This episode of Audiosmut discusses in greater detail what’s up on lower st. Laurent these days. Last time we checked, Cafe Cleopatra and some other thriving businesses were being expropriated for a 12 story office building under a contract awarded to the Angus Development Corporation by the city of Montreal (Gerald Tremblay).
First we talk to Emilie Laliberte from Stella (an organization for and by sex workers whose goal is to provide information and support to people in the trade so that they can work in safety and with dignity) to get a grasp on how the development of the lower main has been impacting the sex worker community. Needless to say, there has not been much understanding or acceptance coming from the city with regards to women working the streets. The Tremblay administration is particularly closed to including sex workers in the discussion of solutions for st. laurent. Instead, petty policies are being enacted (expensive tickets, and quadrilatere’s restricting sex workers from entering the quartier) to remove them from the area.
We also hear throughout this show, a special edition of Pleasures. Loosely based on what is happening to Cafe Cleo, we return to Pleasureburg and see how our characters react to this unsexy situation.
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Next, we hear some audio clips of the Contre Courant event, put on to rally support for Save the Main. The dead doll dancers, who perform regularly on the thrust stage at Cabaret Cleo, put together a satire of the Public consultations that occured discussing the merits of the Angus Development contract, and whether or not Cafe Cleo and the other establishments on this part of the main are indeed historical sites that ought to be preserved.
Lastly is the porning news, where we speak with Eric Paradis, who gives us an update on the situation. Despite recent discoveries that the head of the Angus Development Corporation has been involved in fraud, the project is likely to go through. Especially since Gerald Tremblay has been re-elected. Eric brings up the injustices of the situation:
1) The proposed project–payed for with tax dollars—benefits a very small group of people
2) Pouring money into fancy architechture and clean cut edifice does not cultivate cultural richness. Money is being put into facade rather than into real creative projects.
3) The people whose businesses are being expropriated, the people who have worked long and hard and contributed to the community in many ways, have every right to be there and stay there.
Support the inclusion of everyone in the decisions made about developing the Quartier des Spectacles.
