Quote of the week:

"It is perhaps the most irresponsible, outrageous and poorly thought out of anything I have heard from the administration." - U.S. Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle, on the Pentagon's attempt to set up an online betting parlour to help predict terrorist attacks. The program was abandoned this week.

Bike path gets the cut

The good news is that the Route Verte, Quebec's cross-province bike path, a project that has been on a 10-year development plan since 1995, is 75 per cent completed. The not so good: the path budget has been cut by 85 per cent, or $5-million, as the Charest government has put the project on hold for at least a year, prioritizing highway development instead.

An article in La Presse last week revealed the decision by the Transport Minister, Yvon Marcoux, to cut the $5-million (leaving $1-million for the maintenance of the existing part of the path); Vélo-Québec, the organization mandated by the government to develop the Route, was taken completely by surprise.

"We had to find out from a journalist," says Patrick Howe, director of public relations at Vélo-Québec. "It was really disappointing - we've been part of this project for eight years."

Howe says that angry cyclists have been blowing up his phone since the announcement, but no decisive action has been taken yet. "We're meeting with the Transport Minister on August 13, and we'll decide how to proceed from there. I think it will be very easy to mobilize people if need be, though."

The real beef, according to Howe, is that "the Route was supposed to privilege the regions. But of course the path is finished around the urban centres and not in the regions - they found the money for Montreal but not for Abitibi." » Alexandra Spunt

AQ maverick shot from cannon

A long-simmering dispute between Alliance Quebec and upstart East End chapter chairman Giuliano D'Andrea appears to have ended, as the brass has revoked his membership from the group. D'Andrea, who fashions himself as the defender of anglo Catholics and other ethnic groups within the anglo minority, has most recently irked the braintrust with comments in the Ottawa Citizen opposing AQ policy.

The anglo rights group is currently representing 50 merchants being fined for having too much English on their signs, which AQ president and lawyer Brent Tyler seeks to challenge by having them ignore the fines and fighting the law in court. In so doing they allow the provincial government to seize commercial equipment of those accused and then the AQ would, with as much publicity as possible, buy it back. D'Andrea would prefer to pay the fine and try to lobby to have the language police leave merchants alone.

"My position is that there is the law and you have to follow the law, whether it's good or bad," says D'Andrea. "You don't place yourself in a position to say, ‘I know better and I will practice civil disobedience.'"

AQ president Brent Tyler is out of the country until mid-August but has said he won't run for another term at the $50,000-a-year, two-year post next spring. D'Andrea says he's considering running for the position but Rob Bull, a media representative for AQ, says, "As far as I can tell he can't run for president if he's not a member." D'Andrea promises to challenge his expulsion. » Kristian Gravenor

More facelifts for St-Henri

No one at St-Henri housing advocacy group POPIR had heard about the city executive committee's call for tenders to give the square around Lionel-Groulx metro station a major facelift. When told that a parking lot and new buildings were going up around the dilapidated area - at a cost of $15-million - they were both skeptical and a little bit concerned. After some internal consultation, they offered some early, tentative remarks.

"We aren't necessarily against the project, if it will ease traffic congestion for downtown Montreal," says POPIR coordinator Louis Cyr. "But if they are just going to be building new condominiums, without offering anything to the long-term residents of the area, well, that would be very disturbing."

The project is designed in conjunction with the Société de transport de Montréal (STM), which has been lobbying the city to fix up the area for 10 years. The city also hopes that the square will be a new meeting place for residents. But Cyr wonders why attention is only being paid now that the Lachine Canal re-opened and the Atwater Market has gone decidedly more upscale.

"We need to know what these new buildings will be and why their construction is apparently linked to the Lachine Canal and the market," he says. "I don't know why they are investing in these kinds of projects to benefit the rich people who have just moved in here more than the people who have lived here for years." » Patrick Lejtenyi

Rear view

10 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK
July 29-August 5, 1993

On the cover: Performance artist and motorcycle fan Ava Rave, as the Mirror investigates women who live to ride. "As girls break away from traditional stereotypes, so do all bikers," writes Lucinda Catchlove. "Women ride for the same reasons as men: the speed rush, the sense of control, the sensual thrill and a lust for adventure."

• Organizers of the inaugural Divers/Cité party promise that their event will change Montreal's reputation of having a divided and apathetic gay community. Language, turf wars and a general lack of political activism had made previous marches failures.

• The Doughboys' John Kastner describes the song "End of the Hall" on their album Crush this way: "It's about being totally fucked up at a party. I wrote that song after I was out of my head at a party and I was sitting at the end of this long hall just looking down it and going oooooff."

• The Artsweek page is devoted entirely to gay works, including photographers Wendy Stephens and Stephan Dussault, band the Flirtations and filmmaker Laurie Lynd.

Angel >> Montreal's murder-capital demotion For over a decade, Montreal has been Canada's murder capital, a dubious honour now held for the first time by Toronto, recording 90 homicides in 2002. Vancouver comes second, with 69, including the 15 murdered prostitutes attributed to Robert Pickton, while Montreal came in third, with 66. According to StatsCan, the city's murder rate, at 1.9 homicides per 100,000 people, is at its lowest in 20 years. This is in stark contrast to 1991, Montreal's bloodiest year in recent history, when there were 105 homicides and 3.3 murders per 100,000. Quebec is also the province with the lowest crime rate in the country.
Insect >> Puritanical New York The Big Apple is becoming less and less appealing a place to visit for those looking to indulge in some of their favourite vices. Republican Governor George Pataki recently signed into law a sweeping bill that will ban one-price, all-you-can-drink, cheap shots and ladies' night specials. Getting a drink for free, even from a friendly bartender, is now verboten everywhere in the state. Following hard on the heels of last December's blanket smoking ban, which also covers cigarettes used as props in plays like Twelve Angry Men, city and state politicians are turning this former world capital of sleaze into a boring, shiny, squeaky-clean yawnsville.