Quote of the week:

"I think he's ready. Campaign funds have been raised and the recruitment drive is in full swing." - Political organizer Leo Housakos, on Gazette publisher Larry Smith's interest in running for the leadership of Canada's new Conservative Party, in Monday's Le Devoir.

School elections whitewash

The pink-skinned people of Montreal - those whose skin tone is known as white - once again managed to grab far more than their fair share of the 113 school board commissioner positions decided last weekend. While Caucasians celebrate their good fortunes, a coalition of groups is grousing about the perpetual shortage of visible minority representation in the running of our schools.

"We didn't keep track of everybody running but from our tally we saw no more than 15 to 20 candidates from visible minorities running," says Fo Niemi, executive director of CRARR, known in its long form as the Centre for Research Action on Race Relations. "Visible minorities make up a substantial proportion of the population of Montreal but are radically underrepresented in both in the English and French boards, although the Italian and Jewish communities are prominent in the English boards, so there's some diversity there."

Some consider it a thankless task to run for the commissioner post, which pays around $8,000 per year over the four-year term (the president gets about $18,000 per annum). But the job is considered a training ground for future provincial or federal politicians, and commissioners have a say in the management of multimillion-dollar annual budgets and thousands of employees.

"Schools are providing more than just education for kids. There's adult education, special programs for the poor, youth against violence - and they manage lots of assets and facilities that could help communities," says Niemi, who also suggests that non-citizens should be allowed to vote in future board elections. » Kristian Gravenor

Love your local tree

This Saturday, Nov. 22, has been designated Tree Day by a coalition of eco-activist groups hoping to save our woody friends from the chainsaw. And to celebrate the greatness of all things tree-related, as well as to continue their anti-logging activism, they will be running a day of family-oriented fun and education.

"This initiative is to pay homage to trees, as well as to offer solutions to the question of the forests and forestry in Quebec, which aren't in good shape," says François Barrette, one of the event's organizers and better known as Brother Bear (Frère Ours), a teller of Amerindian mythology tales. "We want to share the importance and beauty of our trees."

There's more to it than that, of course. Proceeds from the event will go to fund the coalition's "Save René-Levasseur Island" campaign, which hopes to nip old-growth logging in the bud. The island, 350 kilometres north of Baie Comeau, was formed by a meteorite colliding with the Earth 210-million years or so ago, and harbours one of the last remaining old growth boreal forests in the province. The coalition wants to stop the forestry multinational Kruger, which has its eyes on 90 per cent of the island's forests. Coalition organizers say no public consultation's been carried out, and are asking the provincial government to step in.

Tree Day takes place on Saturday, Nov. 22 at 500 Mont-Royal E. from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Music, panel discussions, conferences and activities are on the agenda. Cost is $5. » Patrick Lejtenyi

Lofts settle Plateau battle

The air on the Plateau may be getting a bit cleaner soon. One of the neighbourhood's oldest and, according to some residents, stinkiest tenants is shutting down and being turned into loft apartments. The Paris Star garment factory, on the corner of Rachel and St-Dominique, will be inhabitable to people willing to shell out between $119,000 to $450,000 per unit by the summer of 2005. Paris Star's metamorphosis from a polluting, smelly place of employment for 600 people to 90 pieds-à-terre for the well-heeled signals not only the latest change to area's identity, but also the end of a long-standing dispute between residents and the industry.

Hazel Field, who has lived near the Paris Star since 1976, was among one of the more vocal proponents for cleaning the air and getting the factory to change its putrid ways. She remembers the fight, which raged from 1990 to 1999, when an incinerator was installed, as being tough. "It was a lesson in corruption and apathy," she says. "The people in charge of our air and water didn't want to touch the problem because there were 600 people working there and paying their taxes. And the people living around here were either yuppies who were too busy working to take the time to fight a factory, or were immigrants who were too scared. The only way the problem got resolved was through sheer obsessive, relentless harassment."

News that the factory is closing for business made her, she says, "really happy. I'm beyond happy, I'm thrilled." » Patrick Lejtenyi

REAR-VIEW MIRROR

16 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK
Nov. 13-Nov. 26, 1987

On the cover: Men Without Hats, as Ivan reflects on the physical and mental toll unexpected stardom wrought on him since 1983's breakout hit "Safety Dance." "You always dream of what will happen when you make it big," he says. "But when it happens, it's a different story. I just wasn't ready for it."

• After a year in power, Mayor Jean Doré's Montreal Citizens' Movement (MCM) comes under fire by its own members for not achieving enough. "Nothing has really changed," says MCM councillor for Jean-Talon Pierre Goyer.

• The film adaptation of Brett Easton Ellis' novel Less Than Zero (starring Robert Downey Jr.) is given a favourable review, despite its moral ambivalence. "The film exposes what is undesirable without providing a rationale for all the waste."

• Linda Frum's Guide to Canadian Universities is given short shrift. According to the review, among its many facile lowlights are "a nonsensical argument against public funding of universities, a reference to the Contras as anti-Soviet guerillas [and]... Reagan-era paranoia."

Angel >> Conrad Black eating humble pie Comeuppance is a nice word, especially when it happens to a pompous blowhard like Conrad, Lord Black of Crossharbour and grand poobah of media chain Hollinger Inc. Black and two senior cronies resigned this week because of shareholder outrage over their pocketing of $32-million in unauthorized payments, received in exchange for promises not to compete with the Asper family's CanWest, which bought out his Canadian interests. While Black won't be suffering too much financially - he bragged that he made "50-million bucks" last Monday, when share prices rose after his resignation was announced - the U.S. Security and Exchange Commission is likely to begin a probe into the company's dealings.
Insect >> Quebec's investment bungling Want to know who shoulders a huge part of the blame for $7-a-day daycare, water fees, hydro hikes, user fees on government services and delayed income tax cuts? Point the finger at the boobs at Quebec's capital investment agencies, especially the Société générale de financement and Innovatech, which lost $330-million (and counting) of our tax dollars in the last fiscal year. The Liberal Finance Minister announced over the weekend that the losses are going to have a serious effect on the government's finances and may push the province into a deficit. He is also contemplating giving the provincial auditor additional powers to go over government investment agencies' books.