Street Kid Street Fest

Back home to party

The 14th annual Festival d’expression de la
rue returns to its UQÀM campus digs for a
two-day celebration of street living

STREET CULTURAL AMBASSADORS: FER ’09

by MATT JONES

After a year of itinerancy, the Festival d’expression de la rue (FER) is back at Place Pasteur near the corner of St-Denis and de Maisonneuve this weekend for its 14th edition.

The festival features two days of punk, hip hop and reggae shows interspersed with circus acts, contests and workshops on harm reduction.

“We’re probably the only festival that would say no to Celine Dion,” says organizer Marc-André Savory. “We have to represent the culture from the street. We have bands that come from the street, guys that I know that have been on the street before but they’re still involved around that milieu, or people that have not been on the street but still play music that’s listened to by the street people.”

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Strong arm of the law

Anti-capitalists take to Montreal’s streets to
protest so-called extreme policing and the
criminalization of dissent at the G20

WELCOMING A QUEBEC VISITOR? TO PD in action, June 26

by MATT JONES

Three weeks after a billion dollars’ worth of G20 security locked down Toronto, protesters are asking whether extreme policing is the extreme reaction to protesting in Stephen Harper’s Canada. Many groups, including everyone from Amnesty International to Toronto’s Deputy Police Chief, have endorsed a call for an independent public inquiry to find out who is responsible for the heavy-handed police tactics that ended in over 1,000 arrests. Meanwhile, a national day of protest is being held this Saturday, July 17.

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