A Fab Trip back to the Birth of Separatism
by Spencer Malthouse
@spencemalthouse
So Trudeau and the FLQ presented by VideoCabaret, part of the History of the Village of the Small Huts series, was profound in two distinct ways. Allow me to start with the historical before progressing to the histrionic.
In the first, it’s hard to imagine a more pertinent topic in the wake of the PQ’s shattering defeat Monday. Writer/director Michael Hollingsworth strongly suggests that the Parti Quebecois was born of the alienation of Quebeckers during the FLQ crisis and the War Measures Act. He portrays the FLQ as a small band of radicals and hippies committed to creating a revolution for the sake of revolution. Trudeau, meanwhile, is a proud idealist determined to put Quebec in its place (inside of Canada). Separatism, Hollingsworth argues, was born of arrogant radicalism on both sides.