Raymond Villeneuve (born September 11, 1943) is a founding member of the Front de libération du Québec (FLQ), a violent Quebec separatist movement, responsible various acts of violence in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. 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 establishin ...

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 popular morning show on CKVL hosted by

Pierre Pascau Pierre Pascau (10 May 1938 – 28 February 2017) was a Mauritian-Canadian journalist. Early life and career Pascau was born in 1938 in Mauritius. At the age of nineteen he joined the Mauritius Broadcasting Service. For his work at the MBS, Pa ...

. While on the show, he made some offensive comments against Jews and Anglophones, including that bombs or

Molotov cocktails A Molotov cocktail (among several other names – ''see other names'') is a hand thrown incendiary weapon constructed from a frangible container filled with flammable substances equipped with a fuse (typically a glass bottle filled with flammab ...

could be used against Anglophone activist

Howard Galganov Howard Galganov (born February 12, 1950, in Montreal, Quebec) is a Canadian political activist and radio personality in Montreal during the late 1990s. He made headlines in Quebec for being a vocal and confrontational opponent of the Charter of ...

. The following Sunday, Villeneuve published a newsletter
''La Tempête'' (''The Storm''
in which he denounced

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple ...

's English speaking Jews for their longstanding opposition to the Quebec separatist movement and

Bill 101 The ''Charter of the French Language'' (french: link=no, La charte de la langue française), also known in English as Bill 101, Law 101 (''french: link=no, Loi 101''), or Quebec French Preference Law, is a law in the province of Quebec in Canada ...

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 leader

Michel Gauthier Michel Gauthier (; February 18, 1950 – May 30, 2020) was a Canadian politician, who served as leader of the Bloc Québécois from 1996 to 1997. As the party was the Official Opposition in the Parliament of Canada, Gauthier was also the ...

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. Minister for two years in the Mulroney cabinet, Bouchard then led the emerging Bloc Québécois and became Leader of the Opposition in the Ho ...

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, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commer ...

: ''"I'm really jealous of New_York.html" ;"title="September_11_attacks.html" ;"title="hat happened in September 11 attacks">New York">September_11_attacks.html" ;"title="hat happened in September 11 attacks">New York 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-English sentiment Front de libération du Québec members Quebec sovereigntists