Here's pie in your eye!

As diverse in philosophy as in geography and structure, this movement comprises freedom-loving people with a sense of aplomb and gastronomics.

One aspect of this new campaign is nothing gets hurt except the image and ego of the targets.

Ottawa- the humble pie is filled with political meaning for Les Entartistes, tart-tossing activists who on Jan. 18 struck again in Montréal.

Their victim was Pierre Pettigrew, the immaculately coiffed federal human-resources minister, whose pie-struck picture -gasping in shock, his face dripping whipped cream- stared from newspapers across the country.

It was another success in Les Entartistes' crusade to paste the pompous with that staple of slapstick, the cream pie. Their victims include Sylvester Stallone, mashed at the opening of his Planet Hollywood restaurant; Montreal Mayor Pierre Bourque and Alliance Quebec president William Johnson. But Les Entartistes (it roughly translates as "the em-piers") are just warming to their cause.

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Pettigrew, victimized at a Montreal news conference, decided not to press charges. "The minister has a very good sense of humour and, as he said when the pie was thrown, he loves dessert but not so early in the day," said Pettigrew spokesman Bridgit Nolet.

Is pie in the face a violent act or a comedic one? Lowbrow terrorism or political satire? The jury in San Franscisco deliberated for more than a day on that question, ultimately sticking to the letter of the law, wich in California states that battery constitutes any "offensive touching".

Last month in Belgium, a court fined those responsible for the Brussels attack that creamed Microsoft chairman Bill Gates. Two tossers were found guilty of "mild violence". Two pie-throwing cases are pending in the U.S., including the pieman who plastered Monsanto's Smith.

No one in Canada has been charged for pie-throwing, but an RCMP spokesman said the act constitutes an offence. "In my books, it's assault," said RCMP Sergeant Mike Gaudet.

Pope-Tart regards the recent court decision as attacks on democratic expression. "A society that cannot tolerate its own court jester is heading in a dangerous direction," he said.

The pie-tossing movement, wich originated with Belgium's Entartistes, has "cells" in Montreal, San Franscisco, New York City, Eugene, Ore., and London.