THE FRONT

Collecting rain—Greenpeace at 40—Global solidarity through art—IF3, the Cannes of ski film fests, opens

QUOTE OF THE WEEK: “He had a bath going but he didn’t have time to take it. He thought he was at home and acted like it was his house. He even told the police, ‘Eh! What are you doing here?’” —Laval police constable Nathalie Lorrain, on the intruder found in Celine Dion’s mansion Monday night.

Barrels of feel-good

In an effort to respond to the effects of climate change, the City of Montreal is planning to roll out the barrel—the rain barrel, that is. This fall, the city will make 1,500 water barrels available—at a reduced rate of approximately $20 each—at Éco-quartiers across the city, with the eventual goal of distributing 6,000 over the next two years.

“The type of rainfalls we’re getting in Montreal, particularly during periods of intense heat, are short in duration but very intense, and so they have the tendency to overwhelm our sewer systems,” says Alan DeSousa, the city councillor responsible sustainable development. Storm sewers, he suggests, can be overwhelmed during these rainstorms, and so the threat of backup and flooding is a real concern.

Montrealers who use the barrels (which are placed beneath the downspout of eavestroughs) can then use the rainwater on their lawns, gardens, hey, even sidewalks. Rain barrels can also help to reduce the heat island effect by reducing the amount of evaporation occurring during heat waves.

DeSousa says the city is currently in the tendering process, and he hopes the barrels will be available to the public in early October.

—HEATHER ROBB

Greener with age

Regardless of how you feel about Greenpeace and their methods of encouraging bad guys to become more environmentally responsible, you’ve got to give them credit for their tenacity. Forty years after being founded by a few angry Vancouver hippies concerned about U.S. nuclear weapons testing off the coast of Alaska, Greenpeace has evolved into the largest independ­ent environmental organization in the world. Tonight, Thursday, Sept. 8, Greenpeace Quebec will be celebrating that anniversary with a mighty wing-ding called Greenpeace: 40 Years of Action.

“Greenpeace is a really special organization,” says local media rep Catherine Vézina. “We’ve had a lot of successes over our 40 years and that’s what we’re going to be celebrating. We’ve demon­strated that positive change is possible. Governments and corporations just need a bit of outside pressure to get them to act, and this is what Greenpeace has been doing for the past 40 years, and will continue to be doing in another 40 years time.”

Among the acts scheduled to appear on Thursday are Bernard Adamus and the pride of Granby, Quebec, Vulgaires Machins.

Greenpeace: 40 Years of Action, takes place at Le Cabaret du Lion D’Or (1676 Ontario E., 8 p.m., $5). For more information call (514) 933-0021.

—CHRIS BARRY

Arts save the world

As every child surely knows, September 12 is Global Interdependence Day, and this year, Montreal will be taking part in the event for the first time in its eight year history, courtesy of the Segal Centre (5170 Côte Ste-Catherine).

“Interdependence Day is part of a larger global movement called the Global Interdependence Movement and will be celebrated simultaneously in cities all around the globe,” explains Segal Cen­tre spokesperson Taylor Tower. “It was started initially to commemorate the events of 9/11 but has since come to be about ways to build a stronger global society.”

An off-shoot of Citizens Without Borders, the people behind the movement believe that the arts are the optimal way of communicating the idea that the world’s citizens need to work together to address challenges that are global in character—be that climate change, public health, the financial markets or international crime.

“We feel our role at the Segal Centre in meeting this objective is to employ the arts in building inter-cultural bridges and understanding. So on Interdependence Day we’ll be host­ing a panel discussion called Peace Building Through the Arts at 4:30 p.m., as well as presenting a bilingual play called In Transit at 8:20 p.m.”

For details go to segalcentre.org.

—CHRIS BARRY

IF3 welcomes winter

Sulk all you want, and many of you will, but in a few months, our fair city will be covered in the white stuff—and it ain’t cocaine. But next weekend (Sept. 15–18), IF3, the International Freeski Film Festival, will showcase a selection of ski videos sure to get you psyched for the cold season.

“We have 38 titles, up from 25 last year,” IF3 president Félix Rioux says of the festival, now on its fifth edition. That includes fare from production houses like Poor Boyz and Matchstick, which, true to form, spotlights technical wizardry, along with an outdoor screening of Sherpas Cinema’s All.I.Can. (Thurs., Sept. 15, 8 p.m., Peace Park, St-Laurent at René-Lévesque), a film with an envi­ronmentalist bent. Also on tap is a grab-bag of web shorts, the medium that these days is fuelling much of skiing’s progression.

Of course, it wouldn’t be a festival without a large-scale autograph signing by big-name ski pros (Thurs., Sept 15, 5–7 p.m., at Brossard’s Oberson DIX30, 8860 Leduc, Suite 10) and parties through­out the weekend.

“Right from the start, our angle was [to be] the Cannes of ski-film festivals,” Rioux says, “and we’ve succeeded, I think, in taking that position.”

For more information, see if3.ca.

—LUCAS WISENTHAL

REAR-VIEW MIRROR

12 YEARS AGO – SEPT. 9–16, 1999

On the cover: Basement Jaxx. Simon Ratcliffe tells the Mirror he’s suffering from a bad back and can’t get off the couch. “So I’ve been lying here doing nothing but smoking weed and watching movies.”

•                 Chris Barry discovers that a years-old, unpaid $11 interest on a Canadian Tire credit card charge disqualifies him from getting a mortgage. His warning: “Beware of the flirtatious 20-year-old chick with the tight sweater and the clipboard who approaches you with the offer of a free screwdriver in return for you registering for your very own Can Tire card: she works for the devil.”

•                 Local blues promoter Gary Sharp, who died of a heart attack at Euro Deli on St-Laurent, is Angel of the Week.

•                 Rick Trembles describes his lifelong King Kong (1933) obsession in Motion Picture Purgatory. “I’ve had pictures of a scantily clad, terrified Fay Wray on my walls ever since I was a kid!”

•                L’Infirmière drague sans culotte and Eighteen and D.P.’D are playing at Cinema L’Amour.

•                Under the logo: “Always on the house.” ■

ANGEL: Citizens against climate change At this weekend’s CIVICUS World Assembly at the Palais des Congrès, some 800 representatives from civil society organizations around the world will be discussing the world’s ills and how to fix them. Climate change will obviously figure prominently. With North American political leaders either incapable or unwilling to take on the oil and gas industries, organizers are looking to ordinary people to effect real and necessary change. It’s a sad fact that the people we’ve elected to look out for our best interests are busy looking some­where else. But it’s a little heartening to know that many more actually care about this world and are working hard on figuring out how to behave like grown-ups.


INSECT: Tom Harris and Tommy Schnurmacher Why a retired mechanical engineer and notorious climate skeptic/crank keeps being taken seriously in Montreal of all places is a mystery. But CJAD’s star right-wing morning host Tommy Schnurmacher is apparently besotted with his idiocy, so much so that he keeps inviting on-air (most recently last week) an industry apologist who no one remotely involved in climate science takes seriously. Note to CJAD: while the real world is facing the indisputable reality of climate change, having a climate change-denying clod and his absurd enabler host chortle away at it puts the joke on you.

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