Quote of the week:

"This is more tragic evidence of what appears to be casual disregard of journalists' safety by military commanders" - The International Federation of Journalists, on the killing of cameraman Mazen Dana in Iraq by U.S. troops on Sunday. The Federation also said a Pentagon report on previous media casualties was a "cynical whitewash."

Sexual adventurers unite!

Montrealers need a rallying cry and a little old-fashioned unity, says www.attitudes.ca co-creator, Viktoria Kalenteris. According to Kalenteris, the support and community groups for queers, BDSM enthusiasts and fetishists are segregated into closed little "pockets." "There are so many things going on in this city it's incredible, but they're all separate," she says. "This is the millennium and everybody should come together."

Kalenteris, 36, is dedicated to promoting what she calls "positive sexuality." Her non-profit site provides information about the pan-sexual rainbow, co-ordinates educational workshops and provides links to support groups and community organizations.

Assuming that enough people sign on to make it feasible, Attitudes' scheduled educational workshops, entitled Probing Holistic Sexuality, Everybody Strap-On!, Anal-Play for Everyone, Women: Learn How to Max Out Your Orgasms and Men: Learn How to Please Your Goddess, will be held at the back of the Pagakis photo studio on Parc Avenue later this year. "This is a cause for me," says Kalenteris. "I came to Montreal a year ago and I did a tour of the rather sleazy sex shops here and found that they weren't very helpful at all."

A fundraiser/launch party for the site will be taking place Friday, Aug. 22, at the Funhouse Lounge (2101 Ste-Catherine E.) and will feature bands, belly dancing, a fashion show and a good old-fashioned burlesque tease. Tickets are $13 in advance and $15 at the door, with a portion of the proceeds going to AIDS Community Care Montreal (ACCM). For more information, go to www.attitudes.ca. » Noemi Lopinto

Laughing for animal rights

Tonight, Thursday, Aug. 21, you can get your funny-on for a cause. The Montreal-based animal protection agency Global Action Network (GAN) and the Comedy Nest are hosting Comedy With a Cause, a fundraiser for animal welfare legislation.

The bill in question is C-10, an amendment to improve the cruelty-to-animals section of Canada's Criminal Code. Introduced by former justice minister Anne McLellan back in 1999, it has yet to be passed. "It's had a lot of difficulty getting through the House and the Senate," says GAN director Andrew Plumbly, who feels the change to the Code is long overdue. "The Canadian Criminal Code has not been updated in relation to animals since 1892."

Plumbly cites the proliferation of veggie foods as one example of the advancement of the animal rights movement over the past 10 years, and says that progress has been made with hunting and seal hunting.

Fur, on the other hand, has regained popularity, and for this Plumbly credits the government. "Fur has made a comeback on the backs of taxpayers," he says. "The Canadian government put $1-million into fur advertising in Canada last November alone."

Comic Steve Patterson will be headlining the evening, which starts at 8:30 p.m at Comedy Nest (4020 Ste-Catherine W.). A bar and full menu including vegan picks will be available, tickets are $12, and all proceeds go to funding the campaign for C-10. Tickets are only available through GAN's office, call 939-5525. » Alexandra Spunt

Know your copyrights

If you think copyright issues don't concern you and that a five-day intensive course focusing on the protection and enforcement of patents and trademarks is strictly the domain of eggheads, well, you might actually be right.

But if you work in publishing, the music biz, information technology, film, TV, or for that matter, find yourself busy every evening after work developing the next greatest invention since the Veg-O-Matic, why you'd be a darn fool not to consider enrolling in the Understanding the Business of Copyright course the Intellectual Property Institute of Canada and McGill University will be sponsoring next week. That is, of course, assuming you have access to the $2,530 it will cost you to enroll.

"For people in the performing arts, and in the music industry especially, with the advent of Napster and file-sharing, protection of copyright has become a huge issue," says Dina Cindric, special projects co-ordinator for the McGill University Centre for Continuing Education. "Among other things, the course will be addressing this and offering insight on how one might further protect their intellectual property."

Those interested can also look forward to such exciting topics as "Economic Rights vs. Authors' Rights," "Identifying Authors, Owners and Infringers," and "Exploiting Copyright in Business," all of which will be analyzed and explained by some of the top movers and shakers in their respective industries. The first day of classes is August 25 and at press time there were still a few openings available, but they're filling up fast. For more information go to www.cce.mcgill.ca/ip. » Chris Barry

Rear view

13 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK
Aug. 23-30, 1990

On the cover: Actress Rachel Ward as the widow Fay in After Dark, My Sweet, a film adaptation of the Jim Thompson novel. She credits the script for her strong performance, saying, "When you're dealing with melodramatic codswallop it's hard not to come out stinking of shit."

&149; A new conciliation program for victims of conjugal violence is greeted with skepticism on the part of social workers. "The minute the woman is in the same room as a man, all sorts of dynamics happen that a lawyer isn't going to understand," says Gail Small, who runs NDG's Auberge Transition, a women's shelter. "Of course the woman is going to say yes to a settlement."

&149; Upstart indie promoters Festival de Rock Independent Montréalais [FRIM] launch their first three-day-long rock extravaganza at the Old Port. While accusing the established Festival International Rock de Montreal [FIRM] of ignoring local bands, FRIM spokesperson Jacques Pellerin admits the event "is risky, but we have nothing to lose and a lot to say." Bands include Les Taches, Idées Noires and the legendary Camel Clutch.

Angel >> Harvesting organs Let's face it, you don't need your organs when you're dead, whether it's brain dead or dead from a heart attack. Two Ottawa doctors are pushing for the right to harvest solid organs from patients who have died from cardiac arrest, as well as patients who are not technically brain dead but who have been taken off life support. While the procedure would have to be carefully monitored to avoid hasty harvesting, it would ultimately save hundreds of lives a year. Another life-saving suggestion is to make organ removal the standard procedure after fatal car accidents, meaning only those who did not want to donate their organs would have to sign the back of their licences.
Insect >> Jail-crazed Americans A new report issued by the American Department of Justice reveals the alarming extent to which the U.S. imprisons its own citizens. More than 5.6-million Americans are in jail or have served time there, 1 in 37 adults, the world's highest rate of incarceration. For black males, the chances of ending up in the slammer are 1 in 3; for Hispanics, 1 in 6; for whites, 1 in 17. Nearly 1 in 4 of all inmates have been locked up for drug-related offenses, most of them non-violent. The report concludes that by 2010, 7.7-million Americans will be able to add convict to their CV.