Passion player
Northern excursion moves Kreviazuk to speak out against cruelty to mammals

OTTAWA -- Chantal Kreviazuk speaks for those who have no voice.

Until now, those creatures have been hooked into Kreviazuk's passionate pop -- which she'll perform at the National Arts Centre Theatre tonight and tomorrow (she'll also make an in-store Fan Photo Session at Eaton's, Rideau Centre, today from 1-2 p.m).

But recently, she's beginning to move away from her morning-after bedroom perspective of the world for more global concerns -- namely, a perspective-changing recent trip through the Canadian Arctic.

"I had a wonderful experience in Churchill (Man.) during a Beluga whale excursion when I saw a mother feeding her baby," Kreviazuk says.

"It was one of the most beautiful times of my life, watching this mammal interact with her offspring."

So, the world and some of its natural wonders is opening up for the 28-year-old singer.

Only last winter, just prior to her opening stint with the Barenaked Ladies, Kreviazuk and her husband, Our Lady Peace frontman Raine Maida, went on a humanitarian mission to the Middle East where a chance to meet Iraqi President Saddam Hussein arose, and was subsequently vetoed.

'A PRECIOUS GIFT'
If she is going to become part of the media zoo for some cause, she wants it to be a real zoo. Like her most recent and particularly seasonal cause, Zoocheck Canada, a new venture to ensure the humane treatment of wild animals in zoos around the world. "I'm particularly interested in the well-being of marine mammals. They are a precious gift to the world," says Kreviazuk.

The object of Kreviazuk's disaffection, nonetheless, are the animal kingdom funparks located in cities such as Vancouver, Edmonton and Niagara Falls -- especially after seeing the animals in their natural environment.

The Aug. 9, 2000, death of Maria, a dolphin born in the wild but cruelly captured and confined for 15 years in a small, featureless tank at the West Edmonton Mall, moved Kreviazuk to throw her support behind Zoocheck's campaign to save other whales and dolphins from a similar fate. Maria was the fourth whale to have died in a 12-month period in Canadian marine parks.

"Aquariums aren't educational, they turn mammals into clowns to make money. The animals don't survive in their man-made environment. It's all theatre," she argues angrily. "People who visit aquariums are not people who want to save the dolphins and whales. Anyone who pays money to see a wild animal in captivity in a pool who instead should be on a planet of water is no friend of mammals."

Her outspoken and heartfelt feelings, though, haven't found their way to Kreviazuk's new material. It's not because she doesn't feel strongly in what she believes, but more a measure of the insecurity she feels about her pop-icon career.

"I'm not perfect and I'm not preachy," she says. "I don't mind putting my name to good causes but once you put it into song, that's a different thing. It's a little heavy for me right now.

-- With files from Ian Nathanson

Denis Armstrong