FLQ battle cry shouted at controversial Plains of Abraham ev

Duceppe, Marois making political violence more acceptable
Lévesque will be rolling in his grave as FLQ manifesto is read on the Plains
By DON MACPHERSON, The GazetteSeptember 10, 2009
Not far from the Plains of Abraham in Quebec City is the Saint-Michel-de-Sillery cemetery, where the founding leader of the Parti Québécois is buried.

It might be just near enough that if sovereignists pause during the 24 hours of historical readings they will hold on the battlefield this weekend, they will make out the sound of René Lévesque turning over in his grave.

For Lévesque abhorred the political violence that will be legitimized during the Moulin à paroles on the 250th anniversary of the battle on the Plains.

The battlefield is available this weekend only because sovereignists ran off the would-be re-enactors of the original battle with threats of violent disruptions earlier this year.

One of the texts chosen by the organizers for reading is the 1970 manifesto of the terrorist Front de libération du Québec, some of whose members have long been seeking political rehabilitation.

The manifesto, which justifies the FLQ's occasionally murderous actions on the still-unresolved question of Quebec independence, was disseminated at gunpoint, figuratively speaking, early in the 1970 October Crisis. It was read on Radio-Canada television in response to a demand of the FLQ kidnappers of British trade commissioner James Cross.

Originally, the Moulin organizers invited one of the manifesto's co-authors, Jacques Lanctôt, to read it, Lanctôt told Le Journal de Québec. But, he said, they refused to pay for a return bus ticket from Montreal ($84.66).

So instead, the manifesto will be read by performing artist Luck Mervil. And the children of Pierre Laporte, the Quebec cabinet minister kidnapped and murdered during the October Crisis, will at least be spared the spectacle of a former FLQ member receiving applause for justifying the actions that led to their father's death.

It's not hard to imagine how Lévesque, a friend of Laporte who wept at his death, would have reacted. He was so sickened when delegates to the 1981 PQ convention gave a cheering, standing ovation to one of Laporte's kidnappers, Jacques Rose, that he walked out of the meeting and considered quitting as leader.

Federalists have used the reading of the manifesto to justify boycotting an event organized by their political adversaries; the three principal organizers are among artists who publicly endorsed the PQ in the last provincial election campaign only nine months ago.

Because the Charest government also denied the organizers' request that it pay half the estimated $40,000 cost of the event, sovereignists complained of censorship.

This was before the organizers received formal permission this week to hold their event from the federal agency that administers the battlefield. Some censorship.

The list of readers is dominated by well-known sovereignists, including Pauline Marois and Gilles Duceppe, leaders of the PQ and Bloc Québécois respectively.

One of them is Jean Dorion, a Bloc member of Parliament and founding patron of the Jeunes Patriotes du Québec, the "street sovereignists" notorious for trying to intimidate federalists and disrupt their meetings.

Another reader is Patrick Bourgeois, whose only claim to fame is as leader of another radical sovereignist group, the Réseau de résistance du Québec. Perhaps he was invited in gratitude for making the event possible, since it was the threats by him and his associate Pierre Falardeau that forced the cancellation of the planned battle re-enactment. Falardeau was also invited, but poor health prevented him from accepting.

Apparently, the boycott of Bourgeois that the PQ and the Bloc announced after the cancellation of the re-enactment has been at least partly lifted, since their respective leaders have agreed to speak at the same event.

And by doing so, René Lévesque's successors have made the use of political violence more respectable.

© Copyright (c) The Montreal Gazette

I'm sick and tired of Canada paying for events that support the sepratists side.

Another funny thing, Duceppe was there at the event, meaning his support for the FLQ.

Now he is showing support the Tories. Seems like Duceppe will simply support anything. Then again, he and his bunch at the Bloc are pretty much useless, that explains it.

Almost all of the financing came from Bloc MPs and PQ MNAs.

Drag their ass back out for another beating.

When are we going to stand up and stop this shit .

"The fact we are speaking in French 250 years later would be considered by us like a victory,” he said.

Why all the complaining then ? Get to work and get on with your life.

French Alzheimers - forget everything except your grudges. That use to be an Irish joke but I think the french gains the honour now.