clearly immobilized." Photos taken at the demonstration show deep burn marks on protesters' necks, and in one case, a long gash on a man's skull he attributes to a pistol butt.

The group of 10 Algerians and two supporters were protesting Canada's decision to lift a moratorium on deporting Algerians. Until last year, Canada did not deport Algerians because of dangers posed by a civil war that has killed up to 150,000 people.

Police deny the accusations of brutality. "The officer was trying to taser other areas of the body and, because of clothing, couldn't. So he went for the neck," says Staff Sergeant Monique Ackland, of Ottawa police media relations. "It's a jolt. It's very, very quick. They recover instantaneously." That, however, contradicts a 2002 government of Ontario press release stating tasers "will penetrate up to two inches of clothing."

And the gash? "The duty inspector says [the protester] started to bang his head to aggravate [a scratch he received]. It's something people will do to make the injury look worse."

Yet Bob Thomson, a member of the police watchdog Ottawa Witness Group, says police went too far. "I witnessed an RCMP officer put a taser gun onto a woman's breast and fire it." » Craig Segal

SARS-free adult fun!

While ungrounded SARS fears continue to wreak havoc on the health of local tourism, Montrealers can take heart in the knowledge that the level-headed and brave souls who populate the adult Internet industry will not be deterred from holding their annual Cybernet Expo at the downtown Delta Hotel this weekend.

"We have had a few cancellation requests because of SARS, but not enough to cancel the event," says chief organizer Fay Sharp of Indiana-based Trade Show Productions. Sharp, who admits that attendance to this year's Cybernet Expo is down significantly due to the perceived crisis, claims Montreal continues to be the destination of choice for delegates, this being the third straight year that the series of workshops and conferences will be held here.

"There is a great degree of tolerance for our industry in Montreal, and it's a great place to visit. It's very adult-friendly - your strip clubs, your bars, your food - you can just go on and on. Nevertheless, I'm still regularly having to inform people that there have never been any travel advisories issued against Montreal. Cancelling because of SARS is a pretty lame excuse as far as I'm concerned."

For more information about attending this year's Cybernet Expo 2003, which will be running from today until late Saturday night and is open to anyone interested in the mechanics of Web pornography, visit their site at www.cybernetexpo.com. » Chris Barry

Rear view

16 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK
May 22-June 11, 1987

On the cover: A marine grunt with a thousand-yard-stare, as the Mirror looks at movies about Vietnam (Platoon, Full Metal Jacket, Hanoi Hilton etc). The Mirror opined that the films that attempted to present the "real" war and educate the public, "can easily lead to further obscuring an understanding of Vietnam, as an interchange of history and fantasy occurs once again."

• The evils of incinerators are explored, with a close eye on the Des Carrières incinerator on the Plateau. Leftover slag "containing the bulk of dioxin and heavy metal waste is simply transported in leaking trucks to an open waste site at Rivières des Prairies - and dumped." Money is the big factor in the city's waste management, and recycling isn't an option (the incinerator was closed in 1993).

• French punk duo legends Bérurier Noir play Montreal. They will, the Mirror promises, "drain the passive nihilism out of our youth."

• The Corona Theatre opens after years of neglect, bureaucratic wrangling and renovating. Kudos go to Les Petites Filles aux Allumettes Inc., an art collective.

Angel >>Tabulating gambling-related deaths Coroners across the country will be noting whenever gambling is cited as a factor in suicide, a move long advocated by gambling critics. The plan involves keeping track of every time gambling is mentioned in a suicide note, or when interviews with family members determine the victim had a gambling problem. Until now, each province had its own method of keeping track, with some provinces, notably Ontario, low-balling the figure. Even though provincial governments benefit hugely from government-owned casinos, and are interested in keeping the reported number of gambling-related suicides as low as possible, this may shed some light on an under-reported occurrence.
Insect >> The RAVE Act The guardians of vice and virtue in the United States are intent on cracking down on anyone having more fun than they are, in the name of protecting the children (what else?). The Reducing Americans' Vulnerability to Ecstasy Act would make it easier to fine and jail club owners for their customers' on-premise drug use. Signed into law last month, it was initially defeated for being too narrowly focused on raves, so, in their great wisdom and puritan zeal, lawmakers made it tougher, covering concerts and open-air music festivals. Protesters claim the Act tramples freedom of expression, and are planning demonstrations in New York, Los Angeles and Seattle.