Brian Shannon’s Peace Park Vimeo Post

Here is a video clip that was posted on the Peace Park Facebook profile by Brian Shannon, with Hugo Balek, Charles Rivard, and others.

HUGO 360p from Brian Shannon on Vimeo.

The Truth

Yesterday I called Monique Savoie the founder and president of the Society for Arts and Technology concerning the rumor of the city selling Peace Park to the SAT, which was started by city worker Eric. The truth is that no, the SAT is not putting a fence around Peace Park, and that despite what the vacuum cleaner guy said about the city no longer being responsible for maintaining park, Monique ensured that the SAT is only responsible for cleaning up after their events.

Frank Lam Blogging about the Park

Since MQC put up the Peace Park website, people send us links to blogs and websites containing Peace Park content. Virginie Plante sent me a link to Montréal’s Frank Lam’s blog, who posted on some nice pictures worth taking a look at of the Studio Skateboards team and some park locals, which he referred to as wild animals.

I don’t feel that Frank had bad intentions calling the locals animals because sometimes some of the lifers at times do act primitively. But, I would like to point out that the Peace Park documentary is geared to create awareness about this group of people that occupy Peace Park. The reason being that they represent a part of society that has important roots in Montréal’s history, and have often been unappreciated and perceived as un-deserving of a place in our society by the average citizen. The video will help elucidate the situation at Peace Park to all groups involved to better understand their “locals”, who are constantly being targeted and having their rights violated, and to find ways to address the needs everyone who interacts with the park.

Kid Climbed Shoe Pole

The weather in Montreal has been rainy the past couple days, but fortunately there were some dry spells which allowed for a brief session at Peace Park today. While skating up to the park I could see that the police where on the scene beside Temple dealing with someone one I had never seen before. Getting closer I found Andy, Jean Mat Vincent who has killer sequence at Peace in the new King Shit Magazine, and Andrew Mcgraw sitting in bleach fumes in front of the store. When Jean Mat questioned the smell, Andy said he poured a bunch in front of the place to kill the smell of urine.

Before skating I threw my last two pairs of used wheels up the lamp pole where I’ve been tossing my worn out shoes for the last 9 yrs. I guess it’s now become a used product pole, instead of a shoe pole. Andy suggested I ties my old boards together and throw them up there, which was pretty funny, I just might. One time I tried selling my worn out shoes on the pole to a kid for 10 bucks a pair. When he asked to see them I pointed to the pole. While looking up he asked me why I put them up I answered that that way I would get them stolen while I’m skating around. The kid gave me ten bucks and climbed the pole to the top. I couldn’t believe it, I was scared for his life.  While he was up there i told him he could have as many pairs as he could grab. He must have took  at least 7 pairs of weather worn shoes home.

May Out of Jail for International Day of Peace

May a long time Peace Park local lifer got out of jail on Friday. She was in for 4 months, she and we are happy to have her back. After talking about the inside with May and CJ, Phil Knechtel, Paul the Russian, and I played a game of POSER while we waiting for Bunny to give Head Band Mary a gift before she and her friends cleared of the middle curb.

Speaking of the curbs… on both side of the upper 3 steps are spray-painted stencils. One of the stencils says, ‘Respect the architect as we begin to build’, and the other says ‘Punch Line’. Not understanding what the stencils were about I looked around. I found a sign attached to a parking post notifying of an event for the ‘International Day of Peace’, organized by the Circle of Peace. Therefore, I don’t believe the stencils have anything to do with the rumor Peace Park being purchasing by the SAT, which really doesn’t seem plausible. I don’t see why they spray painted the granite thought, and I couldn’t figure out what Punchline is.

Anyway, once the game was done Phil jetted. Paul and I manualed it up for bit before we started shooting dice. If was Paul’s first time playing and my first time using these nice casino dice I picked up at a flee market the other day. I’m not sure if the dice just are lucky or if it was Paul’s beginners luck,  but once I lost enough money, we hopped in his ride and venture off finding a new bump, which was fun to skate.

For the International Day of Peace on Monday the 21 of September 2009, the Circle of Peace has planned for a flash mob; Give Peace a Second Chance, starting at 11:45 AM, in front of the Society of Arts and Technology. All details on the unfolding of the flash mob will be revealed. Immediately after the flash mob, Circle of Peace will award the Pacifist prize posthumously to Mrs. Muriel Duckworth, a long time peace activist. Her son, film director Martin Duckworth, will accept the prize in her name. The event is free and is in collaboration with Artmistice, SAT, and the City of Montreal.

Pending Peace Park Rumor

After hearing the rumor that Peace Park is being sold to the Society for the Arts and Technology on Thrusday from Eric the Street Cleaner, on Friday I called to Monique Savoie the founder of the SAT. I was unable to reach her, and left a message late in the afternoon. I’ll know early next week, whether or not this rumor could in fact be real.

Disappeared Miele Mountain Bike

A red and white  Miele mountain bike was locked up to a tree at Peace Park last week with a chain and a regular lock and key. The bike was in pretty good shape, the tires weren’t warped, all the break cables were calibrated, and the chain wasn’t rusty. Knowing how the park operates I said to myself, wow, I’d never lock my bike to a tree at Peace Park unattended because it’s likely to get damaged by some drunk dude, or it would simply get stole. The bicycle being in such good shape all clean and shiny wasn’t hard to miss.

Turned out that the bike didn’t budged for close to  a week, becoming the talk of the park. There was gossip of it belonging to someone in the 88 Condon building, some people believed that who ever left it there must have gotten really drunk and forgot where they had locked it up. Whatever the case, I was surprised that the ride stayed there fore so l before  it finally disappeared. All that was left behind was the lock and chain.

Peace Park Sold To SAT, Rumor?

After a tagged up delivery truck passed Peace Park I saw that Shawna and Sergio were sitting together again as I approached. They make up to break up on average 2 time a month, and have been for the past 3 or 4 years. Beside them was Didi, who decided to sit  down on my skate for a ride.

Didi asked for a pushed from Danny Stevenson, which sent him rolling right towards Bunny. Bunny then shoved him backwards with enough force that he almost wound up under a backing up Mini Van. Still looking for thrill Didi got another one of his friends to give him another good push with a running start. He ended up crashing into a tree ending his fun.

While leaving the Peace Park after doing some skating and catching up with Phil Beauséjour, Eric the street worker who called 911 the other day for a sticker I put on his mobile Mr. Snuffleupagus machine, cleaned his way up to Jean Mat Vincent and me to drop the 411.

Eric told us that, in a couple months he will no longer be responsible for maintaining Peace Park. He claimed that the city is selling the park to the Society for Arts and Technology with in a couple months, and it will become their responsibility. Supposedly again according to him, the SAT is going to put a fence around the park encompassing Rue Place du Marché, which they will cover with grass. Personally I don’t believe it. Rest assured that, tomorrow I will contact the SAT to set his rumor straight.

Charles Rivard Talks Peace Park In SBC Interview

Charles Rivard got an interview in the last issue of SBC. I remember Charles skating at Peace Park back when we used to call him Petit Charles. Then over one winter it seemed like he went form 3f tall to 7f. I couldn’t believe had fast he sprouts. In his short but sweet interview, he talks about growing up skating at Peace. Pick up a copy of  SBC Magazine Fall 2009 to read the rest of his interview.

Chief of Police Alain Simoneau of Station 21

Today I meet with chief police Alain Simoneau of station 21, who agreed to do an interview for the Peace Park documentary. He’s only been the chief of police since 2007, but in my opinion definitely has a good knowledge of what’s going on it his district, and at Peace Park.

It didn’t really feel like I was interviewing him, it felt more like a conversation about Peace Park and the area. We talked about the history of the area, some of the changes in the park which wee made, such as the removing of the benches, the addition of the water sprinklers use to deter people from sleeping in the park, and the surveillance cameras that were installed the reduce the drug operations. Some of the most interesting information covered was about the history of the struggle of the bikers to maintain control of the drugs, and crack at Peace Park and on the Main.

When I asked him skateboarding he ended by saying that he would have no problem with skateboarding at Peace Park if the laws were changed, but that is up to the city. Many more topics were discussed such as graffiti and how the police deal with the vandals that will be in the documentary. Mr. Simoneau contributions to the documentary are much appreciated.

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