Quote of the week:

"It should be very easy for a student bar to make money." - Concordia Student Union's new V-P of Finance Tyler Woodsworth, concerned and puzzled by the $1.3-million debt racked up since 1984 by Cusacorp, the student-run company that owns the university's bars, in Saturday's Gazette.

Superhospital dough
ill-spent, say critics

The proposed superhospitals have long been the bête noire for the Coalition of Physicians for Social Justice, a non-profit group of doctors advocating for a better public health-care system. But when the Quebec Liberals announced on Monday plans to limit the spending, size and scope of the McGill and Université de Montréal projects, they still considered the government's actions as steps in the wrong direction.

"It's positive, but it still places Montreal in a bizarre position of the government pledging more money for hospital renewal than any other city in the Western world," says Coalition spokesperson Dr. James Farquhar, referring to the $1.6-billion the province announced for the projects. The big problem, Farquhar says, is that the money is going where it's needed the least. "There's not an urgent need to renew the hospitals. There's no new money for new staff, to hire professor-doctors, for new technicians. They're not sprucing up the staff, they're only sprucing up the buildings."

The Health Ministry will also place strict guidelines on the number of beds available in each facility, the levels of funding from the government and will be asking for recommendations from the universities by December this year on which hospitals should be closed.

Instead of all the waste and the fuss, Farquhar says, the money should be used to address some of the chronic and ever-pressing needs the health-care system is still facing: overcrowding in emergency rooms, long waiting times, shortage of doctors and nurses, home care, long-term care and mental health care. » Patrick Lejtenyi

Forests avoid
inferno repeat

Sometimes bad weather is a good thing. While Quebecers may not be boasting the best tans this summer, they can celebrate the fact that, at present, the number of forest fires, and the amount of land burned, is way down from last year, and not a single one remains raging in the province.

This is in stark contrast to last summer, when according to the Société de protection des forêts contre le feu (SOPFEU), a non-profit organization aimed at preventing and suppressing forest fires, there was a total of 803 fires, which destroyed 232,400 hectares of forest (the average over the last five summers being 498 fires, destroying 54,400 hectares).

At 481, the number of fires started this year has been pretty much average, but the actual destruction of forest land to date this year is only at 9,700 hectares. "That difference," explains Caroline Girard, a SOPFEU communications officer, "is due to the rain as well as the cooler temperatures recently." But not to humans, she notes, who are responsible for 70 per cent of forest fires, be it from camping pits or drunken St-Jean bonfires. She warns, however, that "the weather can all change very quickly, though."

For everything you ever wanted to know about forest fires but were afraid to ask, you can go to their Web site at www.sopfeu.qc.ca. » Alexandra Spunt

Graffiti guns for hire

The West End and Côte-des-Neiges property owners realized that fighting graffiti wasn't working, so now they're trying a different strategy. Fifty grand from the federal crime prevention budget has been set aside for the Graffitable project, which will involve, among other things, hiring a member of the notorious graffiti collective Kops Krew to speak to young people to discourage the unwelcome marking of private property. They're also available to paint murals for free under the project, which is operated by Operation Tandem, the city's crime prevention program.

One of the duo's completed works, at the Akhavan grocery store on Poirier, features a traditional Persian meal alongside a crazed-out set of tags. Tony's Formalwear and the Gemst Art Studio - which in the past has complained bitterly the relentless defacing of its wall on the Décarie expressway - are also in negotiations to be souped up by the squad.

Tandem rep Terri Ste-Marie is hoping that such art will make illicit spray can scribblers think twice before bombing without an invite, and is also trying to sell storeowners on the free paint jobs. "So far with merchants it's half and half. A lot don't want anything spray painted on their walls," she says.

NDG property owners welcoming the concept of free artwork - or for those interested in attending free soon-to-be-scheduled spray painting workshops in Benny Park - can call 489-6567. » Kristian Gravenor

Rear view

10 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK
July 22-July 29, 1993

On the cover: Brit het transvestite Eddie Izzard, profiled for Just for Laughs. "Being a TV transvestite is still considered very underground, it's not even accepted among the gays and lesbians," he tells Gaëtan Charlebois. "But everyone, of every race, colour, creed or sexual persuasion is phobic in some area. Anyone can be a pain in the ass or a dickhead."

• A news item warns that efforts to crack down on food, beer and drug sellers at the Tam-Tams will "probably draw a strong reaction, and possibly violence."

• French pop duo Niagara play Montreal. "After we played in the States, record companies wanted to sign us there, but they wanted to do English versions of our songs," says keyboardist Daniel Chenevez. "And we refused. And for that reason, they didn't sign us." The first two-thirds of the article examined the group in the context of France's gender wars, its rich history of mastering the use of images, the band's first three albums, the stylistic difference between them and the French press reaction.

Angel >> Promoting telecom competition Last Monday's ruling by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) is another victory for the country's smaller phone companies, and another blow against the monopolies. Again citing the need for levelling the telecommunications playing field, the CRTC ruled that the two big carriers, Bell and Telus, must offer their high-speed Internet service to their competition's customers, and not just their own. However, the ruling, one of many in recent months that favours smaller telephone companies like Sprint at the monopolies' expense, will not take effect immediately, as Bell and Telus have both complained that they need more time to assess the ruling's impact.
Insect >> Poacher-friendly cutbacks Even Quebec Minister of Forests, Wildlife and Parks Pierre Corbeil admits that the $5.5-million cutbacks to his budget announced last week may have an adverse effect on the level of poaching in the province. The minister says that instead of having enough qualified agents on the ground, he will be relying on citizens to report infractions by calling a toll-free hotline, SOS-braconnage (1-800-463-2191). The cuts will also result in the laying off of 45 seasonal conservation agents, many of whom haven't worked enough hours to be eligible for employment insurance.