Quote of the week:

"I feel immensely happy for all Québécois players, because we often have an inferiority complex." - Germain Boulianne, of Gatineau, after winning the 33rd World Francophone Scrabble Championship last weekend, in Tuesday's Journal. He is the first Québécois to win ever.

CBC condo controversy

There's a lot of back-and-forth going on at the parking lot next to the big CBC-Radio-Canada building down in Centre-Sud, and fingers are being pointed hither and yon. At the centre of it all is condo development - or lack thereof.

For the past three years, condo developers Le Groupe le Versant had been trying to acquire a big chunk of land next to the CBC building and make some money. Local housing activists, who'd never been consulted, were furious, and took to the streets. The condo developers then said that they'd dedicate around half of the as-yet-to-be-built units to low-cost housing, especially for the elderly. The housing groups backed down, the local city councillors were happy, the developer was okay, but

then, two weeks ago, the Ceeb announced the sale was off. Housing activists were taken aback.

"We were looking at this project as a way for Radio-Canada to make up for the wrong committed almost 40 years ago, when the neighbourhood here, with hundreds of homes and thousands of residents, was demolished," says François Saillant of housing group FRAPRU.

CBC spokesperson Jason MacDonald, however, says conditions of their agreement with the developers hadn't been honoured and, after three years, it's time to scuttle the deal. "We got to a point where good management practices says that it's time to stop and re-evaluate," he says. He notes that the CBC is open to other options, including any with a social housing component. Saillant promises more pressure will be added when everyone gets back from holiday. » Patrick Lejtenyi

West End party poopers

New rules intended to keep parks clean after public celebrations have turned into a dog's breakfast of litigation and exemption in the NDG-Côte-des-Neiges borough.

In June, councillors from the West End borough voted in a by-law requiring groups organizing events to post cleanliness bonds, buy insurance and fulfill several other conditions. According to the rules, those wishing to hold celebrations in parks must apply 60 to 90 days in advance and post a cleanliness bond between $250 and $2,000 (refundable if the park is deemed satisfactorily tidy afterwards), depending on the anticipated number of participants. Organizers must also have $3-million civil liability insurance (which can cost $4,000). Repercussion Theatre's Shakespeare in the Park has been exempted from the by-law, and other events, such as the annual Sunday in the Park, remain up in the air. Even if conditions are met, there is no guarantee that a permit will be given. The Filipino Congress was denied one, leading it to launch a $60,000 lawsuit and a Human Rights Commission complaint against the borough.

West End councillor Marvin Rotrand, who urged that the by-law be delayed for further discussion, now points out that the by-law has had undesirable consequences. "What sort of Scrooge-like puritanism is coming from some my colleagues that they don't want to have fun in their own neighbourhood?" he wonders. "And as for the supposedly massive problems with lack of cleanliness, they can be solved. It doesn't need a sledgehammer."

Rotrand predicts that any organization that doesn't get an exemption will respond with a lawsuit. "Maybe we should substantially amend or scrap the by-law," Rotrand says. » Kristian Gravenor

All ages ISM

Eileen Young certainly had her eyes opened when she visited the occupied West Bank on a recent trip there, but the 60-year-old Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue resident and member of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) - a Palestinian support network - knows she got lucky: at least she was allowed in the country.

"I've heard that people who go over and participate in ISM activities [such as protesting at the separation fence] are rarely let back into the country," she says. One of the 14 women she travelled with - all older, and, except for her, all American - to the Middle East last month was detained for almost two weeks. Still, she hopes she can go back some day. "It's a beautiful country," she says. "I might spend all my time in detention, though, which wouldn't be so much fun."

She also says that the people she met were, by and large, weary of the occupation and wanted it to end, and to get on with their lives. Unlike the situation in the Gaza Strip, however, where Palestinian-on-Palestinian violence exploded last weekend, she didn't notice any serious, potentially fatal, divisions among the population there. "The situation in Gaza is much more fragile and explosive," she says. "I knew there were divisions in their society, just like any society. There are class differences and different ideas. I was with a group that believed in non-violence, while others feel it's justified to take up arms. But most people I think just wanted peace." » Patrick Lejtenyi

REAR-VIEW MIRROR

14 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK
July 26–Aug. 9, 1990

On the cover: A masked, camouflaged Mohawk Warrior, brandishing two assault rifles, as the Mirror publishes a first-hand and anonymous account of life behind the barricades. Also on the cover is the beginning of the text: "Right off the bat I'll tell you that five minutes ago I had a bandana pulled up over my face, and a loaded and cocked AK-47 in my hands."

• The results of the Mirror's first-ever Best of Montreal poll are in. Me Mom & Morgentaler are voted Best Singer or Group; lambada Worst Club Fad; Solomon Gursky Was Here Best Fiction Book ("by a mile"); Peel Pub Worst Clientele ("Unanimous"); the Great Antonio Most Interesting Local Character; and Gilles Vigneault Biggest Hypocrite "for claiming that multiculturalism is a threat to Quebec and must not be tolerated, then appearing on stage with Mandela."

• London Quireboys keyboardist Chris Johnstone doesn't mind journalists' constant comparisons of his band to the Faces. "If you're going to be accused of ripping somebody off, you might as well start off at the top."

Angel >> Protesting the death penalty for minors This week 48 countries, including Canada, issued an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court to block the state execution of underage murderers. Diplomats, former heads of state including Jimmy Carter and Mikhail Gorbachev, the American Bar Association, the American Medical Association and religious groups also condemned the practice. The appeal, filed in Missouri as a friend of the court brief, revolves around a 1993 murder by a man who was 17 at the time. Currently, 19 states allow for the execution of 16- and 17-year-olds. The United States is the only country that officially sanctions the execution of minors.
Insect >> Right-wing pinhead content in Canadian beer When news of a possible Coors-Molson merger broke this week, both companies' stock prices went up, but so did alarm levels among conscientious Canadian beer drinkers. The fact that the Coors company - which, despite recent attempts to soften its image, has a long anti-gay, anti-labour and anti-environment legacy - could wield clout over an institution as beloved as our beer is worrying. Will drinking Coors turn us into conservatives? Will our hockey night two-fours be contributing to bans on gay marriage and abortion (both supported by former chairman Pete Coors, now running for U.S. Senate as a Colorado Republican)? Keep politics out of Canada's beer!