An email originally read on the Charles Adler show on August 17th written by Bruce Vallance of Winnipeg;
I visited the site and watched the film clip. To say that I’m offended is to understate the case. The people she is cavorting, laughing and toasting with are some of the same people who tried to kill me.
During the FLQ crisis I was stationed at Canadian Forces HQ in Ottawa. The bomb they placed outside of my office window was meant to kill those in the room and I suppose make a statement.
They succeeded only too well The lady they killed was not only a co-worker, but also a friend.
After I picked myself up off the floor some thirty feet from where I was standing I saw my friend laying on the floor. I remember kneeling in a pool of her blood trying desperately to staunch the flow. Her eyes seemed to be pleading for me to help her.
This tiny middle aged French Canadian single mother of two who had been so happy. She had been talking for several days about her up coming vacation. The first in twenty years. Now she lay struggling to breath through her torn throat. Desperately I tried to staunch the flow of blood. I watched as the light in her eyes slowly dimmed and then disappeared.
Here was a grown man and soldier kneeling in the welter of her blood crying like a baby as I cradled her in my arms.
My next conscious memory was lying on an operating table as a young doctor probed my back and side for glass. He continuously apologized for the pain, but explained that he couldn’t anaesthetize me because I had to be able to tell him when he pressed on a shard of glass. It took 43 stitched to close my wounds. I still occasionally have pieces of glass surface.
Am I offended? You bet I am offended. This appointment is an insult to me and to Pierre La Porte and most importantly to Jean D’Arc St Germaine.
Paul Martin has insulted all of Canada including the people of Quebec.
Via Black Rod where they provide a brief history of the carnage perpetrated by the FLQ.
update – from the comments,
I have been posting like crazy like this. Unlike everyone I have seen here but Bruce, I was a victim of the FLQ. I don’t have shards of glass pushing out of my skin from time to time but the FLQ destroyed the innocence of my childhood and blew out the windows of my block on Elm Avenue in Montreal. The stress of the FLQ crisis resulted in the breakdown of many families.
It is a personal slap in my face, not to mention Mr. Vallance, Mr. Cross, (kidnapped) the Laporte family (he was assassinated)and the family of Madam Jean D’Arc St. Germaine (murdered by FLQ bombed.)
I am in great fear for my country by this most recent lapse in judgment of Mr. Martin at this time of constitutional crisis. I almost lost my Canada once, I do not want to risk that again.
Kate,
Do you know if Adler forwarded this email to the Prime Minister or, failing that, any of the major TV networks?All of Canada should be made aware of it’s contents.
Needless to say, she may be Paul Martin’s Governor-General, but she won’t be mine.
To bad CBC is on strike, I’m sure this would be headline news! LOL. For those of you who thought this GG apointment was on a whim, think again. Everything that happens is calculated. Look what they can do when we gave them 8 days as an illegitimate government this spring. Imagine what this country is going to look like if they win (buy) another majority? (shivers)
Her appointment shouldn’t come as any surprise. Martin is obviously comfortable in the presence of criminals. (Birds of a feather, and all that.)
I have to disagree that “independence is taken and not awarded”…..at least in Canada this is not the case…legally or constitutionally.
Ever since the constitutional buffoonery of “‘tit gar” in forcing the SCC to admit the true constructs of our conventional confederalism, we have tried to patch over the fact that any confederal partner may leave the legally non binding association any time they will to do so…with a set of ad hoc guidelines to do so called the clarity act. There is even doubt if the act’s plus 70% majority requirement is intra vires as a 50% plus one bureaucratic mandate ( without public referendun) was all that was required to enter confederation and the same formula would naturally apply to leaving it.
A simple democratic local mandate from a province’s residents is all that is needed then the lawyers hash out the terms in court like any other divorce. The FLQ jumped the gun with their silly 60s style Che Guevara revolutionary antics.
At any rate, this is Canada and we pussies solve these issues with lawyer and endless talk not generals and civil wars…right ‘tit Gar?
A rather sick-making article in the National Post today: “Martin’s PMO is thin on Quebec talent”, by
L. Ian MacDonald.
http://www.canada.com/national/nationalpost/news/issuesideas/story.html?id=b0076da0-2dbd-402c-a705-7d659b52ad0a
Excerpts:
‘Michaelle Jean appears to have weathered the summer storm over her nomination as governor-general…All it took was a three-paragraph statement affirming the couple’s commitment to Canada…End of story, one that was becoming ugly, but not before the Prime Minister himself released a statement certifying that the incoming governor-general, symbol of Crown and country, was not a separatist…
Martin and his aides were so caught up in her compelling story, no one thought to ask whether she had a spouse problem. Like, what kind of documentaries did he make? One of them turned out to be a reunion of the 1970 FLQ terrorists. The very worst of them was Jacques Rose, who did time for the kidnapping and murder of Pierre Laporte. Lafond hired him to build a bookshelf in his home. Another film features Pierre Vallieres, author of White Niggers of America, and it’s in this one, in a typical Montreal bistro scene from the early 1990s, that Jean herself joins a toast to sovereignty…
Documentary filmmaking and journalism in Quebec is an inter-connected and incestuous milieu. Many practitioners are assumed to be sovereigntists, and no one thinks anything more of it. RDI, the Radio-Canada all-news channel where Jean was a host, is still living down its early reputation as a den of separatists…
The silence of the Bloc Quebecois and the Parti Quebecois throughout was also rather eloquent. Both parties knew that the appointment of an attractive and articulate representative of federalism…’
Has anyone yet seen one example of Michaelle Jean’s articulating support of “federalism”, using the f-word itself?
Mark
Ottawa
Neither federalism nor loyalty to Canada has ever crossed her lips. She squeezed out ‘committment’ but is suspicious if she meant to Canada or Quebec, as she said from one end of the country to the other–which sounds more like she was discussing the country of Quebec than the ‘coast to coast’ that usually denotes Canada.
More proof that our money is thrown away by the Liberals–did Martin not notice that the Canadian taxpayers paid for Lafonds film making? How dense are our leaders?
“Needless to say, she may be Paul Martin’s Governor-General, but she won’t be mine.”
That’s the sound of the earth cracking.
This appointee is most revealing about the shallowness of Dither’s.
No matter what the outcome, no matter how bad it could turn out, no matter the subsequent damage, just as long as it looks good for the moment.
It’s like watching your sister date a total loser. I just wanna slap the stupid right off his face, but I can’t wait in that long of a line up. Any takers?
Not to put too fine a point on it, but as Black Rod pointed out for us, Michaelle Jean and her husband hung out with members of a terrorist group who bombed the Montreal Stock Exchange (injuring 27), kidnapped a British diplomat, plotted against the Israeli Consul, placed bombs in mailboxes, murdered a secretary, a gun shop owner, and provincial cabinet minister Pierre Laporte, whose body was found in the trunk of a car, a few days after pleading for his life in a letter to the premier. (He had been strangled with the chain of his religious medallion.)
If all goes according to Martin’s plan, this woman seen on film in the happy company of FLQ members, raising her glass to independence — “(it) is not given, it must be taken” — will preside over ceremonies honouring the best and bravest of Canada. War vets will bow their head to her as she bestows medals. She and her husband will live royally at Rideau Hall, and fly around the world as our representatives, at taxpayer expense.
She will also be the Commander-in-Chief of the Canadian military in the name of the Queen. So when you see that film clip of her bonding with members of the group who bombed the Canadian Forces Headquarters in Ottawa, killing a “tiny middle-aged French Canadian single mother of two”, just think of life here as a tres Liberal, mind-expanding exercise in cognitive dissonance. To view it any other way would just betray that you have an “anger management” problem. Appoint your thoughts accordingly.
And say to yourself “I will not remember, I will not remember, I will…”
Off topic, but I read the NP article “Hands off, Klein warns”
This line jumped out at me. “Ontario’s declining status is blamed largely on the gap between what Ontarians pay in taxes and what they get back in services.”
The real reason for Ontario’s problems are numerous. Fiscal incompetence and their willingness to elect people who tell them what they want to hear with no intention of following through are part of it.
The real reason is high taxes. Leave the money in Ontario for Ontarians to spend. Live within your means, forget all the pretty socialist policies.
This is off topic but interesting:
I see that Michael Ignatieff has taken a position at U of T. Now, as all recent leaders have been selected by Mr. Demarais (Martin, Chretien, Mulroney, Trudeau), I did a quick google for Desmarais Ignatieff and lo-and-behold they spoke together at the Governor General’s Leadership Conference in May 2004 and I’m sure the connection runs deeper.
http://www.leadership2004.ca/french/2004/speech_igantieff.cfm
While Ignatieff’s views on diversity and our Charter are interesting to say the least, the most important thing I took from this was the very last address by Mr. Demarais.
The only thing I wonder about is Ignatieff’s support of the Iraqi invasion. Oh well (er…oil well?), Desmarais still has Stronach too.
Oh, and Bob Rae.
I can’t help but imagine separatists being wined and dined on my money in grand style in Rideau Hall, laughing at those who endorsed Jean’s appointment overwhelmingly by giving the Librano$ a majority. Will this embolden the separatists once again, and lead to a resurgence or rebirth of the FLQ? This would give Martin his chance to appear statesman like by standing firm against separatists, even if he himself orchestrated the demise of Canada as we know it. Adler works for CanWest, or did at one time. One would think he would have enough clout to shove this down the throat of some quasi-independent-thinking editor.
Michaelle Jean(-Paulette Sartre).
By the way, “Michaelle” is an obvious transliteration of the Russian name “Mikhail”. It is exceptionally rare in France–see:
http://www.aufeminin.com/w/prenom/p13584/michaele.html
Now why would a Haitian couple give their baby, presumably born in 1957, a very rare name in French, of Russian origin?
The official biography for the GG-designate does not give her date of birth. It also does not give the date of her marriage. Curious in an official biography. After all the site does give the date M. Lafond became a Canadian citizen (1981).
http://canadianheritage.gc.ca/progs/cpsc-ccsp/ggd/bio_e.cfm
Mark
Ottawa
New Governor General Anti-Canadian Military?
By Garth Pritchard
Tuesday, August 23, 2005
Kandahar, Afghanistan– Word of the appointment of the controversial Haitian-born, Quebec separatist-supporting Micha�lle Jean as Canada’s new Governor General by Prime Minister Paul Martin has reached Canadian troops in Kandahar, Afghanistan.
Canada Free Press reporter Garth Pritchard, embedded with the troops in Kandahar, for one, is not amused.
The following is a message, Pritchard, an award-wining documentary filmmaker sent back to the home front.
Canadian troops are in Afghanistan to help with security for the elections being held in September.
Our soon-to-be Governor General, Ms. Micha�lle Jean, will become the Commander in Chief of Canada�s Military.
I am a Canadian documentary filmmaker. I feel it necessary to point out that on numerous occasions we have attempted to have documentaries featuring Canada�s spectacular positive military contributions in hot spots around the world broadcast on The Passionate Eye � the very one with which Ms. Jean was affiliated.
CBC is our national broadcaster, whose mandate is to show Canadians about Canadians, and Ms. Jean was host of The Passionate Eye a CBC vehicle to broadcast documentaries from Canada and around the world.
We produce documentaries showcasing the superb work that our Canadian military men and women perform around the globe.
In spite of fitting directly within their published parameters, we were met with consistent refusals from Ms. Jean�s The Passionate Eye to broadcast these award-winning Canadian documentaries. Acquiring Producer Jerry McIntosh refers to them as ‘propaganda’ and will not run them.
Once she takes office as Governor General, Micha�lle Jean will become Commander in Chief of Canada�s military.
I have great respect for the office of Canada�s Governor General, and I take serious issue with Ms. Jean�s apparent anti-military sentiments.
http://www.canadafreepress.com/2005/pritchard082305.htm
Iron Lady:
You are so correct. They will have lavish dinners and laugh at us and Martin.
Don’t you think Lafond is laughing at us now?
Its sad – because its so Pythonesque: “You stupid English pig-dogs, you make me your GG!”
Who knew that we’d find a human face (and, obviously, heart) to put on the objection I wrote about earlier this week.
What They Did On Our Summer Vacation
http://www.wildduckdiary.com/?p=103
You’d think that CSIS and/or the RCMP would be digging away here, wouldn’t you? I mean, a resurgence in separatism ought to concern them a tad. There is a whole lot of something going on here that even our cynical minds cannot fathom. You would think, given the controversy, she’d step forward and say she’s decided against accepting the position because she finds she does not have the support of Canadians. But no. And the media seemed to have fallen suddenly silent or at least, accepting. I strongly feel that there is a behind the scenes push coming from Quebec’s elite to definitively put an end to Canada’s ties to the monarchy in this very in-your-face appointment that is a statement in itself: Bilingual yesterday, French forever.
Iron Lady,
All that plus the FACT that there are so many MORE qualified people for the position really makes me think this was well thought out. Remember, these people do everything with some form of intent.
Iron Lady: There is no legal reason for CSIS or the RCMP to look into separatism today. It is a legal movement, with two political parties represented in two legislatures, and no hint of violence or serious criminality (that goes to the Liberals).
C’est la vie et la loi.
Mark
Ottawa
I have been posting like crazy like this. Unlike everyone I have seen here but Bruce, I was a victim of the FLQ. I don’t have shards of glass pushing out of my skin from time to time but the FLQ destroyed the innocence of my childhood and blew out the windows of my block on Elm Avenue in Montreal. The stress of the FLQ crisis resulted in the breakdown of many families.
It is a personal slap in my face, not to mention Mr. Vallance, Mr. Cross, (kidnapped) the Laporte family (he was assassinated)and the family of Madam Jean D’Arc St. Germaine (murdered by FLQ bombed.)
I am in great fear for my country by this most recent lapse in judgment of Mr. Martin at this time of constitutional crisis. I almost lost my Canada once, I do not want to risk that again.
Is anyone taking up a collection to finance a Passionate Eye documentary on this? I’d gladly contribute.
A Human Face On the Most Important Question Unanswered in the Governor General Appointment Controversy
Kate has an incredible post over at small dead animals…
…
I second Me, I remember’s comments. Frankly, I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that Canadians and Montrealers in particular were some of the first people to experience the rise of contemporary terrorism.
Millions of refugees have come to Canada hoping to escape the proliferation of groups and philosophies like the FLQ. If Canadian citizenship holds any value for them, they should be the first to understand our outrage-if only the media wasn’t .
I also lived in Montreal during the those years and I was afraid to go downtown for years because of those selfish, self-important b….
What Martin has done is either incredibly stupid, incredibly callous or just plain despicable.
Ignatieff, unlike almost all Canadian intellectuals and public policy types–and Liberals, understands the need for the military and one that can kill.
See his book “The Warrior’s Honor”: note the word “warrior”.
Mark
Ottawa
One should ask the question: “Where was Martin during the FLQ rampage”? He must have been in a sealed room, or Liberal votes in the Haitian ridings are more important than anything that went before. Think about it!! If the Liberals knew for sure that YOUR vote was near your heart there would be open heart surgery in every street in the land, and there wouldn’t be any niceties>
I can’t speak for anyone, but if I were a war vet and faced with the prospect of bowing my head to this waste of skin, I’d say “keep your damn medals”.
I seem to recall one of the FLQ memebers are now presiding on a Quebec bench ?
That would be Richard Therrien. Yes he had a provincial court bench position but he was removed by the SCC. I also recall some FLQ members being elected to provincial government.
Martin (or Martin’s masterminds) well know what they are doing with respect of this GG. Politically correct and laudable choice for some Canadians; planting seeds of discontent with monarchy for many others — perhaps there will be no reason to appoint another GG, ever, and Librano$ will own the whole show.
It’s official. Canada is a contestant on the international version of the Gong Show.
I hope the liberals win the next election and try getting their money grubbing hands on more of Albertas’s oil revenues. That should set the stage nicely for an independent Alberta.
Let’s see, in liberal logic, Quebec seperatists are bad, Conservatives and the Bloc oppose the liberals so they are both bad, so the logical thing to do is appoint a Quebec seperatist with connections to the FLQ as GG. Hmmmmm. What really makes me laugh at this joke of a country is that the eastern voters will be gullible enough to re-elect them.
I guess you could say that Alberta’s independence hinges on the stupidity and greed of the eastern voters.
Gotta run, got to go buy more land around Calgary.
Why the hush in the mainstream news about this catastrophic appointment of Michaelle Jean to the Governor General position (Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces, person who disolves minority governments etc.). I fear that Canada as we know it will not survive this latest blunder of Paul Martin. This useless second tier dilettante, crass left wing hipster (she bandies about the word “nigger”) and her low life creep of a husband who are or were infatuated with the dissolution of countries will destroy our Canada if left to their devices. Is this a U.S. plot undermine our political system and take our precious water and oil. Why not. That makes as much sense as her appointment.
Mark Collins; Did you hear the speech Mr. Ignatieff gave at the ‘Liberal-Love- In?’? He is a dynamic speaker and he wrote some very good books. The Ignatieff’s are transplanted Russian Aristocrats, M. Ignatieffs’ grandfather was the last Min of Education under Tsar Nick II. Michael grew up in Montreal. The Ignatieff family had a hard time (for aristocats who felt ‘entitled’ to the service of others) when the Communists took over but they had some money outside Russia so they were not in the same destitute situation as some other displaced aristocrats. Sort of a GWTW scenerio from Russia….
I am sorry to learn that this man has been bought off by Demarais, Power Corp et al. Maybe it is not a done deal?? I can hope…for Igantieffs sake.
Maybe Martin is a ‘lame duck’ in the opinion of Socialist elitests outfits that run this country, maybe they are planning to replace him sometime soon. Maybe that is why Martin looks so wild eyed. Look out Canada if a ‘coup d’etate’ is programed in the future for replacing Paule with Igantieff. This man is intellegent and personable. He will be able to easily destroy our last vestages of freedom if he ever becomes the LPC dictator. Red Tories will vote for him because he IS the epitomy of a Red Tory. Ignatieff will appeal to all Canadians who like to worship their ‘better than thou’ elected representitves (think turdomania).
If you think the appointment of a dual citizen with affinities to the FLQ as the Commander in Chief of the Canadian Armed Forces is ill conceived…you are a racist…
Group Claims Racism is True Motive of Protest
Cindy Clyne
Sunday, August 28, 2005 4:28 PM
A group of counter protestors who showed up at a demonstration against the incoming governor general in Ottawa Saturday, claim racism was the true motive behind the protest.
About 250 protesters went to Parliament Hill to demand the prime minister rescind Jean’s appointment.
They say they were upset over her alleged soft stand on Quebec separatism. But about 20 counter-protesters claim the rally was more about the fact that Michaelle Jean isn’t white.
BUT MICHAELLE JEAN GETS TO SAY “the white niggers of Quebec have their black niggers” and she is not a racist?????!
RE. Mark’s comments from Ottawa
What is the matter with Canadians? Personally, I think we are all stupid! Anyone with eyeballs can see that Madame Jean and her hubby were, at some point at least, separatists. Does this mean she shouldn’t qualify as Governor General of Canada? Yes, that is what it means.
However, as Mark in Ottawa notes, Paul Martin issues a statement that she is not a separatist and what do Canadians respond with? “Oh, OK, sorry our mistake.” Time after time, Canadians believe the liars. Who cares if it was the Prime Minister? He just has more reason to lie. Martin has not exhibited the kind of actions that lead to trusting him when there are doubtful statements or comments, rather he and most other Liberals as far as I can see, have engendered and earned a reputation as liars. So, why do Canadians give them the benefit of the doubt in a situation where our eyes and ears tell us one thing and Mr. Martin tells us another? We’re stupid.
Mike
Calgary
Thank you for printing and distributing my letter. I am very passionate about this as you can tell. Even now almost forty years later, I can still feel the pain and anguish of that morning. That lady wanted nothing more after having raised her children than to go on her vacation and live the rest of her life in peace and contentment. I had teased her unmercifully about her up comming vacation and her enthusiasm for it. One of the other things I can never forgive is the fact that my wife, who was at home that morning with two small children was never notified or informed by the government that I had been injured or of my condition. That was left to a young newspaper reporter who knocked on our door at 7:30 that morning asking for me. I am forever greatful to that young man. He stayed with my wife and children all that long day phoning around trying to get some information about me for her. They would tell them nothing. Until I walked into the house at six that evening; having refused to stay in the hospital over night, my wife Rita and my children had no idea if I were dead or alive.