In 1963, The FLQ were trained and organized by Georges Schoeters.
Schoeters was ironically a Belgian. The leaders were Charles Gagnon, and Pierre Vallieres.
Pierre Vallières wrote a book about French-Canadian oppression that he titled Nègres
blancs d'Amérique -- in English, White Niggers of America.
It is said that Pierre Vallières had a role in writing a brief 1966
primer, Revolutionary Strategy and the Role of the Avant-Garde. This secret document had the FLQ's plans for robberies,
bombings and kidnappings.
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| Pierre Vallières, younger |
During the bitterly cold night of March 7, 1963, three Canadian
army barracks had been attacked simultaneously with incendiary bombs. The targets: The Royal Montreal Regiment in Westmount;
the Victoria Rifles on downtown Cathcart Street; and the Fourth (Chateauguay) Batallion of the Fusiliers Mont-Royal on Cote-des-
Neiges. On the walls, painted in red, were the initials "FLQ".
This act marked the birth of the FLQ. Plenty of molotov cocktails and dynamite time bombs that targeted Anglo
Quebeckers followed.
The FLQ was separated in two groups; the Liberation cell, and the Chénier Cell.
The Liberation cell members:
- Jacques Cossette-Trudel
- Louise Lanctôt(Louise Cossette-Trudel)
- Jacques Lanctôt
- Marc Carbonneau
- Yves Langlois (aka Pierre Seguin)
- Nigel Barry Hamer
The Chénier Cell members:
- Paul Rose
- Jacques Rose
- Francis Simard
- Bernard Lortie
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| Confiscated bomb materials |
"We got no where with words maybe someone up there in Ottawa
will listen to exploding bombs."
The bombs were typically put inside mailboxes in the Westmount area in Montreal. Their first victim was 65-year-old
Wilfred O'Neil. He was a war veteran with only one month away from retirement. The bomb had been planted in an Army recruiting
office in Sherbrooke. On May 13, 1963 known as "Black Friday" a police explosives expert, Walter Leja, was
maimed when he attempted to disarm a bomb in a Westmount mailbox. . A passerby and a gun-shop
owner were killed in another incident.
Febraury 13, 1969 the FLQ bombed the Montreal Stock Exchange that seriously injured twenty-seven people
The FLQ were against the United States and had actually plotted to blow up the Statue of Liberty. They were stopped before
this could occur.
From 1963 to 1970, the FLQ had committed over 200 violent crimes; bombings, bank hold-ups and AT LEAST three deaths by
FLQ bombs and two deaths by gunfire. The FLQ funded their activities with bank robberies.
The FLQ targets included English owned businesses, banks, Mcgill University, and the homes of wealthy English
speakers in the Westmount area.
