The recent suicide of Jamie Hubley, the grade 10 high school student from Ottawa who had been bullied at school for being gay and out, has once again forced a longstanding question: just what kind of hell is high school for queer teens?
For over 10 years, folks in the Oka region have been fighting Montreal-based mining company Niocan’s plans to operate an underground niobium mine in the Sainte-Sophie mountain range. The rare element is used in high-grade steel production for things like pipelines and automobiles.
Though much of Montreal’s historic red-light district was long ago razed to the ground, Robert Petrelli grew up there and remembers the neighbourhood’s charms. The now-retired UQÀM urban studies professor even remembers that as a child, he was paid by men on the street to lift the girls’ skirts
When it comes to films dealing with the environment, there is a potential for bleakness that really knows no bounds, and it’s easy to feel overwhelmed, even lulled into inertia by the gloomy big picture.
When asked to describe the concept behind Root.ED., a new community initiative offering Montreal black youth the opportunity to get involved in environmental and social justice projects here and abroad, coordinator Chris Vaughn doesn’t hesitate to delve into the metaphor.
