The Militant(logo) 
    Vol.60/No.3           January 22, 1996 
 
 
Activists Protest Threat To Montreal Bookstore  

BY BRIGITTE GROUIX

MONTREAL - Organizers of the Pathfinder bookstore here made a public appeal against a threat to deface the shop's sign. During the afternoon of January 8, a message was written on the front-door window. It read, "101. Warning. Remove the word bookstore from your sign or we will do it for you. (Signed) Law 101." The message was written in French except for the word "bookstore." which was in English.

The "101" in the scrawled message refers to Quebec Law 101, a French-language affirmative action measure enacted in 1977. One clause of the legislation required all public signs to be in French. It was modified several years ago to permit other languages in addition to French.

The store is located on St. Denis Street, one of the busiest commercial streets in downtown Montreal. Its sign reads "Pathfinder" in large letters, and, in smaller type underneath, "Bookstore" in English, French, and Spanish.

"This is an unacceptable attack against freedom of expression," declared Michel Prairie in a press release sent out the morning after the threat. Prairie is a volunteer and spokesperson for the bookshop.

"Other bookstores in Montreal have received similar threats or were vandalized for the same reason in the past months," Prairie continued. "We oppose the idea that the struggle against the national oppression of the Quebecois includes forbidding languages other than French."

The Montreal Pathfinder bookstore is a volunteer-run, multilingual establishment with books in French, English and Spanish. It specializes in books and magazines by working-class and communist leaders on the history of the labor movement and ongoing struggles for social justice and socialism. Among the books it sells are several on the struggle for the independence of Quebec.

Attack weakens the struggle
"Our bookstore opened its doors to supporters of the Yes (pro-sovereignty) side during the recent referendum vote in Quebec," said Prairie. "The bookstore volunteers support the independence of Quebec because they think that this is a struggle for justice and democracy. No matter what their language and nationality, all workers and youth should support this struggle. Yesterday's attack on the bookstore weakens the struggle for the rights of the Quebecois," he concluded.

Since the referendum vote in October, a debate on Quebec independence continues in schools and workplaces on what should be the next steps in the fight against national oppression. The pro-sovereignty side lost the referendum by a narrow margin. But the obvious rise of the pro- independence forces has dominated all discussion on Quebec ever since.

The threats against the Pathfinder bookstore are part of a pattern of increased polarization in politics across Canada over what many working people and bourgeois commentators alike describe as the inevitable victory by the Quebecois who support sovereignty.

In November, a document of the rightist Reform Party, entitled "20 Realities of Secession," became public. It sets out the party's proposals on how the Canadian government should organize to deal with the consequences of a future "yes" vote for sovereignty. Reform is the third largest party in the Canadian parliament.

The document says the Canadian government should use all necessary powers to block the Quebecois from exercising the right to self-determination. Party leader Preston Manning has said that one of those measures could be the partitioning of the province along language lines.

New party launched in Montreal
In November, a new party, the Quebec National Liberation Movement (MLNQ), was launched in Montreal. It says its membership is secret. Several dozen people attended its first public function. According to a TV report, the group is dedicated to "fight relentlessly to free Quebec from Canadian domination and from its internal enemies." The party demands a moratorium on immigration until Quebec forms an independent republic.

In December, death threats against former Bloc Quebecois (BQ) leader and soon-to-be Quebec Premier Lucien Bouchard were made by an anonymous group called Anglophone Action Group (AAG). The BQ is a pro-sovereignty bourgeois party and the official opposition in the Canadian parliament.

The threat against the Pathfinder bookstore received widespread radio and television coverage on January 9. Two of the largest daily newspapers in Montreal sent journalists and photographers to cover the story. The Associated Press carried a brief wire story on the threats. Two television networks interviewed Prairie for evening news broadcasts. The largest English-language radio station in the city, CJAD, carried the story on its news broadcasts that day and interviewed Prairie on its late-afternoon program.

 
 
 
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