They are also now talking about a smaller building, closer to the Monument Nationale in size, instead of the 12-storey behemoth Quadrilaterre they had planned. This is largely due to the efforts of the Save the Main Coalition and the court case brought on by Cafe Cleopatre owner John Zoumboulakis.
While this buys the artists trying to save the Cleo and other historic building some time (the wrecking ball was supposed to fall in March), the fight isn’t over yet. Some have suggested that a new, alternate plan is needed.
Donovan King of OTL explained this on CKUT radio before the latest announcement from Angus:
Here is the Music Player. You need to installl flash player to show this cool thing!
Rather than an appeal, it’s a parody infomercial for a new product called Demolition in a Box, that can “destroy any landmark, city, part of town” in one easy and incredibly corrupt step.
The following is a video plea and open letter to Prince Charles on the occasion of his visit to Montreal. After having exhausted all other means of stopping the destruction of their performance space in the heart of Montreal’s historic Red Light district, burlesque dance troupe the Dead Dolls have turned to the Prince, a man who cares about heritage, with a simple request: Save the Red Light District and Save the Main:
To HRH Prince Charles,
We are writing to you today from Montreal with one simple request. As someone who has demonstrated his love for the preservation of history, we are asking for your majesty’s assistance in saving the historic Red Light District on Montreal’s Main from destruction when you visit us on Tuesday.
St-Laurent Boulevard, commonly known as the Main, was the first street to leave the fortifications of what was then the city of Montreal. Over the next few centuries, it welcomed immigrants from all over the world to become the thriving multicultural hub that it is today. It has even been declared a national heritage site.
Behind its historic facade, numerous independent artists including burlesque dancers, fetish performers and others call the vaudeville thrust stage of the legendary Café Cleopatre home and have done so for several years.
The lower Main, the gateway to the old port is living history and a vibrant artistic community, but it is under threat. A developer wants to evict the artists and residents, demolish the buildings and replace them with a twelve-story office tower under the guise of a Quartier des spectacles (entertainment district).
Despite objections from historians, academics, residents and artists and a ruling against the project from the Montreal public consultation office, the developer and the city plan to go ahead with the project, dubbed the Quadrilatere St-Laurent.
With nowhere else to turn, we are requesting that your majesty bring the issue up with Mayor Gerald Tremblay and any other officials you may encounter on your trip to Montreal or at very least make a public statement in support of the artists and residents and in support of our history.
UPDATE: TRYING TO MEET THE PRINCE
Tuesday night, the riot squad prevented us from delivering our message to Prince Charles in person:
Velma Candyass of the Dead Dolls and riot cops (photo by Domenic Castelli)
We never got to deliver our message to the Prince Charles in person and still haven’t received a response to our letter or video. He’s in Ottawa until tomorrow. Hopefully he’ll hear our message before returning to England.
** If you want to help spread the word, please forward, re-post, Facebook, Digg, etc. this post and/or this video to all your friends and lists, especially to people in England.
****You can also contact Prince Charles through his Regeneration Trust:
In case you haven’t noticed, this is election season in Montreal. This year’s campaign has been quite a raucous one. There has been plenty of talk about water meters, mayoral candidates’ ability to speak English and new transportation strategies. One issue that seems to have been pushed to the background, though, is the protection of the Main.
St-Laurent Boulevard, the first street to make it’s way out of the fortified city which is now called Old Montreal was designated as a national heritage site by Parks Canada. In keeping with this status “intrusive elements must be kept to a minimal.”
Since Parks Canada has given the city of Montreal the job of protecting the Main, the Reclaim the Main campaign wants to know what politicians are going to do about it if elected or re-elected November 1st. So, we are proud to present the first ever Reclaim the Main challenge! The rules are simple – mayoral candidates or their appointed representatives are asked to answer this one question:
What will you do to preserve the Main’s historic status, promote the interests of those who live and work there and protect against corporate intrusions?
One response per party. English, French or bilingual. Independents are also welcome to respond. Answers should mention their plan to deal with billboard trucks, unscrupulous advertisers and developers and how to combat corporate and private dominance of public space at street fairs. They should be sent to main@optative.net and will be published here before the election.
The winner gets the endorsement of the Reclaim the Main campaign and OTL and will be featured in this space. Plus, they’ll be doing the right thing for the Main and for Montreal. Ordinary citizens are also invited to address this issue and send their responses to the same address or just post them in the comments below – see how you compare to the politicians!
OTL has learned that agents of the Department of Homeland Insecurity along with the FBI will be in Montreal on Saturday, November 7th to track illegal aliens. They need to be stopped and the aliens need to be protected at all costs. You can help us by infiltrating the bureau.
In a secret communiqué obtained by OTL, the bureau is recruiting locals and offering a pay-what-you-can training session to give you the tools to help them track and apprehend aliens like this one:
We feel that this is a blatant attempt at discrimination and scapegoating. After all, these supposed aliens aren’t evil. They aren’t harming anyone. They’re just trying to get by and aren’t even a drain. They eat the food that the rest of us throw away or don’t even consider to be food in the first place as this photo suggests:
If you want to help us, here’s the plan. Sign up for the bureau’s “training sessions” by phoning 514-699-3378. You’ll need to have the password, which we have learned is “sparrowdove.” These sessions are for three people at a time and leaving every 30 minutes or so between 3pm and 8pm on Saturday, November 7th, so you’ll need to reserve a spot in advance.
Then, at the appropriate time, go to the bureau’s Montreal headquarters which, due to budget cuts, are located inside Bar Bifteck, 3702 St-Laurent and look for this man:
Tell him you want to help, but always remember your mission. You may get some help along the way from other more high-placed infiltrators in the bureau. It’s a tough job, but please remember why you’re doing it, so the “aliens” can live free.
We’re counting on you, but more importantly, they’re counting on you
——————————–
Car Stories: Alien Invasion continues a tradition that has been described as “the most fun you might ever have in the backseat of a car” (Ottawa Citizen). Three spect-actors at a time are invited to witness and take part in Montreal’s longest-running theatrical experiment by going on a guided theatrical joyride through the Urban Wonderland and its alleyways, cars and parking lots.
The 2009 edition won six Iffy awards at this year’s Buffalo infringement Festival where it premiered and now returns to Montreal for one day only. Please call 514-699-3378 or e-mail carstories@optative.net to see the show or check out our site for more info.
If you saw us in June at the 2009 Montreal infringement Festival, this is a completely different show but it is still PAY-WHAT-YOU-CAN at the end, so hop in and enjoy the ride!
Yesterday, the OTL phone got a very interesting missed call. The caller ID said Time2Ad. This is the company responsible for the giant scaffolding wrap billboard on the corner of St-Laurent and Sherbrooke Street, so it’s quite surprising that they would be calling us. Maybe it was to apologize for violating the historic status of the Main, a protected site – we could only hope. Today, we got our answer.
Time2Ad called back, this time from a blocked number. Once they established that they were indeed speaking with a member of the collective responsible for this blog, the phone was passed to someone identified to us as Matthew Alzubi, president of the company.
Alzubi said that we have until midnight tonight to remove this post dealing with what Time2Ad did on the Main or else face legal consequences. Just what consequences may arise over a post that states facts and gives voice to people opposed to the cultural effects a company’s project has in their opinion is unclear at best.
This might explain why Mr. Alzubi merely repeated his statement about midnight tonight and added that we didn’t know what he was capable of “so help me God” when asked to send what he was saying in written form. That could also explain why no one left a message when they called our phone yesterday.
Maybe they don’t want any record of what Time2Ad and Matthew Alzubi said to us to exist. Maybe they know that we have a right to freedom of speech and any court that looked at their case against us would throw it out. Maybe they thought they could scare us with some tough talk. Sadly for them, they can’t. Sadly for Montreal, it looks like Time2Ad still plan to put up more scaffolding wrap billboards.
Montreal’s “Quartier des Spectacles” project is proceeding at a fast clip. The neighbourhood is currently undergoing major transformations as new parks are laid out, a state-of-the-art concert hall goes up, and select buildings are appropriated and destroyed to make way for “development”. Designed to transform Montreal’s old red light district and environs into a less-seedy destination for those seeking spectacles of theatre, music, dance, and other performances, the project is attracting more and more controversy.
For reasons unexplained, developers have been busy trying to raze existing authentic performance venues in the area, despite their historical value and ongoing use by various artists and spectators. The storied Spectrum concert hall was unceremoniously demolished to make way for a box store, and now developers are threatening to appropriate and raze the Café Cleopatra, a burlesque venue that should probably be a heritage site by now, and Katacombes, an activist co-op spectacle hall. That St. Laurent boulevard is a historic site where “intrusive elements must be minimal” has not deterred a so-called French “starchitect” from drawing up plans to construct a gigantic 12-story glass office tower called the Quadrilatère Saint-Laurent on the footprint of the destroyed venues, which would only have their facades preserved.
The irony that the “Quartier des Spectacles” project is destroying real spectacle venues and replacing them with office towers is not lost on local artists or residents. Now the very artists who create the spectacles from which the Quartier takes its name are raising their voices in dissent. Many are demanding that developers respect existing venues and stop their plan to destroy local culture and heritage. The Coalition des Artistes du Cabaret Cleo has issued a RED ALERT! and is mobilizing. They are hoping to “integrate the creative spirit of the last 5 years at Cabaret Cleo’s within a constructive, honest and positive plan to revitalize Montreal’s legendary Main,” and have prepared a petition, which you can read and sign here.
You can sign the petition Saturday June 6th starting a 8pm on the occasion of a “Friends of Cabaret Cleo” rally event (1230 St-Laurent, 2nd floor). There will be a lively evening of performances, lectures and cultural resistance, so join in and add your voice to the chorus of diasapproval. Velma Candyass of the Dead Dolls Dancers, frequent performers at the threatened venue, asks:
“How is a 12 story office tower part of the Quartier des Spectacles? As alternative artists we were looking forward to learning about the proposed revitalization plans for the Quartier des Spectacles. However by eliminating the 2nd floor show bar, a vital venue for local alternative artists in the proposed plans does not endear us to the proposed ideas. They wish to have ‘ethical business’ such as ‘ethical flower shops’ ‘quebec artisinal soaps ‘ or or chic bistros. somehow neo vaudeville, neo burlesque and cheap hotdogs do not fit their image of things to be. Cleo is a special venue that has supported and mentored alternative artists. The stage setup is quite unique as it is the only cabaret style setup here in montreal. We simply wish to continue doing our shows and to be included in the Quartier des Spectacles.”
On Tuesday June 9th the Coalition will deliver a lecture of memorandums and a presentation of their petition at the final Public Consultation on the project, to be held at the ballroom of Hôtel Holiday Inn Select, 99 Viger ave. W. (corner St-Urbain), Place-d’Armes metro. The petition will be presented to Société de développement Angus (SDA), officials of the Ville de Montréal as well as the Office de consultation publique de Montréal (OCPM) and Conseil du Patrimoine de Montréal.
Now is the time to support the real Montreal artists and the real Montreal culture. Destroying authentic and storied performance venues in a Historic Site should be illegal. To destroy them in a “Quartier des Spectacles” makes no sense whatsoever. If anything, they should receive protected designation for their authenticity. The idea of bringing in a French “Starchitect” to destroy Montreal culture is utterly appalling, and the notion that a 12-story office tower belongs in a Historic Site suggests that the “Starchitect” is misguided. The tough-guy tactics of threatening appropriation demonstrate once again that Mayor Tremblay is ignoring artists, heritage activists, and business owners in his attempt to push through yet another ill-conceived project. The “Quartier des Spectacles” has a history of kicking out artists who express themsevles in alternative ways, and with an election coming up in November, now is the time to voice your opposition to these disrespectful and counterproductive plans. Sign the petition, and join the artists of Café Cleo in demanding protection for our culture!
Forum Theatre, Image Theatre, Invisible Theatre and Legislative Theatre along with others form a tree of theatre forms known as Theatre of the Oppressed. All were created by Brazilian theatre theorist, writer and director Augusto Boal who passed away Saturday at the age of 78.
Boal is best-known for creating theatre techniques that allowed and encouraged rebellion and change to come from the oppressed groups themselves after he realized that didactic politically-motivated theatre was limited in how it could help those in the poor areas where he worked.
His teachings caught the attention of Brazil’s military dictatorship and they arrested and tortured Boal, eventually exiling him to Argentina where he wrote and published his first book, Theatre of the Oppressed, in 1973. For the next twelve years, he went around Europe teaching and establishing Theatres of the Oppressed.
When the dictatorship fell, he returned to Rio de Janeiro and established a major Center for the Theater of the Oppressed (CTO Rio). He also held public office as a city councilor for one term (1993-1997) where he created Legislative Theatre.
Boal has inspired people around the world, both theatre artists and not. He also inspired us here at OTL in our own application of his techniques. Augusto Boal leaves behind a legacy of empowerment and a new, revolutionary way of looking at theatre and what it can do to help those who need it most.
Today is May 1st, recognized in many places around the world as International Workers Day. It traces its roots back to May 1st, 1886, when workers demanding an 8-hour work day walked out en-masse. The police crackdown at the McCormick Reaper Works in Chicago two days later led to the Haymarket affair in where eight anarchists were eventually convicted of murder in a show trial. Four of them were hung to death.
In Montreal, there is a long history of protest and artistic activism on May Day. Sadly, there is also a history of police repression. In 2008, for example, police cracked down on a mostly peaceful anti-capitalist march moments after it began.
This year’s march happens in the shadow of that event and also just a few months after the anti-police brutality march which ended, unfortunately, in police brutality and rioting. Nonetheless, the march will begin today at 5:30pm in Cabot Square, leaving at 6:30pm for the Caisse des depots et placements in Old Montreal.
May Day also kicks off the Festival of Anarchy which now includes a theatre festival, arts exhibits, workshops, a squat (more on this in a few week) and of course the Anarchist Bookfair. The festival lasts until May 31st.
Stella, the sex workers advocacy group, is hoping that workers’ rights will someday be extended to sex workers as well and in hopes of making this happen, they will be launching the latest edition of their ConStellation magazine tonight at Academy, 4445 St-Laurent, as part of a party thrown by Cirque de Boudoir. The event starts at 9pm, costs $15 at the door (free for sex workers) and features DJ Frigid, Plastik Patrik and the Dead Doll dancers.
Over the past few years, the Immigrant Workers’ Centre in Cote-des-Neiges has hosted MayWorks an artistic celebration of workers’ rights. This year is no different, except that the event will happen a week later on Saturday, May 9th starting at 5:30pm.
It took a while, but the federal government finally seems ready to invest a bit of money in the Quebec arts scene. In fact, the department of Canadian Heritage is giving $4,222,861 to Montreal organizations like the National Theatre School, Les Grands ballets canadiens de Montréal and The Leanor and Alvin Segal Theatre. They are doing so through the Endowment Incentives component of the Canadian Arts and Heritage Sustainability Program.
The National Theatre school is scheduled to receive funding
Arts funding, particularly in Quebec, is always a welcome thing. The industry employs quite a few people here as the Conservatives found out when cuts to funding may just have cost them their majority government last election. It’s also a good thing considering having any type of job is becoming a rarity these days.
Does this mean that the government has changed its tune towards the arts? Or could this be the continuation of a pattern that they started this past February when they replaced the Trade Routes program that helps Canadian artists travel abroad with an “Arts Prize” to be given out to artists from around the world by the people behind Toronto’s corporate-funded Luminato Festival. This pro-corporate model was also apparent when the government refused to give extra funding to the CBC and instead considered bailing out CanWest Global.
Could that be what’s happening here? Well, these investments aren’t donations to arts organizations in a vacuum. The funds are to match donations by individuals, companies and community groups. In fact, in its press release, the government claims that “this initiative complements other measures taken by our Government to encourage private-sector participation in arts funding.”
This is not new investment in artists that don’t have funding to begin with. While it’s certainly a good thing that Harper’s government wants to “ensure that these organizations continue to enrich our lives for many years to come,” the fact that it took so long to get to this point could mean that it may take even longer for new artists that don’t have backing already to get some startup cash.
When someone or a group of people is doing art that challenges our corporate culture or even the capitalist system in general, government funding is usually the only outlet for them to be able to survive and do their work without changing it. Now that the government is playing politics with culture and insisting on a public/private model instead of funding the arts out of obligation to our culture, then what chance will underground artists have in the future?
In case you haven’t noticed, this is election season in Montreal. This year’s campaign has been quite a raucous one. There has been plenty of talk about water meters, mayoral candidates’ ability to speak English and new transportation strategies. One issue that seems to have been pushed to the background, though, is the protection of the Main.
Forum Theatre, Image Theatre, Invisible Theatre and Legislative Theatre along with others form 
Today is May 1st, recognized in many places around the world as International Workers Day. It 
