Raymond Villeneuve (born September 11, 1943) is a founding member of the

Front de libération du Québec The (FLQ) was a Quebec separatist terrorist group which aimed to establish an independent and socialist Quebec. Founded sometime in the early 1960s, the FLQ conducted a number of attacks between 1963 and 1970,Reich, Walter. ''Origins of Terror ...

(FLQ), a Quebec separatist movement responsible for various acts of violence in

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. Villeneuve remained out of the spotlight as he was volunteering for the

Parti Québécois The Parti Québécois (PQ; , ) is a sovereignist and social democratic provincial political party in Quebec, Canada. The PQ advocates national sovereignty for Quebec involving independence of the province of Quebec from Canada and establishi ...

from 1988 until the 1995 referendum. He then became "fed up" and created the Mouvement de libération nationale du Québec (MLNQ), espousing both his preference for peace and his preparedness for violence.Profile
montrealmirror.com, October 10, 1997; accessed December 8, 2014. On September 23, 1996, Villeneuve appeared on ''Le Point du Jour'', a morning show on CKVL hosted by Pierre Pascau. While on the show, he made some comments against Jews and Anglophones, including that bombs or

Molotov cocktails A Molotov cocktail (among several other names – ''see '') is a hand-thrown incendiary weapon consisting of a frangible container filled with flammable substances and equipped with a fuse (typically a glass bottle filled with flammable l ...

could be used against Anglophone activist Howard Galganov. The following Sunday, Villeneuve published a

newsletter A newsletter is a printed or electronic report containing news concerning the activities of a business or an organization that is sent to its members, customers, employees or other subscribers. Newsletters generally contain one main topic of ...

''La Tempête'' (''The Storm''
in which he denounced

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

's English speaking Jews for their longstanding opposition to the

Quebec separatist movement The Quebec sovereignty movement (French: ''mouvement souverainiste du Québec'', ) is a political movement advocating for Quebec's independence from Canada. Proponents argue that Quebecers form a distinct nation with a unique culture, language, ...

and

Bill 101 The ''Charter of the French Language'' (, ), also known as Bill 101 (, ), is a law in the Canadian province of Quebec defining French, the language of the majority of the population, as the official language of the provincial government. It is th ...

and sent this warning: ''"What will happen on the day after the victory to those communities who refused to prove conciliating towards the people of Quebec? Independence will come sooner or later and these communities must prepare now for cohabitation in harmony and agreement with the choice of Quebecers".'' The incident put the mainstream separatist movement on the defensive as the Federal Liberal Party tried to link

Bloc Quebecois Bloc may refer to: Government and politics * Political bloc, a coalition of political parties * Trade bloc, a type of intergovernmental agreement * Voting bloc, a group of voters voting together * Black bloc, a tactic used by protesters who wear ...

leader Michel Gauthier to Villeneuve's remarks. Following a statement from Premier

Lucien Bouchard Lucien Bouchard (; born December 22, 1938) is a Canadian lawyer, diplomat and retired politician. A minister for two years in the 24th Canadian Ministry, Mulroney cabinet, Bouchard then founded and led the Bloc Québécois and became Leader ...

disassociating himself and the Parti Québécois government from these comments, Villeneuve clarified that he hadn't intended to be taken literally. "I meant we will use political force. We will be the commandos, the troops", he explained.

Quote

On the

September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...

: ''"I'm really jealous of

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]. Those types of actions, we could never do that. But me, I was thinking about tank trucks. Apparently even Bin Laden has thought about that. Blowing up tank trucks is way easier than hijacking planes. It could happen in Toronto or it could happen in the West Island of Montreal where there are a lot of Canadians."''"Je suis jaloux beaucoup [de ce qui a été fait à New York]. Ce type d'action-là, on ne pourra jamais faire ça. Mais moi, ce que j'avais pensé, c'était des camions-citernes. Il semble que même Ben Laden y a pensé. Faire sauter des camions-citernes, c'est plus facile que de détourner des avions. Ça peut être à Toronto comme ça peut être dans l'ouest de l'île de Montréal où il y a beaucoup de Canadiens"
. ''Voir'', November 15, 2001.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Villeneuve, Raymond 1943 births Living people People from Montreal Terrorism in Canada Anti-Anglophone sentiment in Quebec Front de libération du Québec members Quebec sovereigntists