Quote of the week:

"He represents a struggle among French-Canadians that we're sort of Canadianizing." - McGill academic Jack Jedwab, on Maurice "Rocket" Richard's enduring appeal. In April, the Museum of Civilization unveils its Richard artifacts collection and a conference discusses his legacy.

Walkers' city to be debated

Many Montrealers dream of creating walker-friendly areas by banning traffic on urban avenues while others - particularly shop-owners - think the idea absolute crap. That's why an upcoming conference on the subject promises to see a whole mess of contradicting views.

The pencil-pushers and dreamers slated to discuss the issue include Con U's urban planning prof John Zacharias, former traffic czar Jeremy Searle, government traffic officials Sylvie Tremblay and Richard Bergeron, architect Wade Eide of Atelier BRAQ and Owen Rose of Citizens for a Green Mont-Royal.

Organizer Amy Siciliano, an MA student of public policy, says that there are a lot of pros and cons in such initiatives as that presented by those who want to ban cars from Mont-Royal. "They have a great vision and it would be wonderful, but it's something that has to be well thought out and planned, because throughout North America there's a huge pedestrian movement and a lot of places that were turned into pedestrian-only areas ended up deserted."

Opponents of the idea of transforming well-worn avenues into tourist-friendly boutique walking-rows include those who equate it with gentrification. "The whole gentrification debate is important," says Siciliano. "For example, if Mont-Royal became pedestrianized, would it maintain its character as a street for everything?"

All are invited to the free conference on Sunday, March 28 at 7 p.m. at Concordia's Cinema de Sève (1400 de Maisonneuve W.). » Kristian Gravenor

Head and Hands don't turn 34

Head and Hands is having a party, but don't ask how old the NDG youth outreach organization is turning. It doesn't matter, because the party they're throwing on April Fool's Day is billed as an Un-birthday Party, inspired in part by Lewis Carroll's psychedelic trip down the rabbit hole and the need to raise some dough to continue their work with kids and young parents.

The group - founded in 1971 - is rounding off their fundraising year with a night of games, music, tap dancing, food, piñata-bashing and prize giving. The goal, says volunteer coordinator Becky Lazarovic, is to both have a good time and get their name out to parts east of the West End.

"It's springtime, it's April 1, and while we wanted to do something that isn't too much of a joke, we want to revive the tradition of party games," she says. To that end, the group has enlisted the help of local '60s-flavoured psych band the High Dials, vaudevillians the Kosher Dill Spears and Big Gold Hoops, while activist songwriter Abigail Lappel will team up with the Frenetics' Malcolm Baud, and bubblegum post-punkette Bad Flirt will sing about her angst-filled heart. Lazarovic also hopes that the line-up will not just bring out the hipster set, but draw people who could actually benefit from the services Head and Hands offers.

Head and Hands' Un-birthday Party takes place on Thursday, April 1, at the Sala Rossa (4848 St-Laurent). The fun starts at 8 p.m., and costs $12 or $10 if you dress up. All manners of costume are welcome. » Patrick Lejtenyi

Iraqi identity questions

For many Iraqi exiles, the American-led overthrow of Saddam Hussein's regime reawakened dreams of returning home. For others though, that dream died long ago.

"The sense of nostalgia is always there," says Ella Shohat, of her parents' memories. "In a way, they live Iraq in their own home."

Shohat, a professor of cultural and media studies at New York University, will speak about the politics of being an Arab-Jew this Friday, March 26, at 7 p.m. at Concordia's de Sève Cinema as part of the university's Peace and Conflict Resolution series. The award-winning documentary Forget Baghdad: Jews and Arabs - the Iraqi Connection, directed by the Swiss-Iraqi artist Samir, will also be screened.

Shohat's parents were among the thousands of Iraqi Jews who were forced to emigrate starting in the early 1950s in the tumultuous wake of the creation of the state of Israel. "They had to leave, like most of the community, overnight without anything," she says.

Fleeing for Israel, where Ella was born, the Shohats quickly discovered things weren't quite so rosy for them in the Promised Land either.

"While in Iraq we were seen as Jews, in Israel we were seen as Arabs," she says. "The creation of Israel and the partition of Palestine was a disaster for our lives. Suddenly we were placed on the horns of a terrible dilemma: choosing between our Arabness and our Jewishness, in a context where Jewishness and Arabness were seen as two national identities. Before that, Jewishness was our religious identity, but culturally we were Arab." » Christopher Hazou

REAR-VIEW MIRROR

11 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK
March 25–April 1, 1993

On the cover: Prince, who, with his new band the New Power Generation, is about to make his Montreal debut. Rapper Tony T does the talking. "Prince told me to write about how people are always concerned about who he's sleeping with, what he's doing," he says.

• Bill Dodge debuts his weekly media column. Conrad Black is his first target, who published an op-ed in the Gazette dismissing the "'fatuous' claims of 'dreary leftist' ideaologues," namely chairman of the Royal Commission of Newspapers Tom Kent, who expressed concern about Black's publishing record.

• John Sayles gets annoyed when critics describe his new film, Passion Fish, as a "'cross between Driving Miss Daisy and Fried Green Tomatoes,'" writes Steve Kokker. "Those films were fine in their own right, but all they have in common with mine is that they're set in the South and have women in them," Sayles says.

• In the Last Word commentary column, Michel-Adrien Sheppard embraces the invasion of American satellite TV, to the woe of Canadian cable monopolies.

Angel >> Metro money After one of its worst years in recent memory, the city's public transportation system will be getting some much-needed dough. Monday's announcement that all three levels of government will be investing some $309.4-million in the metro's infrastructure over two years is good news for the hundreds of thousands of Montrealers who use the system daily. The money will bring in new ventilation, escalators, security cameras and update its almost-40-year-old command centre. The face-lift might also win back some commuters still fed up after last year's strike and regular slowdowns in service. The news gets better: this is only the first of three phases in a 10-year, $1-billion system renovation program.
Insect >> Watered-down whistle-blower protection law Urging employees to come forward with eye-popping revelations of waste and corruption should be applauded, but the federal law designed to protect corporate and government whistle-blowers isn't going far enough, critics say. The law, unveiled on Monday, is taking fire for not providing protection for law enforcement, security officials and cabinet aides, and, while it does call for the creation of a national integrity commissioner, that person would be appointed by and report to cabinet, not Parliament. So if the problem's at the top - something our own Mr. Gagliano would know nothing about - word won't get out unless the law is circumvented.