L'Itineraire Celebrates

“This weekend has been a record-breaker!” beams Bill Ecomomou, as he sells copies of L’Itinéraire to shoppers in Atwater market over Labour Day weekend.

Ecomomou is a familiar face to market patrons. For the past three years, rain or shine, he’s here most days of the week, selling copies of L’Itinéraire, for which he is also a writer. Passersby often stop to say hi, and most know him by name. Like over 400 other vendors throughout the city, Ecomomou supports himself by selling the monthly newspaper, which features writing by the homeless and disadvantaged. This year, the newspaper celebrates its 15th anniversary.

“The group L’Itinéraire started in 1989 with the mission of integrating homeless people with a structure, and improving their self-esteem,” says L’Itinéraire publisher Serge LeReault. “We heard about the street paper movement, which started in New York in 1989, with a newspaper named Street News.”

The paper was a hit, and a movement began. “Street News became an inspiration for many, many organizations around the world,” says LeReault. Between 1989 and 1994 hundreds of street papers started everywhere on the planet. So, in 1993, our group started the paper.” With the help of a grant from the city of Montreal, L’Itinéraire was born.

The purpose of the paper is twofold. “It helps people to make money,” says LeReault. “They were beggars, panhandling on the street, but with the paper they can make money, so they don’t have to beg.”

But L’Itinéraire also serves a more important purpose. “Our first aim is having people writing for the paper,” says LeReault. “It’s a form of therapy - they improve their self-esteem.”

Ecomomou has experienced this firsthand. “You never know what you'll be doing in the future, but this was a stepping stone, and a chance for me to work with the public,” he says. Ecomomou himself was never homeless, but was unemployed when he began selling L’Itinéraire.

“The first day was discouraging,” Ecomomou says. “It took me time to figure out the best times to be here.” But over time, he has built up a large following as one of the only English writers for the mostly-French publication. “Some people are my fans - I didn’t even realize at first.” he says.

The benefits Ecomomou has experienced from selling L’Itinéraire have been observed by others at the market. “When he started here, he was very introverted, and he held his head down, not wanting to bother people,” says Erica Dancose, who works at Les Douceurs du Marché, the store outside which Ecomomou began selling L’Itinéraire. She and he became friends when she would offer him hot tea on cold days. Eventually, he began asking her advice about his articles.

“He realizes now that it’s not about bothering people, he is there with a product,” Dancose explains. “Every worker in the world should be proud of what they do. I saw a really huge improvement in his behavior over the years. He became excited that he was writing in it, and excited to tell his customers about his articles.”

Ecomomou is just one of hundreds whose lives have been transformed by L’Itinéraire. “Some of our vendors went on to become journalists at the CBC,” says LeReault. “Four other guys made a movie, called “Quiconque meurt, meurt à douleur.” The movie went on to win a prize at the 1999 Rendez-vous du cinéma québécois festival.

The paper’s value to the homeless and disadvantaged is tremendous, says LeReault. “Every day, people tell me they would be dead without L’Itinéraire,” he says. “They say, ‘I had nothing, but just selling the paper provides me with the possibility of speaking with others and feeling better.”

The paper is celebrating its 15th anniversary with a special 148-page September issue, and a benefit will be held on September 30th at the Gésu Centre on Bleury Street. Tickets are $125, and organizers are hoping to raise $45 thousand (last year’s benefit raised $30 thousand). Information can be found on the group’s website at www.itineraire.ca.

But if $125 is a bit steep for your student budget, it’s possible to support the newspaper in a meaningful way by buying a copy from a street vendor - it’s priced at only $2.

"I've stayed longer here than I ever have at any other job," says Ecomomou as he sells the last of his copies (he sold over 300 during the weekend). "I wouldn't still be doing this if I wasn't happy."

Farmer’s market transforms downtown square

Cheap food and education bring a community together

by ELISABETH FAURE

Normally covered in litter and frequented by the homeless, Cabot Square—just steps away from Atwater Metro—was transformed into a lively and colourful centre of activity for a farmer’s market and festival on Sept. 12.

Hosted by the Eco-quartier Peter-McGill, responsible for the west side of the Ville-Marie borough, the Public Market Harvest Festival offered patrons the chance to buy fresh fruits and vegetables at bargain prices while learning about proper nutrition and sustainability.

“We wanted to attack the issue of food access,” said organizer Marco Carpinteyro, who is also a coordinator on the Peter-McGill community council.

“It’s such a diverse district,” he continued. “There are many new immigrants who settle here and many, many students.” The district includes Dawson College, Concordia’s Sir George Williams Campus, McGill University and LaSalle College.

Giving residents easy and affordable access to fresh and nutritious food was an important goal of the market; baskets of carrots, beets and green peppers were on sale for as little as one dollar.

Jean-Yves Bourdages, a member of the Shaughnessey Village Association—responsible for the area between Guy Street and Atwater Avenue—also thinks that a farmer’s market can be beneficial to the homeless population that lives in the square.

“This allows patrons to see the homeless, to interact with them, and realize that they’re not dangerous,” Bourdages said, pointing out that a large number of the homeless people in Cabot Square are Native women with few resources in Montreal.

“There is a women’s centre in the area, but it’s only a day centre. In the evening, they have nowhere to go,” Bourdages explained. “A farmer’s market may allow them to participate more in the life of the city.”

“People are interested in lowering the prices of their grocery bills,” said Jenna Smith, who ran a booth at the market for Innovation Youth, an after-school centre for kids 12 years of age and older. “The prices are fantastic, particularly if you’re living on a student budget.”

One of the initiatives Smith was promoting was the Good Food Box, a program that provides boxes of fresh vegetables and fruit twice a month for a ballpark price of $7.

Food education was also a goal of the market. “There are so many young people and young families in this area,” said Carpinteyro. “Children and young adults need to be offered good food options. We want them to be aware that it’s much better to eat a fresh fruit than a chocolate bar.”

Organizers are hoping the market will become a staple of the neighbourhood for weekenders. “There’s been a lot of positive response,” said Carpinteyro. “It’s bringing so much animation to the square.”

Tremblay's New Play a Dud

“What do you say when there are no words?” repeatedly asks seemingly every character in Michel Tremblay’s new play, Fragments de mensonges inutiles. Unfortunately for playgoers, words seem to be about all the play has to offer.

The play begins with a premise that requires heavy suspension of disbelief on the audience’s part: that a gay teenage boy named Jean-Marc (Olivier Morin) living in the 1960s in embroiled in a tortured romance with another teen boy, Manu (Gabriel Lessard), living in 2009. The play never addresses how this is possible, preferring to merely use the contrived situation as a mechanism to explore the different attitudes of family and society towards homosexuality in these different eras.

The set is simple: a checkered floor, and a stage divided in two: one the left-hand side (1960s), a white wall with a black cross hanging on it, on the right (2009), an unadorned black wall. Chairs provide the only props.

The play opens with both teens making love, fully nude. Making the scene problematic was a seeming discomfort on the part of the actors . For an explicit scene like this to work, the actors must feel absolutely comfortable with each other, and with the material. Although it might have been a case of opening-night nerves, this ease was not present on Wednesday night at the Theatre Jean Duceppe.

The next scene involves a breakup between the two boys, although the breakup seems to be more of an excuse to move the plot’s action along than anything that truly stems from the teen’s relationship issues.

The two boys, heartbroken, fall into depression, prompting the adults in their lives to launch an investigation into the source of the children’s misery. For the 1960 side, this involves a distant father (Normand d’Amour), a priest (Roger LaRue), and a fiercely loving mother (Maude Guérin).

On the 2009 side, we have a psychiatrist (Gabriel Sabourin), a somewhat self-absorbed mother (Linda Sorgini), and a very well-meaning and open-minded father (Antoine Durand). What follows is two-odd hours of melodramatic dialogue, often consisting of the characters repeating the same lines, over and over. And over.

The play’s difficulty lies not only in the repetitive text, but in the over-the-top performances given by the entire cast. There is not a line that isn’t shouted, wailed or wept, rendering much of the text less powerful.

Of the material that does work, all the best goes to the 1960s side of the play, unsurprising for Tremblay. Olivier Morin and Maude Guérin are the cast standouts as Jean-Marc and Nana (cyphers of Tremblay and his mother, a recurring theme in his work). Both have powerful scenes in standing up the the nosy priest out to expose Jean-Marc’s sexuality.

But these scenes come early in the play, and after that the action goes downhill. The 2009 scenes are so banal as to be ridiculous, with much of the melodrama totally contrived. None of the characters seems to care much about anything, so their dramatic moments fall flat.

Manu gets mad at his too-cool dad for not being strict enough, and calls him a “pink man”. This simple accusation suddenly plunges his father, previously easily the play’s most well-adjusted character, into an apparent existential crisis. This seems designed only to give Durand’s character a Big Scene, where he can repeatedly shout, “A pink man? A PINK MAN!” at the top of his lungs.

The yesterday/today juxtaposition remains a distraction throughout the play. A scene where the fathers are talking with their sons simultaneously while one teen reads his Bible and the other Blackberries is ridiculous, and when the well-meaning 2009 father gently asks why his son doesn’t contact Jean-Marc, I had to suppress the urge to stand up from my seat and yell, “Because he doesn’t have a fucking time machine!”

The play is directed by Serge Denoncourt, returned to Montreal after setting the Vegas strip on fire like a pile of flaming manure with “Chriss Angel: Believe” an ill-fated co-production between Angel and Cirque du Soleil. Horrible reviews and poor attendance forced the Cirque to do the unprecedented and slash its ticket prices. In a recent interview with the Gazette’s Pat Donnelly, Denancourt admitted, “Las Vegas is not the place for me.”

In the same interview, Tremblay said that he held back the play for one year until Deancourt could return to direct it. Given the result, perhaps this wasn’t the best idea.

Tremblay remains a near-canonical figure in the Quebec arts scene, and since I’ve never read a review where a local critic dared to give him more than a gentle slap on the wrist, the show is virtually assured unanimously glowing reviews. The opening-night audience dutifully rose to their feet for a standing O. While the cast may have deserved an A for effort, an O is in doubt.

The other PQ

Poetry Quebec a “virtual salon” for Anglo poets

by ELISABETH FAURE

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I remember that / born under the lily [the symbol of France] / I grew under the rose [the symbol of England]. GRAPHIC JESSICA VRIEND

A new online magazine is aiming to shake up the Anglo poetry scene chez nous.
The magazine, Poetry Quebec, caters to English readers with a mix of poetry, essays and articles.

“I like the idea of the electronic salon, of the virtual salon,” said magazine co-founder Endre Farkas, a poet and retired John Abbott College professor, over coffee at a Monkland Street café.

“We want to have a conversation with people about poetry, about English language poetry here in Quebec,” continued Farkas.

The idea for the magazine came from Elias Letelier, a Chilean poet who was exiled under the Pinochet government and immigrated to Montreal in the early 1980s.

“He educated me about the importance of political literary magazines and literature because he came from a country where you could get tortured and killed for putting poems out,” said Farkas. “He had a much different perspective on what [poetry] is, that it’s a responsibility and a political act.”

Although Farkas, a self-described Luddite, was somewhat reluctant to start a website, Letelier wouldn’t let go of the idea.

“He kept coming over [to my home] and putting things on my computer, things like Photoshop,” said Farkas.

Letelier finally won him over and upon Farkas’ retirement, the duo began working on the magazine with the editorial help of Carolyn Marie Souaid, poetry editor of Signature Editions.
The inaugural issue focuses on the work of famed Montreal poet Louis Dudek, who passed away in 2001.

“He was an important modernist in Canada, not just as a poet but as a public intellectual,” said Farkas. “He was always engaging people in ideas and debate.”

Farkas laments the current state of Montreal’s poetry community.

“There’s a lively scene in the sense that there are a lot of people writing, but there’s not a lively scene in the sense of poets getting together. It’s sort of a ‘me, myself and I’ attitude, you know? ‘I want to get published. I want to be heard. I want to be read. But what are you going to do for me?’”

Poetry Quebec hopes to help create a sense of community amongst Anglo poets by using the power of the Internet to offer them a more visible platform.

“It might affect the way the writers think of themselves. You’re no longer part of a small ghetto. Now, you’re a part of a global ghetto,” laughed Farkas.

Judging by the magazine’s initial reception—which received 61,000 hits from as far as Europe and Asia—that’s not overstating the case.

“I figured 25 [hits] would really be doing well,” he said.

The magazine also serves up a sly poke in the ribs to certain mythologies surrounding our province’s famous language tensions, aside from sharing the same initials as the Parti Québécois.

Poetry Quebec’s motto, “I remember,” directly translates Quebec’s provincial slogan, “Je me souviens.” As Farkas points out, most Quebecois have no idea that the text of the poem from which the quote derives reads as follows: “I remember that / born under the lily [the symbol of France] / I grew under the rose [the symbol of England].”

The magazine has an open submission policy, but would-be applicants beware: the magazine’s editors say that their response time is similar to Quebec’s infamous language law, Bill 101.

“It may take us 101 days to respond,” joked Farkas.

The second edition of Poetry Quebec is now available online at poetry-quebec.com. Submission guidelines can be found on the website.

Neglected bike path dubbed ‘valley of death

Vision and Project Montreal blame city for negligence

by ELISABETH FAURE

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Clearly, NDG drivers don't know how to drive PHOTO STEFAN GUNTERMANN

According to the Montreal Police, 701 bike accidents occurred on the Island of Montreal last year. Two crashes resulted in fatalities and 34 in serious injuries

A dilapidated bike path in the Cote des Neiges/Notre-Dame-de-Grâce borough is heating up Montreal’s upcoming municipal election as local candidates weigh in on the faulty strip of road work.

Running along de Maisonneuve Boulevard W. from the Vendôme metro to Concordia’s Loyola campus, the bike path is in a sorry state, pockmarked with large potholes and missing many of the poles that separate cyclists from passing cars.

One local candidate has said enough is enough.

“I am the biggest cyclist in this [electoral] race—I took that path already twice today,” said Peter McQueen, Project Montreal’s CDN/NDG candidate.

A local activist in NDG who has run for the federal Green Party twice, McQueen has called for the pot holes to be filled, new poles to be installed and for the so-called “valley of death” intersection where the path crosses Décarie Boulevard to be re-designed.

“We want a flyover [cyclist overpass], absolutely, at the Décarie intersection. [We] want it to go behind Vendôme metro station,” said McQueen. “It’s tight, but there is just enough space.”
Vision Montreal candidate David Hanna, who joins McQueen in his outrage over the bike path, was quoted in The Link two weeks ago for voicing his displeasure at the haphazard route and also advocates for a flyover.

McQueen said Union Montreal borough mayor Michael Applebaum has been negligent in the path’s maintenance, but Applebaum’s office denies responsibility for its state.
Applebaum’s Chief of Staff Hugo Tremblay said, “the borough is not responsible; it’s a city bike path.”

“This summer we patched a lot of potholes and city hall told us that next summer they’re going to re-pave the path and fix the poles,” he continued.
Tremblay pointed out that municipal bike paths on NDG roads like LaCombe Avenue and Isabella Street were well-maintained.

Union Montreal candidate Marie-Josée Mastromonaco, who is running against McQueen, agreed the bike path is good enough as it is.

“We did as much as we could,” said the self-professed non-cyclist, “especially when you take into consideration that it’s not under our jurisdiction.”

Mastromonaco, current commissioner for Montreal’s French-language school board, said little more could be done to revamp the paths. “We can promise you a lot of things,” she said, “but they’ll be empty promises because the pike path doesn’t belong to us.”

Darren Becker, the press attaché for Mayor Gérald Tremblay, acknowledged that fixing the bike path is a pressing concern.

“We don’t take the situation lightly, as it concerns public safety,” said Becker. “But we have over 500 kilometres of bike paths in Montreal, so we need NDG residents to be a bit more patient. It’s definitely going to be attended to and it’s not going to be a matter of fixing it years from now.”

Becker added that 11.5 kilometres of new bike path is being created in NDG on Fielding and Girouard Avenues, which will provide residents with alternatives while the path on de Maisonneuve Boulevard W. is waiting for repairs.

That’s good news for McQueen, who defines NDG as “a neighbourhood that is naturally suited to bikes.” He is firmly in support of new bike paths, predicting that NDG will soon mirror the tip-top conditions of the downtown core.

“The number of cyclists will shoot up,” McQueen said. “If you build the bike path, they will come.”

Concordia hikes international tuition... again

Tuition thaw turning hot as more increases loom for all students

by ELIZABETH FAURE

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GRAPHIC VIVIEN LEUNG

Two years after the Liberal government decided to lift a decade-long tuition freeze in Quebec, Concordia's students took to the streets again on June 18 to protest the latest fee increase at their university.

The megaphones and chants broke the early morning air to defend the most over-taxed group at Concordia: international students. Despite the opposition, the university's Board of Governors decided to increase international tuition fees by 10 per cent for the second time in two years.

“They didn’t really listen to what we had to say,” said Erik Chevrier, a Concordia Graduate Student Association executive who attended the meeting. He was allowed to speak, but was unable to vote. “It seemed that it was rushed through—this is a huge matter and there was no big discussion about it.”

According to a document posted on the CSU website, "A student, from Quebec [...] will have to pay an additional $600 to obtain a bachelors degree. An out-of-province student would have to pay an additional $1,800 and an out-of-country [student] far more.” The document states that under the new guidelines, "Universities can charge international students as much as they want, opening the door for American style tuition."

Chevrier says that a brief PowerPoint presentation by Concordia VP Finance Larry English outlined the financial benefits the university would derive from the tuition increases. Mr. English did not return a call to be interviewed for this article.

“The university is in debt by about $11 million and they want to raise the amount of revenue coming into the university,” said Chevrier, who argued against the tuition increase at the meeting.

Chevrier says that the latest increase places university out of reach for many students, which could cost Concordia more money in the long-term if the tuition increase leads to a drop in student enrolment.

“When the GSA contacted Concordia administration about previous unexpected tuition hikes made in Summer 2009, the administration replied that the increases were based on the provincial government’s decision,” says GSA Arts director Nadia Hausfather, who organized a protest against the increases.

“We could not find any evidence that the summer increase was mandated by the government," added Hausfather. "What we do know is that the Quebec government mandated tuition hikes for international students for the year 2007-2008 while also allowing universities to increase them by an extra 10 per cent if they so desired.

“Then last fall, the government completely removed the ceiling for international students’ tuition in certain undergraduate programs. Basically the government is giving universities the choice to raise these fees, and Concordia decided to raise them.”

On the day of the Board meeting, protesters from the CSU and GSA were joined by representatives from other Montreal universities who opposed the fee increases. They were all denied entrance into the building by campus security.

“Well, we got there and security stopped us from entering the building,” Hausfather said. “We told them that we were Concordia students and were allowed to enter our own university, but they locked us out.” When Hausfather and other students tried to enter the GM building through the EV building, Concordia security told her that her academic integrity was at risk because she was chanting through a megaphone.

The GSA is planning to host regular workshops on the topic of affordable education and tuition increases throughout the Orientation period.

For Hausfather though, the issue extends beyond Concordia. “We were reading about similar increases at McGill,” she says. “It’s an issue that applies to all students in Quebec, especially now that UQAM’s rector revealed the provincial government’s plan to continue increasing all students’ tuition past 2012. All students should be concerned that their universities are making it hard for people who don’t have money to study.”

Through music and dialogue, a community remembers

Montreal North's Hoodstock festival helps heal wounds

by ELIZABETH FAURE

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former angmembers told their stories

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PHOTOS JACQUES BALAYLA

One year after the shooting death of Fredy Villanueva at the hands of Montreal police officers in Montreal North, tensions in the neighbourhood remain. At Hoodstock, an event in early August planned by community organizers to commemorate Villanueva’s death, attendees mourned Villanueva and expressed frustration with the ongoing inquiry into his death.

The two-day festival took place in Park Aimé-Léonard. On Saturday, August 9, a series of afternoon workshops dealing with topics such as gang violence and racial profiling was held, followed by an evening of hip-hop music. A march was held the next day, where hundreds walked from the park to the nearby parking lot where Villanueva died.

Villanueva, 18, was playing dice with his brother Dany and a group of friends in the local parking lot on August 9, 2008, when they were approached by two police officers. What happened next remains unclear—the officers claim that the youths became violent when they tried to arrest Fredy’s brother. But the youths claim that the officers were never threatened—they merely asked why Dany was being arrested. Either way, within minutes, Fredy Villaneuva was dead, struck by three bullets fired by Constable Jean-Loup Lapointe.

“Fredy was going to CEGEP, he had a good job, and he had no dossier [criminal record],” said Hoodstock attendee Louise Chartier, a mother whose children attended school with the Villanueva kids. Chartier moved to Montreal North from the Saint-Sauveur area years ago. She has seen first-hand the problems experienced by young people in the area.

“Coming from the Laurentians, I always thought the police were here to protect us, but I’ve seen so many incidents here in the park,” Chartier said. With sadness in her eyes, she remembers Villanueva as a young man full of potential. “I’m just trying to understand,” she said quietly.

Villanueva’s death triggered riots in the area the following day. The police officers involved were not charged, and were cleared of wrongdoing by the police force following an internal investigation. A provincial inquiry was launched to investigate the shooting.

One year later, the inquiry has hit repeated roadblocks. Montreal North community groups have pressured the government to broaden the scope of the inquiry to include such issues as racial profiling, and lawyers for young witnesses who successfully demanded that the government pay their legal fees.

“From the beginning, there has been a lack of leadership from the government,” said Hoodstock organizer Will Prosper. “For the government to say that the police officers acted correctly and for the police to investigate themselves has forced people to fight for justice, which they should never have to do.”

Prosper points to the high level of poverty in Montreal North as the source of neighbourhood difficulties, noting that 40 per cent of the population here live below the poverty line. “There is still more to be done,” he said. “The solution is not to finance more police.” Instead, Prosper wants to see the government put more money into education and job creation for local residents.

Rosa Bautista, another workshop attendee, agrees.

“Education, communication and togetherness are power,” she said. For Bautista, Villaneuva’s death struck a personal chord. “What happened to Fredy. To see this tragic end ... I am a mother, it could have happened to my own son.”

Nevertheless, she sees the possibility of positive change coming to the neighbourhood. “I am a fighter, and I am inspired,” she said. “I want to show my son and the new generation that one person can make a change.”

Chartier agrees that change is coming to Montreal North, but has mixed emotions. “There’s a lot of great kids here, with so much talent and potential, you wouldn’t believe it,” she says sadly. “It’s getting better now, but somebody had to die.”

NDG shows off green cred with zero waste fair

Harvest fair flaunts local corn, head-bobbing music and sustainability discussions

by ELIZABETH FAURE

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Matt Trowell throws NDG-grown wheat chaff into the air, The wheat will be used to produce local beer PHOTO ION ETXEBARRIA

Notre-Dame-de-Grâce residents turned out to celebrate sustainable development and listen to live music on Sunday at the third annual Country en Ville/Harvest Fair, held in Girouard Park. The event was organized by local groups Éco-Vélo and the Montreal Permaculture Guild.
“We are proud that this is the first public event in Montreal with zero waste,” said Roger Haughey, president of Éco-Vélo. “We were inspired by Sunday in the Park,” Haughey said, referring to the annual summer festival that stopped running several years ago. “We wanted to have an event like that with music and local community groups.”

Marion Dulude, of the Montreal Permaculture Guild, also saw a lot of enthusiasm from people attending the festival. “We’re promoting different ways of becoming self-sufficient in Montreal, of creating communities,” she said of her group’s participation at the Fair. Dulude was the image of fun in a clown costume, complete with red nose.

Anna Berlyn, a young NDG resident, was using the occasion to promote a new initiative being undertaken by the Unity Church, located across the street from the park.

“We are getting a youth group underway,” she said. “The project is Saturday evening socials for 18-25-year olds.” The evenings will be drug and alcohol free. “This age group needs attention, and we have the ideal space,” said Berlyn.

Local candidates for Vision Montreal and Project Montréal were in attendance, stumping and shaking hands. Michael Applebaum, borough mayor and candidate for current mayor Gérald Tremblay’s Union Montreal party, was invited but did not attend the event. Fixing the bike path on de Maisonneuve Blvd. was of concern to both candidates. “It’s a piece of shit,” noted musician Eric Hanson, who performed.

“It’s full of potholes,” agreed Vision Montreal candidate David Hanna, a UAQM urbanism teacher. “The posts separating you from the cars are all knocked down, and tree branches are hanging down everywhere, hitting you in the face while you’re biking.” Hanna also took issue with the poor planning of the path when it crosses the busy Décarie intersection, and says that his party wants to install a steel flyover to fix it.

Peter McQueen of Project Montreal, also wants to see bike paths improved in NDG, along with other changes to reduce car traffic in NDG. “We need to slow down traffic on all the side streets in NDG,” McQueen said.

As the afternoon wore on, scattered showers threatened the crowd, but NDG residents remained upbeat, and excited about the festival.

“Local economy is the way to go, and this is a great neighbourhood for keeping it local,” said Maica Mia, a musical performer who also works at Coop La maison verte, which sells environmentally-friendly products. Pointing out such initiatives as Community Sustainable Agriculture, she sees NDG as a green community with engaged residents.

“We really just want to help NDGers,” said Haughey, adding that organizers are already looking forward to next year’s festival.