Posted on 08/12/2005 4:36:29 PM PDT by GMMAC
LifeSiteNews.com
Friday August 12, 2005
Governor General Elect's Connections to FLQ Marxist Terrorists
Commentary by John Muggeridge
TORONTO, August 12, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Since the appointment to the Governor Generalship of Michaelle Jean, a refugee immigrant Haiti and CBC reporter, conservatives in Canada have been wondering what this relative newcomer to public life has to offer a deeply divided country that seems to hover perpetually on the edge of disunion. While Jean's personal accomplishments are seen in English Canada to be insubstantial, on the other side of the French curtain, darker implications are starting to be revealed.
An article in French by the Quebec novelist, Rene Boulanger published in the sovereigntist magazine Le Quebec, sheds a clearer light on Jean's connections to the Front for the Liberation of Quebec (FLQ), the violent Marxist separatist organization that harried Quebec in the 1970's.
The Governor General is the representative of the head of state of Canada, Queen Elizabeth II, and ,as such, is the office where Canadians must turn for a steady hand in any constitutional crisis. The office is, historically, understood to be above partisan politics. Jean, however, along with her immediate predecessor, is entirely beholden to the Liberal Party and is an enthusiastic proponent of its ongoing leftist social re-engineering project, but with the Boulanger article, her connections may offer reasons for more serious concerns.
"Michaelle Jean et les felquistes (Michaelle Jean and the F.L.Q.)," documents the ties that linked the soon-to-be Governor General and her film-maker husband, Jean-Daniel Lafond with the FLQ whose bomb-throwing, robbing, kidnapping and murdering career disturbed the peace in Quebec and this Dominion, thirty-five years ago.
Boulanger says that the soon-to-be Viceregal Consort, Jean-Daniel Lafond, has no truck with such "trashy" (de pacotille) politicians as Belinda Stronach and Jean Lapierre. The former philosophy professor, he says, deals only with pure revolutionaries, like the ones during the 1970 October Crisis, for example, whose violent behaviour, Boulanger proudly points out, provoked Ottawa to declare martial law and send the army into Quebec.
One example that should stir some of Canada's longer-term memories, is of one of Lafond's script writers and closest associates, Francis Simard. Simard was a member of the Chenier F.L.Q. cell who, together with his fellow terrorists, Paul and Jacques Rose and Bernard Lortie, seized Quebec's deputy premier and labour minister, Pierre Laporte while he was playing football with his children. He later used Laporte's religious medal to garrote him and stuffed his body in the trunk of a car.
During the crisis, seven people died and dozens were injured. One bomb was planted somewhere in Quebec every 10 days. The country hovered on the brink of collapse and the federal government declared martial law under the War Measures Act.
Boulanger, himself a script-writer, has had professional dealings with Lafond whose loving documentary about the FLQ "freedom fighters" has won accolades. He recalls visiting the future royal couple in their Petit Bourgogne apartment to discuss film writing. Before they got down to business, his host showed him round the place, pointing with particular pride to a recently renovated library. The man Lafond hired to do the renovations was none other than Jacques Rose, who not only put up shelves but also created a hidden compartment for Lafond to stash weapons in.
The same Jacques Rose likely built the fake wall behind which he and his fellow murderers hid while the police searched for them in vain. As Boulanger admiringly remarks, Lafond doesn't keep company with just anyone.
In case anyone is thinking that Muggeridge is making it all up, I draw your attention to the comments made today in the Montreal Gazette by the separatist head of the Organization Against Canadian Corruption and Propaganda and a former president of the Societe St-Jean Baptiste, Gilles Rheaume to the effect that there is little doubt in Quebec that Jean and her husband are sovereigntists. Rheaume said, "In the nationalist circles, many people were sure that Mme. Jean and her husband were sovereigntists. Many persons believed that."
Rheaume speaks for more than a few when he demands to know how Jean voted in the 1995 Quebec referendum. Rheaume said yesterday that Prime Minister Paul Martin should have checked Jean's credentials more carefully and called him "an amateur to name a person who many believe is a sovereigntist, to name this person head of state."
It seems the political stuff is already hitting the fan. Alberta MP Leon Benoit, chairman of the government operations committee of the House of Commons was interviewed by the Globe and Mail today saying that Jean and her husband need to make clear statements of their support for the federalist position and distance themselves from any separatist position.
Half of all Canadians are not yet 40 and modern methods of teaching history and civics precludes the kind of objectivity that would raise a cloud of alarm at the appointment to the highest office in the land of a woman with such connections. Moreover, a strong and unbiased hand is likely to be crucial for Canada's next few years, as the country continues its perpetual constitutional identity crisis and the Liberal Party attempts to solidify its grip on power.
Boulanger expects his revelations to create a furor in English Canada. Let's hope they do, but some how I doubt it. Paul Martin knows how bored we all are with middle-class Marxist twaddle. Let's hope he has misjudged us.
John Muggeridge is a retired professor of History and English and a long-serving pro-life activist. He writes from his home in Toronto.
Montreal Gazette:
How did Jean vote in '95? separatist hard-liner asks
Read Boulanger's (translated) article in Le Québécois
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If this is accurate, it's not egg on Martin's face, it's the whole dang coop!
And the CBC is about to be on strike (woo hoo) so no one to spin. Too bad, so sad...
Do you know that none other than Stephan Dion is also a citizen of France?!
Former Intergovernmental Minister Stephan Dion
What on earth is going on here?
Are they Canadian, or French?
Ultimately, I have to ask why I would want these cards running my country.
Aaarrrggghhhh!, !&@T^*(&%&!!!
The Liberal Party of Canada has worked for the last 30 years to make us Europe North, and we are seeing the fruits of this policy now.
Weakness, everywhere. }8-(
You neglected to mention indescriminate immigration to cushion our crushing social net. Arg.
CBC on strike is the only happy note.
Think the gov't earning hand over fist on gas tax will give us a break? They do get 40 cents on every dollar, oh wait, they have to keep the prices high so they can blame Bush.
Silly moi.
As a Westerner, I think our best strategy at this point is to simply let Quebec go.
Then there might be a chance of salvaging Confederation; essentially, returning to respect for Sections 91 and 92 of the BNA Act, and doing whatever reform of Parliament necessary to restore responsible government.
Boring, I know, and probably impossible. ;^)
Major General Michael Jeffery, AC, CVO, MC was born in Wiluna, Western Australia in 1937 and educated at Kent Street High School and the Royal Military College, Duntroon.
He graduated into Infantry and served operationally in Malaya, Borneo, Papua New Guinea and Vietnam, where he was awarded the Military Cross and the South Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry. After command of all combat elements of the Army from platoon to division - including the Special Air Service Regiment - he retired in 1993 to assume the appointment of Governor of Western Australia, which he held for almost seven years. His major interests during his tenure were in youth affairs, education, environment and the family.
For his services to the State he was appointed a Companion in the Order of Australia, a Commander of the Royal Victorian Order and a Citizen of Western Australia.
On his retirement as Governor in 2000 he established in Perth, a not for profit research institute - Future Directions International (FDI) - whose object is to examine longer term issues facing Australia.
On 20 December 2000 he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Technology by Curtin University.
On 11 August 2003 he was sworn in as the twenty-fourth Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia.
He and his wife Marlena have four children and five grandchildren. General Jeffery enjoys golf, cricket, fishing, reading and music.
Prime Minister of Canada: Appointment of new Governor General
Michaëlle Jean was born in Port au Prince, Haiti. As a young child in 1968, she and her family left her country and sought refuge in Canada.
She received a Bachelor of Arts in Italian and Hispanic languages and literature, and continued her studies towards a Master of Arts in comparative literature at the University of Montreal. From 1984 to 1986, she taught at the Faculty of Italian Studies at the same university. During the 1980's, she pursued linguistic and literary studies at the University of Perouse, the University of Florence and the Catholic University of Milan, all of which cited her for excellence. She is fluent in five languages: French, English, Italian, Spanish and Creole.
As she pursued her studies, Michaëlle Jean worked for eight years, from 1979 to 1987, with Québec shelters for battered women. She has taken in, supported and accompanied hundreds of women and children in crisis, while actively contributing to the establishment of a network of emergency shelters throughout Québec and elsewhere in Canada. She was also involved in aid organizations for immigrant women and families, and later worked at Employment and Immigration Canada and at the Conseil des Communautés culturelles du Québec.
Madame Jean’s sense of social commitment and her appreciation of national and international realities led her to journalism. For 18 years, she has been a highly regarded journalist and anchor of information programs. She joined Radio-Canada in 1988, working successively as a reporter and host on such news and public affairs programs as Actuel, Montréal ce soir, Virages and Le Point. In 1995, she anchored a number of Réseau de l’Information à Radio-Canada (RDI) programs such as Le Monde ce soir, l’Édition québécoise, Horizons francophones, Les Grands reportages, Le Journal RDI, and RDI à l'écoute. In 1999, she was also asked by the English network, CBC Newsworld, to host The Passionate Eye and Rough Cuts which broadcast the best in Canadian and foreign documentary films.
In 2001, Michaëlle Jean began anchoring the weekend editions of Radio-Canada’s major news broadcast Le Téléjournal. In 2003, she became the anchor of Le Téléjournal’s daily edition Le Midi.
In 2004, she started her own show, Michaëlle, which is broadcast on both French-language public television networks. This program features a series of in-depth interviews with experts, enthusiasts and visionaries. In the mid-1990s, Michaëlle Jean also participated in a number of documentary films produced by her husband, filmmaker Jean-Daniel Lafond: La manière nègre ou Aimé Césaire chemin faisant, Tropique Nord, Haïti dans tous nos rêves, and L’heure de Cuba. These thought-provoking documentaries were critically acclaimed and earned awards both in Canada and internationally.
Michaëlle Jean has won numerous honours for her professional achievements, including: the Human Rights League of Canada’s 1989 Media Award for her report titled La pasionaria, on the struggle of an immigrant woman in Québec; the Prix Mireille-Lanctôt for her report titled Partir à zéro, dealing with spousal violence; the Prix Anik for best information reporting in Canada for her investigation of the power of money in Haitian society; the inaugural Amnesty International Canada Journalism Award; the Galaxi Award for best information host; the 2001 Gemini Award for best interview in any category; and the Conseil de la Langue Française du Québec’s Prix Raymond-Charette. Michaëlle Jean has also been named to the Ordre des Chevaliers de La Pléiade by the Assemblée internationale des parlementaires de langue française, and has been made a citizen of honour by the City of Montreal and the Ministère de l’Immigration et des relations avec les citoyens of Quebec in recognition of her accomplishments in communications.
Michaëlle Jean is married to Jean-Daniel Lafond. Their daughter, Marie-Eden, is six years old. Michaëlle Jean’s family also includes Mr. Lafond’s two daughters from a previous marriage and his two grandchildren.
Need to say more? ;-)
Just ask , what do you think of the new GG ? And I get the same reaction, A very strong seething Anger . And it doesn't seem to matter who I ask .
Following is from of all people, Warren Kinsella .For those who don't know .Kinsella was special assistant to Jean Chrétien, and chief of staff in a pile of federal ministries. He has been referred to by "Judge" John Gomery as "some hotshot political assistant who comes in and starts throwing his weight around,"
"Well, there are two possibilities. Either the allegations were thoroughly checked out by RCMP/CSIS, and disproved. Or, two - and this one is frightening - RCMP/CSIS knew, and let it happen anyway, because they (like plenty of other non-political types in Ottawa) dislike the Martin crew, and wanted to embarrass them.
I enjoy egg on the faces in Langevin as much as the next guy, believe me. But knowingly and maliciously handing the keys to Rideau Hall to a couple who allegedly cavort with FLQ killers? Christ Jesus, that's extraordinary. Can you imagine something like this ever happening under any administration in the United States? Me neither.
If I were Martin - and, speaking on behalf of both of us, I'm delighted I'm not - I would haul in the Mounties and CSIS onto the carpet, and demand to know how the Hell this (allegedly) got past them. Is it true? And, if so, how in the name of God did they not tell anyone in PMO?
Will any of that happen? Beats me. But one thing's clear: this story is getting bigger every day."
"The difference between the prople picked for the Governor-General of Canada and Governor-General of Australia couldn't be bigger:"
Oh my gawd! Anything I might offer by way of comment would certainly make me a bigoted racist conservative...but tell me, where are the 'real' Canadians? Those who grow the wheat, catch the fish, cut the timber? Do they have any human rights? LOL!
The real Canadians, according to the self-described elites, are those like Brett Mann in Belleville Ontario, who BTW is an English Canadian: "I personally would far prefer that rather than Parrish criticizing America, the Prime Minister of Canada would stand up and in no uncertain terms, on the record, officially, tell Americans that they are mass murderers and torturers and imperialist ignorant fools and Canada will have nothing to do with them until some sliver of human decency and sanity returns to America." (taken from http://www.freedominion.ca/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=42980 ), or Fateh Kamel, a Algerian born Francophone migrant to Canada, and ran an Islamic terrorist cell in Montreal. Believe it or not, this is the face of Canada today.
Regional divisions in Canada is a very serious issue and Ontario and particularly Quebec are politically far more different from Alberta than, say, Sydney and Mackay in Queensland. Joe Average could be a moderate conservative in the 905-belt (the Greater Toronto Area - it uses 905 as its telephone area code) but he would be horrified by the political centre in Alberta as too "right-wing". On average Australia's political centre is around Alberta and BC - which means that you would be considered a right-wing bigot if you happen to meet my uncle in Toronto. Queensland would well be to the right of the most conservative Albertan LOL (or sigh)!
There are Two Canadas - those who refuse to drink the Trudeaupian Koolaid and those who seek to force us all to do so.
They are somewhat regionally sorted.
The choice is pretty clear - either we save the Liberal Party and socialism, or we save the country.
Choices, choices, choices.
How many English Canadians are Brent Manns (from the FD thread above)? If they constitute the majority of population in Ontario Canada is basically on the fast track to the rubbish bin of history.
In fact, I always see that "it's Quebec's fault" doesn't quite satisfactorily explain Canadian leftiness. Red Tories, coupled with Brent Mann left-wingers, Liberal-voting immigrants, and Francophone federalists (Trudeau was one, Chretien another) produce a lethal cocktail of Canadianism.
A substantial minority of Canadians - 20%? - are viciously anti-American. This attitude has several historical roots, but only became pernicious with the creation by the Liberal Party of the Trudeaupian State, which requires the existence of an Enemy.
America is that Enemy to the Canadian Liberal Establishment. The public schools are unrelenting propagandists for 'progressive thought'; the public health system is fetishized by its profiteers; Canadian irrelevancy in world affairs is hidden by a smarmy self-regarding pretentiousness typified by the likes of Lloyd Axworthy.
Those Canadians who don't hold with the Leftist vision of Canada are reduced to awaiting the inevitable crack-up of the country - a fairly miserable position.
Oh well, hockey is back.
No wonder why a humour piece on Canada by regions satires Ontario residents as "private school kids with public school education". The smug attitude, coupled with self-delusions that they are well-informed is amply reflected by the description.
In fact, I think the traditional observation that English-Canadians living in Ontario, and francophone federalists in Quebec as the backbone of Canadian anti-Americanism has a lot of foundation. In light of this, Canada's national identity is a danger to the United States, and it may sound depressing or even disgusting to you, but I think the sooner Canada breaks up, the better.
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