Quote of the week:

"He’s the cochon, we might do him." - Former Hells Angel Stéphane "Godasse" Gagné, recounting to a courtroom how another member identified Journal de Montréal reporter Michel Auger in December 1997. Auger was shot six times in September 2000, but survived.

Expanded Mission accomplished

Not that there’s a competition or anything, but the Welcome Hall Mission has just leapfrogged the Maison du Père to become the city’s second-largest men’s shelter, and now trails only the 370-bed Old Brewery Mission.

Thanks to a $600,000 federal grant, the 111-year-old Welcome Hall Mission has expanded from 105 to 175 beds, sits 60 more at its daily dinners and now welcomes the wheelchair-bound. Previously, wheelchair-users would be sent elsewhere or else be physically lifted around the premises by one of the Mission’s 15 staffers. But among the renos are many new showers, including some specifically for the disabled.

"The two new dorms are very bright and offer probably one of the better views of the city of Montreal. You can see the skyline very clearly and we’re just two blocks from the Bell Centre," says Edward Raddatz, the Mission’s executive director. Raddatz credits a "shortage of government housing" for the consistently growing need for men’s shelters, pointing out that after 1963, when it moved from where Place du Canada now sits, the Mission remained a small operation, offering just 37 beds until a decade ago.

He admits that all might not be thrilled by the expansion. "Are the neighbours happy? That’s a good question," he says. "I think in any place where there’s a shelter near a residential area, there are concerns among the neighbours, but one has to realize that the mission was here before the neighbourhood became somewhat upwardly mobile." » Kristian Gravenor

Cameras to nab
red light burners

In the not-so-distant future, drivers burning red lights in Montreal will be recorded by camera and mailed fines for their offence, the Mirror has learned. City traffic czar Jeremy Searle likes the photographic-eye-in-the-sky gizmos and if things go his way, the system to nab those disrespectful of the colour red will be approved this fall.

"We’ll be holding public information meetings of the Transport Commission on the subject of red light cameras, à la Toronto and elsewhere else in the world," he says. "For some reason Montreal always seems to be the last to get things like this."

The system would record the licence plates of red-light runners and send the appropriate traffic ticket to the corresponding address. "We have to civilize motorists," Searle says. "There’s all sorts of debates on tickets in the mail, but one thing most in society would agree on is that there should be no tolerance for somebody who drives their car through a red light."

Searle says that in typical red-light camera systems, many of the cameras don’t actually work. "Most are dummies, but you have five or 10 in the city that are actually operational," he says.

Residents, citizens and others will be invited to offer their input on the issue in hearings to be determined at a later date. » Kristian Gravenor

Second-hand chic

If you are one of those people who finds shopping for clothes to be a guilt-inducing activity - perhaps because of the slave-like conditions most clothes are manufactured in, or perhaps because the transient nature of fashion, coupled with low-quality production, means that even the most costly attire lasts only one season - Friperie La Gaillarde may be the answer.

This past Saturday, Aug. 23, the store held an outdoor event as part of the cultural festivities held this summer in the city’s southwest, showcasing their fall-winter line. The store is a non-profit organization that seeks to encourage textile recycling by selling the usual second-hand garb, but also by redesigning pieces from unusable items.

"We have a designer, as well as many artists from the community, who transform the clothing that can’t be sold," says Marie-Eve Proulx, the store’s marketing director.

"Originally the store was founded with the idea to help women coming out of prison," says Proulx, having worked from La Gailliarde’s beginning three years ago in conjunction with CFAD (Continuité-familiale auprès des détenues), an organization that aids incarcerated mothers and their families. No longer officially affiliated with CFAD, the store’s concept has since expanded to serve the entire community as well as to support local artists.

La Gaillarde also has recycled jewellery, and the space is frequently used for art exhibitions. Prices for original recycled items start around $30, going as high as $200 for really extravagant pieces like ball gowns.

La Friperie Gaillarde is located at 3981 Notre-Dame W. For more info, call 989-5134. » Alexandra Spunt

Rear view

14 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK
Aug. 31-Sep 14, 1989

On the cover: Curator of 100 Days of Contemporary Art, Claude Gosselin. The fourth annual installment looks at installation art, bringing together 20 artists from Canada, the U.S. and Europe. Space for some of the larger exhibits is a problem. "We’ve built the Olympic Stadium and the Botanical Gardens," Gosselin says. "We also need large buildings for the arts, very flexible and open to lots of possibilities."

• "Lying or loitering in a state of intoxication" is only part of one of the city’s 8,205 by-laws that 14,000 Montrealers are accused of breaking annually. "Everything in this town is sort of illegal," says Serge "Artman" Lotosky, a self-described "art terrorist."

• The first annual Mirror music directory contains hundreds of entries, descriptions and contact info for local musicians, from Abbé Martine Arbiste and American Devices to Xcusé and Matthew Zaidan. Included are photos of Bliss, Chinese Backwards, Oliver Jones and the Doughboys, among others.

• This issue marks the last time the Mirror would appear bi-weekly.

Angel >> Wesley Willis The 6-foot-5, 300-plus-pound, schizophrenic Chicago-based singer/songwriter and artist died last week, age 40, after a long battle with leukemia. Having penned such memorable songs as "Lick a Llama’s Ass," "Casper the Homosexual Friendly Ghost" and "I Whupped Batman’s Ass," as well as over 700 others (each ending with his signature "Rock over London, rock over Chicago"), this gentle head-butter overcame the voices in his heads - his "demons" - as well as a poor and violent childhood to become a near-legend in the rock ’n’ roll community. Although he recorded over 50 albums, the third volume of his greatest hits, released by Jello Biafra’s Alternative Tentacles, will be released this fall.
Insect >> Ugly milestones in Iraq The death last Tuesday of an American soldier in Hamariyah brought the total number of U.S. troops killed since the cessation of major combat to 139 - now higher than the total killed during the shooting war. Of these, 62 are from hostile action; the rest are from vehicle crashes and other accidents. During the period of high-intensity fighting that concluded on May 1, 138 Americans died. Total deaths now stand at 277: 178 by enemy action and 99 in accidents. Now, facing a split population at home, the Bush Administration still has no clear policy regarding the country, and the ominous word "quagmire" is being tossed around.