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Ahmad Moujtahed

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Quebec's Controversial Bill 40 

The Union of Quebec Municipalities (UMQ) has voiced its opposition to the tabling of Bill 40, the controversial new legislation that abolishes Quebec’s school boards and replaces them with service centers.

The CAQ government added a series of last-minute amendments to Bill 40. One of the amendments gives the new service centers the power to force municipalities to give up public land if its needed to build new schools.

According to the UMQ, the Government of Quebec’s approach is unacceptable, in the way the expropriation amendment was added discreetly to the bill without prior discussion with the municipalities. The union also worries what this amendment will mean for a city or town’s debt and how it will affect taxpayers.

Montreal mayor Valerie Plante said this is something that was thrown on mayors in the province. She also added that she does want more schools in the city but wants to work with the Quebec government to make it happen.

Wet’suwet’en Protests

Protests over the Coastal GasLink pipeline project continue to grow.

After the B.C. Supreme Court granted Coastal GasLink an expanded injunction against the Wet’suwet’en Nation members who were blocking access to the project, tensions started to escalate. Canadian police began enforcing the injunction last week, and have since made 28 arrests, according to BBC. 

Experts sounded the alarm on what they called “unlawful and unjust” arrests while Indigenous advocates said the conflict goes well beyond pipeline opposition: it’s a rights issue.

The ongoing conflict prompted several solidarity protests across Canada. In Ottawa, Indigenous youth and supporters gathered just blocks from Parliament Hill on Monday and said they’ve given the federal justice minister 24 hours to respond to their demands or they’ll consider reconciliation dead.

In Quebec, Trains on Exo's Candiac line have been cancelled for two days in a row due to  protests in Kahnawake.

During a news conference in Senegal, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau addressed the blockades and said

 “We recognize the important democratic right and we will always defend it of peaceful protests. This is an important part of our democracy in Canada. But we’re also a country of the rule of law, and we need to make sure those laws are respected. That is why I am encouraging all parties to dialogue.. to resolve this as quickly as possible.” 

Even a glance at the lineup snaking around the block outside L’Olympia on a Sunday evening was enough to signal that something out of the ordinary was happening. Attendees waiting in anticipation of experimental folk band, Heilung. Fans arrived to the venue in full Norse-influenced historical attire – standing in the queue. I watched a parade of pelts, face paint, and bones march around me. A pair of show-goers close to me carried a massive pair of moose antlers. Clearly, this was not going to be just a concert, but an event.

Of German, Danish and Norwegian roots, Heilung has won a large and feverishly dedicated fan following for their unique sonic and aesthetic style – they’ve coined a new term for their unique brand of Nordic revival music, calling it “amplified history”. Their work uses traditional hide drums, bone horns, clay rattles, and antique spiritual items. They sing lyrics in a blend of ancient languages, sometimes quoting old Norse runic poetry. The name Heilung (German for “healing”) speaks to the ideals of the group. The listener should be left in a state of meditative relaxation, lulled by purposefully repetitive chants. 

This is Heilung’s first-ever North American tour, and it is a long-awaited one. The group began selling out dates as soon as they were announced. They performed songs from  their latest musical offering, 2019’s Futha. Heilung’s live shows bear a reputation for being much more than just concerts. In fact, they are referred to as “rituals”, and feature all the theatricality that title suggests.

A reverent, almost spiritual, energy pervaded the space even before the show began (half an hour late, to accommodate the massive lines outside). The stage, draped in smoke, featured an arrangement of percussion, bones, and bare branches, with a large hide drum hung from a wooden frame as the centrepiece. The crowd, already buzzing, howled like wolves as a hooded figure appeared on stage. Silence fell as the figure wafted incense across the room to signal the beginning of the ritual. The members of Heilung – German vocalist Kai Uwe Faust, Danish producer Christopher Juul, and Norwegian folk singer Maria Franz, and others – filed out onto the stage, dressed in hides and antlers, sombre and mysterious. They began the show with their trademark call-and-answer group invocation, and the crowd shouted the words back at them wholeheartedly.

And then the symbolic drum glowed red, and the ritual began. 

I have not seen a crowd with so few cell phones visible in recent years, nor have I stood in an audience so raptly transfixed. It was difficult to do much besides stand and witness as Heilung led the crowd into their Bronze Age fantasy. The night was filled with pounding drums, smoke and even flame at one point. Faust’s hypnotic throat singing, blended with Franz’s powerful howls and delicate falsetto, cast a trance-like spell. The stage was invaded at points with warriors sporting shields and spears, and everything from a mock ritual sacrifice to a fire dance with flaming antlers was summoned forth by the horned performers. True to their reputation, Heilung delivered a show that was both sonically and aesthetically unforgettable. (Even if it did seem to lack direction at points – but then again, perhaps this is intentional, as the group does not wish to emulate any particular religious or political affiliation). 

By the time the light behind the ritual drum faded and the ritual was closed with incense once more, the audience had been taken on a 90-minute journey to a completely different time and place. Unfortunately, the popularity of the group meant that the crowd was jolted back into reality by an incredible bottleneck leaving the venue (definitely the biggest and most frustrating negative point of the evening). But, even with the logistical nightmare of leaving the theatre, the mood amongst show-goers was largely positive and reverential. “I feel like I just witnessed something really special,” said the woman standing next to me in the crowd as we left. It’s true that I had never seen anything quite like it. Heilung had succeeded at amplifying history for us for the evening, and the reverberations of their ritual lasted well beyond the set length.

Renita Bangert is the host of 5 Songs With…, the talk show that’s part music history, part trivia, and part play-along mystery. Tune in each week to listen to 5 different songs and explore the unexpected ways they connect. Tuesdays at 3PM EST, on CJLO 1690AM!

Reporter: Shanellie Marie

Main story: Sasha Teman, Evan Lindsay and Luca Caruso-Moro

Wet'suwet'en

After weeks of standoffs, the RCMP have arrested six people on Wet'suwet'en territory in an ongoing protest against pipeline development. The Mounties breached a camp set up by First Nations at 4 A.M. on Thursday to carry out the arrests. 

One hour before, at 3 A.M., the area had been declared a, quote, "exclusion zone," by the RCMP. Coastal Gaslink President David Pfeiffer called the situation, quote, "disappointing."

That’s Unist’ot’en Chief Brenda Mitchell. She gave a statement on Facebook pledging to continue to resist RCMP encroachment on their territory. 

About 250 people gathered on Concordia's downtown campus on Wednesday to stand in solidarity with protestors. Marlene Hale was there, she's a member of the Wet'suwet'en Nation. 

The gathering was part of Concordia's First Voices Week, Which joined protests across the country in solidarity with the Wet'suwet'en.

CJLO 1690 AM’s longest-running hip-hop show, The Limelight, is now celebrating its 17-year anniversary of being on air this February. 

Hosts Amrew Weekes, aka DJ Lady Oracle, and Jason Farrell aka J-Nice created The Limelight back in 2003. “I’m not too sure at the time that we started how many other underground hip-hop shows were happening in Montreal,” said J-Nice. “So it was just like, ‘Okay, nobody’s doing this, let’s have fun with it.” 

Over the years, the show has been promoting the Montreal and Canadian music scene the best way that they can. “We want to support local hip-hop and r&b artists, getting to know all of them and really build a community and be a part of a community,” said DJ Lady Oracle. 

Being deeply entrenched in the hip-hop community allowed The Limelight to grow their show very quickly and organically. DJ Lady Oracle has made contacts both as CJLO’s Hip-Hop Director for the past 4 years and as a DJ at Kalmunity, Canada’s largest and longest-running improv collective. Lady Oracle and J-Nice are also part of Urban Science Le Cypher, Montreal’s weekly hip-hop/soul jam session, happening every Thursday at Bootlegger. 

“Montreal’s small in the sense of the hip-hop community,” said J-Nice. “So when there’s an event happening, you just want to go represent. It shows them love, they show us love. We get to meet other artists through that event that we’ve never heard before, but it turns out that they’ve got some good stuff too. Then we get their music and bring them on the show. It’s just like a big circle.”

And the impact that The Limelight has had in the Montreal hip-hop music scene is unmistakable. “I feel like, if the show wasn’t there anymore, it’s almost like there’d be like a hole in the community, or one less outlet, you know?” said Lady Oracle. 

Since this February is the anniversary month of The Limelight, DJ Lady Oracle and J-Nice are planning on doing something special for their show. They plan on having live-to-air sessions by local artists, with their performances being live-streamed on YouTube. 

The Limelight will also be hosting a special 17-year anniversary party on Saturday, February 8th at The Diving Bell Social Club. “We see [this event] as a celebration, just come celebrate with us,” said DJ Lady Oracle. “We want to have people there who’ve been a part of [the Limelight], and we can all just celebrate it, celebrate the longevity of it.”

The last anniversary show that The Limelight had was for their 5-year anniversary, 12 years ago. “And every year we’ve been saying, “We’ve got to do it again, we’ve got to do it again’,” said J-Nice. “It’s about just coming to represent, and we just want to have fun with the people who we’ve talked to for the past 17 years and who’ve loved the show.”

The Limelight is very appreciative of the support that everyone has shown them throughout the years. “We’re just super grateful and we really appreciate all the love from everybody, from the community, from CJLO. We’ve had different Station Managers, and Program Managers and Hip Hop Directors since 2003; that’s a lot, but it’s always been such an incredible experience. And we have such a great volunteer team, so we’re just really happy to still be a part of that,” said Lady Oracle.

Moving forward, The Limelight also wants to focus on finding new ways of promoting the Montreal scene and collaborating with more artists in the community. 

They want to continue having fun with their show and grow as much as they can. “I think just the continuation of the passion and the love kind of gives us that unique flavour that people enjoy and people want to be a part of,” said J-Nice. “That’s one of the things we can only really hope for is that people love it, and we give that love back, and yeah, the sky’s the limit!” 

Come enjoy The Limelight’s 17 Years & Counting Party at The Diving Bell Social Club on Saturday, February 8, from 7 PM – 11 PM. There will also be special performances by Sereni-T, Shaun Miller, Cat Fernandes, and DJ White Socks. Entry Cost: PWYC.