1990

Rating: NNNNN

Behind the barricades

In August 1990, Mohawk warriors at Kanesatake rivet the country with an armed standoff against Quebec police – and later the military – to save a sacred pine stand from a golf course expansion. NOW goes behind the barricades, where AK-47s lie strewn on the ground like bad omens, to let native militants piece together the historic meaning of this electric moment for our readers.

Jon Kaplan wins special theatre award

NOW has been blanketing T.O.’s theatre scene since issue one, thanks to senior stage writer Jon Kaplan. At the Dora Awards ceremony Kaplan received the Brenda Donohue Award for his contribution to Toronto theatre. The community stands up and roars its approval as Kaplan accepts.

they said

It’s important to send a message to these groups that they’re not going to make money advocating totally disgusting behaviour. – Moses Znaimer on MuchMusic’s banning of all Public Enemy videos

A warrior takes care of the tribe and keeps the peace. He doesn’t just go to war. – imprisoned native activist Leonard Peltier

The best side of me has complete faith that I will get what I deserve. – Jane Siberry

The only time I tell myself I’m great is when I’m in the bathroom – that way I can flush the toilet when I leave. – George Clinton

Changing record companies is like getting out of a bad marriage – it’s very refreshing. – Bonnie Raitt

I had a manager who had life insurance on my life, and he’d be the first one to get me stoned out of my brain the minute I walked into the office. – Concrete Blonde’s Johnette Napolitano

Suddenly I’m nominated, I’m invited and you think, “What does this mean? Do I have to buy a sequined dress?” – Suzanne Vega on her Grammy nomination

Only women can tell that male subjectivity is not universal, and that cultural misogyny is universal. – poet/novelist Nicole Brossard

In Canada, the trees are older than the buildings, and in Britain the buildings are older than the trees. – Mike Myers on British comedy fans’ obsession with civilization

Let’s be honest about it: no one was really waiting for the next Donny Osmond album. – Donny Osmond

There’s been a trend of bands recently whose mission, it seemed, was to depress their audience. – John Flansburgh of They Might Be Giants

When I said no, there was absolute silence. I could almost hear my name being erased from one list and transferred to another. – singer Molly Johnson on turning down an invitation to perform for prime minister Brian Mulroney

This band is a finite thing. If you’d asked me about how long we could go on together about a year ago, I would’ve had a negative answer. But this has been a positive tour. – Geddy Lee of Rush, who released their 17th studio album, Vapor Trails, in 2002 and continue to tour and record

we said

“People are sick of the tiresome attitude in fancy restaurants, paying $46.50 for a salad and a Perrier, and will discover the beauty of cooking at home. We’ll get back to the basics. No more of these plates of designer food looking like the chef sneezed on them.” – about overpriced restaurant dining.

“Once prime dealers of the fast thrash, they’ve quickly deteriorated into no more than a pathetically dull-witted beer advertisement.” – about Boston’s Gang Green

“For a woman who spent 12 years with Clint Eastwood, Sondra Locke doesn’t brood much.” – on Clint the Squint’s ex

“Madonna’s been called everything from a slut to a saint to a genius to a bitch, but like her or not, this woman has contrived a persona that has become a total success, and you’ve got to respect that.” – about the Material Girl, live at the Skydome

“Total Recall was once a David Cronenberg project – a mouth-watering prospect suggesting a series of hallucinatory, paranoid mind-games. Now it’s just dumb.” – about Ah-nuld’s Martian chronicle Total Recall

“Has anyone else noticed that it sounds as if he wrote one song years ago and just keeps changing the lyrics with each new single since then?” – about Phil Collins live at the Skydome

“The most interesting aspect of the evening was figuring out whether the band said ‘fuck’ more often than ‘hey Toronto.'” – about Mötley Crüe live at Skydome

top 10 albums

Björk Gling Gló

Depeche Mode Violator

Ice Cube AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted

Jane’s Addiction Ritual De Lo Habitual

Sinéad O’Connor I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got

Kronos Quartet Black Angels

Uncle Tupelo No Depression

John Zorn Naked City

Sonic Youth Goo

Galaxie 500 This Is Our Music

top 10 movies

Goodfellas

Dances With Wolves

Edward Scissorhands

Wild At Heart

Mo’ Better Blues

Miller’s Crossing

La Femme Nikita

Europa Europa

Ju Dou

Misery

Year of the Gun

A string of shootings of unarmed black civilians by T.O. cops has community groups demanding the force be disarmed. The controversy comes to a head on May 14 when a teenaged black motorist pulled over for speeding is shot three times, an act then justified under the “fleeing felon rule” that permits officers to fire at unarmed suspects to “effect apprehension.” While police tout “a black crime wave,” solicitor general Steven Offer immediately rushes the new Police Services Act through the legislature.

busted!

On September 6, 1990, Metro Toronto Police bust NOW for prostitution, laying 14 “communication for the purpose” charges. Exec editor Alice Klein and publisher Michael Hollett are charged after the morality squad spends six months investigating the paper’s business personals. This despite the fact that senior attorneys in the Attorney General’s office urged coppers to hold off. NOW lawyer Clayton Ruby warns of a breach of the constitution. And sure enough, within weeks – as the new provincial NDP government settles in – the Crown drops the charges, arguing there was “no legal basis.”

in this year

JANUARY

We pay 7 per cent more for just about everything – Mulroney gives us the GST.

FEBRUARY

Maestro Fresh Wes becomes first Canuck rapper to crack U.S. market.

Tory youth convention in Peterborough marks the start of Mike Harris’s Common Sense Revolution.

NOW is there when Nelson Mandela arrives home to Soweto, South Africa, after being jailed for almost 28 years.

Hagersville, Ontario, hometown of Rush’s Neil Peart, is the site of a massive 17-day, toxin-spewing tire fire.

MARCH

ROM’s Into The Heart Of Africa exhibit, inadvertently glorifying Canada’s colonial past, is met by outrage and demonstrations.

Meanwhile, the National Gallery of Canada spends $1.8 million on Barnett Newman’s Voice Of Fire, which some see as a red stripe on a blue background.

Mikhail Gorbachev is elected as the first executive president of the Soviet Union, and what looks like a stain in the shape of the Balkans turns out to be a birthmark.

MAY

Mike Harris, the most reviled Ontario politician in recent history, is chosen Tory leader. Toronto becomes the first North American municipal government to use only cleaning products not developed through animal testing.

Under Lucien Bouchard, Tories and Liberals leave their caucuses to form the Bloc Québécois.

The World Health Organization removes homosexuality from its list of diseases.

JUNE

Thirty thousand gather in Queen’s Park to celebrate Nelson Mandela’s first visit to T.O.

The ill-fated Meech Lake Accord is signed.

The Star takes right-wing attack dog Tom Jakobek’s word for it and runs with damaging charges that Jack Layton and Olivia Chow are freeloading by living in subsidized housing.

AUGUST

Iraq invades Kuwait, instigating Gulf War one.

SEPTEMBER

Future premier Bob Rae is arrested at a Temagami protest to save forests from chainsaws.

NOVEMBER

The first known Web page is written. Within days it’s advertising free porn links.

DECEMBER

Slobodan Milosevic becomes president of Serbia.