The Gazette from Montreal, Quebec, Canada • 2

A 2 THE GAZETTE, MONTREAL FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 1997 itreet people Sim! welcome respite at St. George's the Sally Ann. St George's was built in 1870. It's jaw-droppingly beautiful, a work of art in the service of the Lord, one of the seven churches that used to grace Canada Square. It was a house of worship for the Molsons.

Several of its magnificent stained-glass windows were built in honor of the ancestors of Montreal's most famous beer baron; tourist "I've been coming here since I played junior in the '50s, says Cherry "This is a beautiful church." He drops a sawbuck into the collection box and leaves as discreetly as he came in. St George's doesn't smell like candles and incense today; it smells like minestrone, thanks to a woman named Geraldine. She's a volunteer, a refugee JOE FIORITO PAGE TWO COLUMN At that moment two cops stepped into the church. One of the cops was recently engaged. She wanted to see if St George's would be a nice place to get married.

The robber fled. Carl was left standing at the altar There have been other moments of high drama in the short history of the Open Church, not all of them so thrilling. On the day of the referendum rally several thousand patriots came in for a prayer Someone swiped two flags; the cross of St George is red on a white background; not Canadian, but close enough on that day at that time. A woman found one of the flags in another part of town a few days later. She checked her encyclopedia, called Cart, and brought the flag back a few days later.

A francophone woman. No flags stolen today By the end of the afternoon, Carl has set the altar for tomorrow's early Mass, and set 60 places in the church hall for Geraldine's soup. By the end of the day, he's seen 31 visitors, tourists and street people alike. Each in need of a prayer. St.

George's Anglican Church, 1101 Stanley St. is open Tuesday afternoons; all day Wednesday; Thursday and Friday afternoons; all day Satur-day; and Sunday mornings. Joe Fiorito's E-mail address is fioritovir.com A young man named Michel walks slowly up the aisle of St George's Anglican Church. It's early Saturday morning, and bitterly cold. Michel's not here to pray He's looking for the verger.

The verger, Carl Eagles, is a small, neat man with a high voice and the heart of a democrat He runs St George's Open Church Ministry He sits at a desk in a quiet alcove off the main altar. He busies himself with some papers. He waits. Michel is homeless and handsome, well-dressed and weary Everything he owns is in his gym bag. He's sick with AIDS, in need of a place to warm up, in need of a place to spend the night The two men chat briefly.

It is a conversation they've had before. You can tell they respect each other. They keep their words fresh. St George's opened its doors to street people a few years ago, when men and women like Michel began to drift into this tiny, perfect church because they had nowhere else to go and nothing to do when they got there. Carl disappears, then returns with a couple of bucks.The two men chat some more.

What's it like at the Sally Ann? "Some of the men don't hatha I take the end bunk so I can open the window and get some fresh air." "Bring me the receipt" says CarL "Tomorrow," says MicheL he finds a pew at the rear of the church. He curls up He nods off. He'll sleep for the rest of the day, until it's time to go to from the '60s who hasn't lost her twinkle, her social conscience, her way with a pot of soup. She'll make enough for the 60 people who'll stay after mass tomorrow; enough for anyone with a buck. Enough for anyone, buck or not Stray men come in all day long, looking for the verger, sniffing the soup, looking for a bit of money, willing to do a bit of work; the verger has a budget for snow shoveling, money for a few beds at the Sally Ann, and some discretionary change to dole out as he sees fit Not everyone's willing to work.

One afternoon a man came demanding $250. This is a church, not a bank," said CarL "I need the money," said the man, underlining his point by pressing a knife against Carl's throat the light which spills on the altar floor is both Molson and golden. St George's is a few steps away from the Molson Centre, and Habs' colors fly loyally, if discreetly, from the choir loft There's a game in town tonight The game draws many to the little church; the Habs need all your prayers this year. At noon, hockey commentator Don Cherry slips in a side door and shivers for a moment in the warmth. He's always here on game day He takes a pew alone, not far from MicheL None of us is far from MicheL Cherry gathers a moment of peace, says a quick prayer.

He is modest well-mannered, low-key, his neck is not as red as it appears on TV. Don't tell him I said so. On the way out, he signs an autograph for a CRTC CanWest delighted, CFCF disappointed about new player in Quebec market EF Er" Le Groupe i Videotron itee With the acquisition of CF Cable becomes Canada's second largest cable distributor, with a total of 1.5 million homes. Videotron also controls Quebec's most watched, French-language television network, TVA. It has been ordered by the CRTC to sell the money-losing Television Quatre-Saisons network acquired in the purchase of CFCF Inc.

CANWEST GLOBAL CONTINUED FROM PAGE A1 vival of TQS, which has lost more than $150 million since its launch in 1986. "We thought we'd made a good presentation to the commission," Chagnon said. "We have the tools to ensure that TQS goes ahead as a strong independent network." The cable ruling was not unexpected. The CRTC is on record as favoring consolidation in the industry. Faced with coming competition from telephone companies and direct-to-home satellites, Videotron's "increased size and strength will help to ensure equitable, dynamic competition within this new environment," the CRTC said.

Chagnon welcomed the commission's decision to allow Videotron to add CF Cable's 455,000 subscribers to the one million it already controls. The ruling hands the entire Montreal regional cable network to Videotron, a move that is sure to strike terror into the hearts of anglophone subscribers who fear losing popular basic CF Cable channels like TSN and MuchMusic to their French counterparts RDS and MusiquePlus, provided by Videotron. Relax, Chagnon said. "Subscribers in Pointe Claire have nothing to fear from Videotron. If the cable service is working well for them, why would we want to disrupt it?" The day is coming, though still years away, when consumers will be able to pick and choose exactly the cable and specialty channels they want.

Until then, Videotron will do its best to smooth the transition, Chagnon said. In a related ruling, the CRTC granted CanWest Global Communications of Winnipeg a license to operate CKMI-TV in Quebec City. The station is currently a little-watched English CBC repeater station serving the city. Can-West, in partnership with a branch of Tele-Metropole, plans to turn the station into a regional broadcaster. CKMI will feed its signal to transmitters in Sherbrooke and Montreal, thus gaining access to 78 per cent of Quebec's English-speaking households.

The station will compete head-to-head with CFCF-12, which has enjoyed a 35-year monopoly on private English-Ian guage broadcasting in Montreal. "We are absolutely delighted with the commission's decision," said Glenn O'Farrell, president of theCan-WestTVA partnership He said the station will be running by Labor Day "We've had a readiness team standing by. Now they're going to go out to hire, to buy and to build." The launch of CKMI will have impact beyond the range of its viewing audience. The station is a building block in CanWest chairman Izzy As- per's long-nurtured dream of creating a third national network to compete with CTV and CBC. With Quebec lined up, CanWest needs only to land an Alberta license to complete the puzzle.

Global's Quebec City station was conceived as a regional broadcaster that will focus on the anglophone community outside Montreal, offering regional sports, entertainment and current affairs programming geared to and originating from outly-ing areas. In December, Videotron reached an agreement to sell CFCF-12 to WIC Western International Communications, a Vancouver company. The sale price was $70 million, but could have risen to as high as $100 million had CanWest not gained a Quebec license. Chagnon said the sale to WIC will go ahead and that the final price probably will rise "by a few million dollars" above $70 million, but well below $100 million. WIC president Jim MacDon-ald did not return calls last night.

CFCF-12 president Rene Desmarais expressed deep disappointment at the commission's Global ruling, saying the Winnipeg company bypassed the usual application process when it bought a 51-per-cent stake in CKML "We would have liked to see the commission issue a call for applications," he said. "Maybe there would have been other applicants and that might have forced Global to come up with a greater number of commitments." CFCF-12 stands to lose a number of its most popular programs, whose Canadian broadcast rights are owned by CanWest The list includes top-rated shows like Seinfeld, Friends, The X-Files, Frasier, NYPD Blue and Chicago Hope. Beginning in September, those shows will be seen on CKMI. Viewers will also be able to watch critically acclaimed Global series, including Jake and the Kid and Traders, which were not available in Quebec. Desmarais said CFCF will have to start looking for replacement series, but because TV is a cyclical business, new shows regularly crop up.

"We're just going to have to be sharp and get the best shows," he said. This morning, Desmarais expects to address the troops at CFCF-12 headquarters, where quiet dread of layoffs and job reductions have hung in the air since Global announced its plan to enter the Quebec market "My key message to our people," Desmarais said, "will be that we are still No. 1. "We still have a 34-per-cent market share and we have nothing to fear. Nothing dramatic Is going to happen.

We have to meet the competition." SYSTEM Winnipeg-based broadcasting company controlled by Izzy Asper, who has long wanted to create a third national English TV network, but needed licenses in Quebec and Alberta to fulfill that dream. With the acquisition of CKMI-TV in Quebec City, he is one step closer. CKMI will beam its signal to repeater stations in Sherbrooke and Montreal, thus breaking CFCF-12's 35-year monopoly on private English broadcasting. ((( tit iOONE Biggest threat to cable is DTH On this day C0GEC0 Montreal-based company has 455,000 subscribers in five provinces, including 223,000 in Quebec, plus TV and radio stations. It mounted, and lost, a bruising legal battle for the right to purchase CFCF Inc.

Cogeco wants to buy the Quatre Saisons network. FEB. 28: In 1989, the world's largest litter bin was christened, in Covent Garden. It belonged to the Kentucky Fried Chicken chain. Colonel Blimp, say howdy to Colonel Sanders.

Tomorrow CFCF INC Montreal broadcast and cable company disappears from the map with yesterday's CRTC rulings. CRTC says Videotron is committed to deliver greater channel choice "in the near future." with rabbit ears or a rooftop antenna. Although Videotron will have a monopoly on cable service in Montreal and environs, it will not be the only source of TV variety. While Videotron's terrestrial empire is growing, there is danger in the sky. Canadian Direct-To-Home (DTH) satellite services will be up and running this summer, offering a wider choice than is available to Videotron subscribers.

ExpressVu promises at least 70 channels including all available Canadian specialty services. And this is only the beginning. In a deal announced this week, Rupert Murdoch's Sky Television (which beams satellite TV signals down to Europe and Asia) and Echostar, a U.S. DTH company, have formed an alliance that will deliver 500 channels to dish owners a cornucopia of choice that far exceeds anything cable can offer. The news sent U.S.

cable stocks plummeting. The Videotron empire may span both sides of Decarie, but Wall St appears to be betting that DTH WIC Western International THE REVIEW: She has the legitimacy she has the personality and she has the eloquence, but can Aung San Suu Kyi make the move from prison to power in Burma? ARTS ENTERTAINMENT: Under the black light, everything white gleams purple, as Montreal rappers Shades of Culture freestyle from a low stage in the corner of the Jungle club. Words, phrases and beats jostle with the bodies in front of them. In principle, this is live black music performed on its own terms: raw, without an older rock audience's stamp of approval. So much for the rumor of clubland's demise, observes music critic Mark Lepage, but is clubland still afraid of hip-hop? BOOKS: What is amazing about Jules Verne's Paris in the Twentieth Century isn't that in 1862 this visionary predicted our fax machines, submarines and rockets.

It's that he knew all the glitz and efficiency was a recipe for contemporary society's discontents. Vancouver-based broadcaster and satellite operator and member of the CTV broadcasting partnership. Purchased CFCF-12 from Videotron in December for $70 million. The price could have risen to $100 million had Global been denied a Quebec license. CONTINUED FROM PAGE A1 ing with the CF Cable channel grid.

It's not very good business to upset tummies among all those nice, middle-class west-enders who tend to pay their cable bills on time and who fear the worst, after becoming inmates of what disgruntled subscribers call "Videotron hell." The CRTC decision commits Videotron to "an extensive public consultation to respond to the needs of two major linguistic communities" in its new territory. In meeting those needs, the expanded Videotron faces some difficult decisions. The CRTC has licensed new Canadian English and French specialty services that are scheduled to launch in September. Cable's current technology cannot deliver an unlimited number of channels. The CRTC notes Videotron's commitment to expand channel capacity, delivering greater channel choice "in the near future" via new technologies such as digital video compression.

The lutureof expanded choice, however, is very near. In adding the new Quebec City-based Global station (carriage of which is compulsory for Videotron under CRTC regulations) and deciding which of the new specialty channels to offer (or which of the current services to delete), Videotron may be tempted to fall back on its familiar demographic reasoning. This time, however, disgruntled subscribers will have an option. Cable is no longer the only game in town for viewers who want to expand their choice beyond what can be captured Gazette Graphics C()e6ajcttc 250 St. Montreal, Quebec H2Y3R7 The Gazette published daily.

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