Raymond Villeneuve

Raymond Villeneuve (born September 11, 1943) was a founding member of the Front de libération du Québec (FLQ) terrorist organization. Beginning in the early 1960s, the FLQ was responsible for more than two hundred bombings and numerous armed robberies that led to the events in 1970 known as the October Crisis.

On April 20, 1963, Raymond Villeneuve and his terrorist associates planted a bomb at a Canadian Army recruitment centre that killed 65-year-old night watchman Wilfred O'Neill. Arrested, Villeneuve was tried and convicted of murder and sentenced to twelve years in prison but was released on September 14, 1967 after serving just under four years. A year and a half after his release from prison, police began looking for him for questioning following the bombing of the Montreal Stock Exchange. Villeneuve fled to Cuba and then to Algeria and France, not returning to Quebec until 1984.

Villeneuve remained out of the spotlight until the 1990s when he resurfaced, espousing his radical and violent beliefs. In September 1996, in a newsletter entitled " [http://www.mlnq.net/journal/FrJ.htm La Tempête] "(The Storm), Raymond Villeneuve denounced Montreal's English speaking Jews for their longstanding opposition to the Quebec separatist movement and Bill 101 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." [http://www.mlnq.net/journal/Nj09/NJTx9.htm]

At a rally in 1997, Villeneuve stated that he would "send commandos to attack partitionist demonstrators" and that "we aren't afraid of confrontation or war. We are ready for war." Following a police complaint by partitionist leader Gary Shapiro and a statement from Premier Lucien Bouchard disassociating himself and the Parti Quebecois 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. ["Partition group files criminal complaint against separatist." Ottawa "Citizen", September 25, 1997, p. A7.]

Villeneuve is currently the head of the Mouvement de Libération Nationale du Québec (MLNQ). Many of the MLNQ members have been convicted of criminal acts since 1997.

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