Quote of the week:

"The whole performance was onstage copulation. This really crossed a heinous line." - FCC Chairman Michael K. Powell, on announcing that he would launch a probe into not just the exposure of Janet Jackson's sun-shaped nipple shield but also the entire Super Bowl halftime show.

Massively in debt... priceless!

What's worse than maxing out your credit cards? Not maxing out your credit cards, apparently. According to L'Association coopérative d'économie familiale (ACEF), a consumer protection group, many locals have been complaining that their credit card companies have allowed them to spend well beyond their spending limit.

"What we're seeing is that the limit isn't respected by MasterCard or Visa, so people who don't check their limits and don't know how much they owe on their card then make all sorts of purchases. Even though their card should be refused, it passes," says Kevin Boire of the East End ACEF, who describes the practice of raising a customer's limits as illegal under Quebec's Consumer Protection Act.

The banks argue that they can ignore the provincial law as banks fall under federal jurisdiction. Two weeks ago, a judge delayed the banks' attempt to exempt themselves from the provincial law until six class-action suits against them are dealt with. But the banks don't consider that unilaterally raising limits should be punished.

"Certain credit card companies will offer to increase your limit if you're a good customer even if you don't ask for it. It's pretty useful," says Jacques Hébert, Quebec director of the Canadian Bankers' Association. "They don't do it across the board, just for good customers."

Boire, however, suggests that those who complain to the Office de la protection du consommateur might eventually get a refund of the amount they went over their limits. » Kristian Gravenor

Homeless all-nighter

As people retreat to their warm homes next Thursday, Feb. 12, volunteers will be taking to the streets and the airwaves as part of the second annual Homelessness Marathon, hosted by community radio station CKUT 90.3 FM and le Groupe communautaire l'Itinéraire.

The least at-home listeners can do, says CKUT community news coordinator Gretchen King, is stay up and stay tuned. "Every night someone is sleeping outside," says King, "so just this one night, stay up."

Beginning at sunset (5 p.m.) and continuing until sunrise Friday (7 a.m.), the marathon will be broadcast from Café sur la rue on Ontario and Amherst and transmitted across the country via 24 campus and community stations and the Internet. Every hour a different topic will be explored, from families and homelessness to the role of government policy to addiction.

Modelled after - and in conjunction with - the seven-year-old American Homelessness Marathon, the project aims to create a forum for homeless people to voice their concerns and interact with politicians, activists and the public. Last year, homeless people turned up the heat on Michel Prescott, then the city's executive committee member responsible for housing.

The marathon will also go live to air in the streets of Toronto and Nunavut and meet up with the sister broadcast in Ohio. Volunteers are still needed to set up listening stations in shelters across the city, says King.

For more information, contact CKUT at 398-6788 or visit www.ckut.ca/homeless.html. The public is invited to call in (1-866-763-4136) or stop by the café during the broadcast. » Shannon Devine

Vigil turns three

One hundred and fifty-five and counting. That's how many consecutive Fridays Palestinian And Jewish Unity (PAJU) have held their silent Vigil in Black outside Montreal's Israeli consulate to denounce the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Friday, Feb. 6, marks the three-year anniversary of the weekly protest, making it the longest running vigil in Canadian history.

PAJU co-president Rezeq Faraj chalks the long life of the protest up to the "courageous people," himself included, who brave minus-40 to plus-30 degree weather to show their solidarity with the Palestinian cause.

Three years of protests is a long time in a city where the police have developed a reputation for using heavy-handed tactics against demonstrators. However, the group, which can at times number close to 60 people, has never had any problems with police, says Faraj. "There is no reason [for them to ask us] to leave since we are peaceful and silent and just holding signs."

For about a year and a half, PAJU has not been alone it its vigil. The Friends of Israel organization have taken to holding counter-vigils across the street in order to rally support for the Jewish state. Member Edmond Silbert says the group will continue its own vigils so long as PAJU continues with theirs. How long will that be?

"We will be here until the occupation is over," says Faraj.

You can join either vigil from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. every Friday at Peel and René-Lévesque. » Tim McSorley

REAR-VIEW MIRROR

16 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK
Feb. 5-Feb. 18, 1988

On the cover: Alice Cooper, who plays down his connection with the devil. "When people ask me about devil worshippers, I always go, 'Jeez, I don't know any.' That's like asking me about how many cannibals I know. I don't think the bands are into Satan. I know most of the bands, and they know as much about any kind of spiritualism as they know about nuclear physics."

• Women's groups complain about the quality of care for women getting abortions. "You're really under the lights," says one anonymous woman. "It's just like a factory - all it needed was a conveyor belt."

• The German made-for-TV film The Wannsee Conference, which recounts the meeting where the Holocaust was planned, provides "an understanding that an insane idea advocating genocide can seem so normal, so rational to the perpetrators, that opposition is virtually inconceivable."

• Kiss of the Spiderwoman director Alexandre Hausvater says he was "tired of seeing plays on homosexuality dealing with homosexuality as a predilection, as an affliction."

Angel >> Revealing probes Last week's announcement that there would, finally, be an official probe into the Maher Arar case will likely serve two functions: exonerate Arar and embarrass the Canadian security establishment. While the Syrian-born Canadian citizen can expect his name to be cleared - not to mention some financial compensation for being deported and tortured - the RCMP and CSIS will have a fair bit of explaining to do. And while not all findings will be made public, it is hoped that after the inquiry, corrective steps can be taken to ensure that this kind of mistake never happens again.
Insect >> Whitewashing probes Meanwhile, George Bush and Tony Blair have announced probes of their own, regarding the quality of the intelligence that led them down the path to war. This after the Americans' chief weapons inspector concluded publicly that Iraq did not possess weapons of mass destruction. Although the U.S. probe is to be bipartisan, it reports to the President, who controls its membership and its mandate. What we can most likely expect are whitewashes, findings that will protect the leaders (see the U.K.'s recent Hutton inquiry) and blame the failures on the individual agencies rather than the politicization of the analysis. The American probe's results aren't due until late November, after the presidential elections.