Quote of the week:

"You half expect - half wish - her head would swivel 360 degrees as that ungodly French-Canadian glottal accent sobs." - Critic A. A. Gill, on Celine Dion's Vegas show, in October's Vanity Fair.

NDG/CDN cashes in

First, the English Montreal School Board closed the elementary school in the spring of 2001. Then, the adult ed school that took over wouldn't even allow the kids to play in the gym. But the sad story of the former John XXIII school on Old Orchard is destined to have a happy ending.

The city will announce next week the $2.9-million purchase of the Caisse Populaire on Upper Lachine, which will be turned into a gym and community centre, part of a project that will see an indoor bocce court put into Oxford Park. And a lot of other stories in the West End area look like they'll also end on a happy note thanks to a provincial urban renewal program which sees Quebec footing half of costs of new projects, the borough one quarter and the central city the rest.

According to NDG/CDN borough chief Michael Applebaum, other new works to be announced soon include a $900,000 recreational centre on Mountain Sites, a $92,000 beautification ("more trees and garbage cans, that sort of thing") of Victoria, $166,000 to renovate a chalet in de la Savanne Park, and $3.6-million for a building at 6767 Côte-des-Neiges.

"In the end it will ultimately become a $10-million facility which has a library, large meeting room and community centre," says Applebaum. "There are areas that have been neglected for a long time."

Applebaum says he's also working "very hard" at finishing a deal that would finally turn the Cinema V into a community centre. » Kristian Gravenor

24-hour party peaceniks

This Sunday, Sept. 21, marks the 22nd annual International Day of World Peace, as designated by the United Nations. To celebrate, local artists are throwing an all-night bash that will culminate with a march on the Mount Royal Tam Tam scene, after a night of electronic fun and dancing that will run in conjunction with the Earthdance parties. The annual event, which started in 1996 and returns to Montreal for the fifth time, will be fêted in 120 cities in 50 countries, and simulcast across the world via the Net.

"In other years, the party was pretty underground here," says Nerds Records president Stéphane Bergeron, who, along with local promoters Fluodelik, is organizing the party. "We had maybe 500 people at the last one. But this year we want it above the ground." According to the Earthdance Web site, last year's event linked 200,000 people together across the globe. This year, they're shooting for seven figures.

"We want a million people dancing around the world at the same time," says Bergeron. "And we think around 20-million people will be watching it on the Net, connected to what's happening."

The party begins Saturday night at the World Beat Club (1234 de la Montagne) at 8 p.m. with performances by various artists, and is taken over by DJs from midnight to 9 a.m. Cost is $15 in advance, $20 at the door. The Creative March for Peace gathers at Parc Lafontaine at noon on Sunday and winds up at the Tam Tam site, with DJs and activities until 9 p.m. For more info, visit www.earthdance.org or www.nerdsrecords.com. » Patrick Lejtenyi

Potluck against pork

For a province that has more pigs than humans, we treat our hogs appallingly, say animal rights activists at Global Action Network (GAN). Locked up in cages, tortured, driven insane after a lifetime living in their own feces - this is an intolerable state of affairs, made worse by government subsidies and popular acceptance. So this Sunday, Sept. 21, GAN will be holding an all-vegan potluck at their office to educate people about the gruesome, inhumane conditions pigs are subject to before they're slaughtered and end up on our plates.

Just how badly are pigs treated at their farms? As piglets, says GAN's director Andrew Plumbly, "their tails are sliced off, their teeth are chipped, and then they're castrated - all without anaesthetic. In the movie we're showing, there's a quick scene of a piglet being picked up, its scrotum sliced open and the testicles pulled out. Their screams are enough to raise the roof. It looks extremely painful."

Not enough attention has been paid to the ethical dilemmas surrounding the consequences of our collective love of pork, Plumbly says, so the evening will focus on the pigs' inhumane treatment. It will be accompanied by a screening of the NFB documentary Bacon: le film.

The event is free, although Plumbly asks that participants bring a vegan dish to serve four people. Guests are welcome from 6 p.m. on at the GAN office (372 Ste-Catherine W., #308). The screening begins at 7:30 p.m. » Patrick Lejtenyi

REAR-VIEW MIRROR

17 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK
Sep. 4-24, 1986

On the cover: A look at five choreographers shaping Montreal dance. The five are Ginette Laurin, Edouard Lock, Linda Rabin, James Kudelka and Paul-André Fortier, all of whom are presenting new shows for the upcoming season. "Ballet pretends that sex doesn't exist. Not that I am obsessed with sex but I am always trying to seduce," says Fortier.

• Pollution is killing the St. Lawrence beluga whales. One report by researchers shows that 80 per cent of whales studied had over 50 ppm (parts per million) of PCBs in their blubber. Canada bans the sale of fish with two ppm.

• "Though this vinyl timewarp reflects a derivative style, the band has adeptly infused enough freshness to maintain an interest in the sound," reads the review of the Gruesomes' Tyrants of Teen Trash.

• Four movies at the World Film Fest show that Canadians are "producing a varied and vital cinema." As proof, José Arroyo points to Bachar Ch'bib's Evixion, in which "there is no dialogue except for a crazy poetess who spouts radical doggerel."

Angel >> Good pot Even though millions of Canadians know where to get it, the feds still can't grow it. Medicinal marijuana advocates savaged the government's pot crop as extremely weak and essentially useless. A study by Canadians for Safe Access, a patients' rights group that's pushing for safe, effective weed, shows that federal pot has only about three per cent THC, well below the 10.2 per cent as advertised, and that it contains traces of lead and arsenic. Some of the country's first patients allowed to smoke the pot are demanding their money back, saying they will go back to the street to buy their pot, where quality is usually assured.
Insect >> Agricultural subsidies The collapse of the WTO talks in Cancun this weekend may have been cheered by some activists, but the major consequence is that the body governing world trade is still no closer to resolving some of its principal problems. The developed world's own agricultural subsidies, combined with high tariffs on food imports, effectively block economic development in the world's poorest countries. The industrial world spends roughly $350-billion a year on farm subsidies and $50-billion on foreign aid. So where is all that much-vaunted free trade anyway?