October 1970
Page 52
“Noooooo! No!”
AUTHOR’S NOTE
OCTOBER 1970 IS A WORK of fiction. A reconstruction in which imagination took the place of historical investigation. The unofficial history was the novelist’s mortar when faced with the patchy official version, which barely stands up to the slightest prodding.
One of the liberties offered by fiction was to drag Wikipedia’s invention a few years back in the past. It was easier, and had fewer consequences, than changing the date of the great Zapatista march in the spring of 2001.
It’s important to me to honour a few works without which my own would have been impossible. For military inspiration, General Jean-V. Allard’s Memoirs, as well as Dan Loomis’s Not Much Glory: Quelling the FLQ, among others, were of great help. As for the October Crisis itself, I’ll simply mention a few indispensable books: F.L.Q.: The Anatomy of an Underground Movement, was both exceptionally useful and insufficient; and Francis Simard’s Talking It Out: The October Crisis from the Inside, was also notable for its deafening silences. The Execution of Pierre Laporte, the classic by Pierre Vallières, is worth it for the questions it asks, as well as the exceptional photographs at the end. FLQ 70: offensive d’automne, a work in French by Jean-Claude Trait, contains all the unedited communiqués by the kidnappers. A Special Kind of Friendship, drawn from the epistolary relationship between Jacques Ferron and John Grube, contains, as an appendix, George Langlois’s Octobre en Question, and was a necessary read. Finally, Kidnappé par la police by Dr. Serge Mongeau remains the best available documentary of the arbitrary arrests of October 1970.
However, the most consistent documentation came from the archives: court records, newspaper articles, and so on. In particular, the important media review put together and annotated by John Grube, of Toronto, was given to me by the cinematographer Jean-Daniel Lafond at a time when he was supposedly investigating the “official truth,” political plots, and other darker corners of the story.
I’d like to thank the following people for the help they’ve given me over the years: Francine Bégin, at the Montreal courthouse, Pierre Bastien in the air, Claude-Jean Devirieux, Benoit Perron, Éric Barette (unyielding hunter of Colonels), Carl Leblanc, Paul Hamelin for the land register, Michael Macloughlin, Jean-François Nadeau, Philippe Marquis, Solène Bernier, Denis Cloutier for his Octobrist library, Lorraine Déry, Laurent Hamelin in the field, Bruno Cloutier in Percé, Gilles Prince and the team at Sporobole for their technical support, Luc Gauvreau, Pierre Cantin. As well as Claude and Carmen, and Hélène Girard.
The Quebec Arts Council offered invaluable help more than once throughout the life of this project, which took a few years to flourish. From the bottom of my heart, thank you.
As for the witnesses and actors of the October events, those who agreed to speak with me, please accept my wholehearted gratitude.
L. H.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
LOUIS HAMELIN IS A NOVELIST and academic. His novel La Rage won the Governor General’s Literary Award for French Fiction in 1989. He is a literary critic for Le Devoir and Ici Montréal. He lives in Sherbrooke, Quebec.
ABOUT THE TRANSLATOR
WAYNE GRADY IS A GOVERNOR General’s Literary Award–winning translator, and an editor and author. He has published works of nonfiction, short fiction, and a novel, Emancipation Day. He lives near Kingston, Ontario, with his wife, novelist Merilyn Simonds.
ABOUT THE PUBLISHER
HOUSE OF ANANSI PRESS WAS founded in 1967 with a mandate to publish Canadian-authored books, a mandate that continues to this day even as the list has branched out to include internationally acclaimed thinkers and writers. The press immediately gained attention for significant titles by notable writers such as Margaret Atwood, Michael Ondaatje, George Grant, and Northrop Frye. Since then, Anansi’s commitment to finding, publishing and promoting challenging, excellent writing has won it tremendous acclaim and solid staying power. Today Anansi is Canada’s pre-eminent independent press, and home to nationally and internationally bestselling and acclaimed authors such as Gil Adamson, Margaret Atwood, Ken Babstock, Peter Behrens, Rawi Hage, Misha Glenny, Jim Harrison, A. L. Kennedy, Pasha Malla, Lisa Moore, A. F. Moritz, Eric Siblin, Karen Solie, and Ronald Wright. Anansi is also proud to publish the award-winning nonfiction series The CBC Massey Lectures. In 2007, 2009, 2010, and 2011 Anansi was honoured by the Canadian Booksellers Association as “Publisher of the Year.”