The first-ever Roman Fee Theatre Award was handed out on Thursday, March 19, 2009, in the Grand Salon of Montreal’s Hyatt Regency Hotel. The Donor and Student Excellence Recognition Ceremony was presided over by Concordia University President Judith Woodsworth, who handed out various awards and bursaries to graduate and undergraduate students across all faculties and [...]
March 15th marked the 13th International Day Against Police Brutality, and in Montreal the mood was tense after an unusually brutal year whereby police officers killed a young man after they found him playing dice with his friends. Early in the evening on August 9th, 2008, 18 year old Fredy Villanueva was shot dead at [...]
International Women’s Day is a yearly event that raises awareness about women’s issues across the planet, and has been doing so since 1911 after activist Clara Zetkin called for its creation in Copenhagen, Denmark. Created unanimously within a union hall called Folkets Hus (“The People’s House”), International Women’s Day has not shown any signs of [...]
Now that the plan to re-enact the Plains of Abraham colonial war has been canned, a debate is brewing about what should replace the event that was designed to mark the 250 year anniversary. While the National Battlefield Commission is blaming “separatist threats of violence” for the cancellation, it is becoming increasingly clear that there was very little appetite in [...]
A battle is heating up in Quebec City regarding the Plains of Abraham, but it isn’t exactly the sort of fight that the National Battlefields Commission was hoping for. As reported earlier 2009 marks the 250th anniversary of the infamous Plains of Abraham battle at Quebec City that signified the defeat of “New France” to British imperialists, and [...]
On Monday night over 50 masked protesters descended on City Hall for a Masquerade Ball protest – the Bal Masqué. Organized by an ad hoc collective known as Le Gros Bon Sens, the masked demonstration aimed to challenge the anti-mask bylaw the City of Montreal is attempting to pass as part of its larger “Public [...]
Historically-speaking, Quebec City has always been somewhat of a military town. When “founded” by Samuel de Champlain in 1608 on the remains of the First Nations settlement of Stadacona, Quebec was actually designed as a military-style fortification. The site of numerous wars and battles that pitted the French against various First Nations, and later Britain, [...]
Theatre activists, like actors in a theatre, rely on a gamut of artistic accessories – props, scenery, costumes, make up, and especially masks – to conduct performances on the streets, sometimes during demonstrations. Masks constitute important props in this theatrical arsenal, as they have the power to transform the actor into a different entity, which [...]
Anyone who has children, or works with them, can tell you that there is almost nothing worse than the death of a child. There can be no excuse to subject society’s most vulnerable members to oppression and massacre, and the realisation that over 250 children have being killed during the assault on Gaza is enough [...]
On Thursday afternoon a rally called Native Rights Under Lock & Key assembled outside the Montreal offices of Quebec Premier Jean Charest, on McGill College Avenue. As security guards locked the doors to the glassy tower housing Charest’s offices, protesters unfurled a banner reading “Honour Your Word: Protect the Environment. Share the Land’s Wealth” and [...]
