Quebec elects it's first (sovereignist) women Prime Minister ; Anglo donkey-cave tries to murder her

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**Kovnik Obama**

Some news from the French Frozen Wastes ;

MONTREAL - A 62-year-old suspect in police custody after a shooting late Tuesday night as premier-elect Pauline Marois was giving a victory speech.

Marois was whisked from the stage by bodyguards at the Metropolis theatre and returned a few moments later unharmed.

Montreal police said the man was “quickly apprehended” after approaching the back of Metropolis, penetrating a vestibule and opening fire.

“For us this is a homicide investigation,” Montreal police spokesman Ian Lafrenière said.

Television footage showed a heavy-set man in a blue bathrobe and black balaclava yelling: “the anglos are waking up” in French with an English accent as he was led away by police. Then alternating between English and French he added: “There’s going to be f-ing payback. It’s enough. Wanna make trouble.”

The suspect “is not from Montreal. He is a Quebecer,” Lafrenière said this morning. Footage showed a high-powered rifle, which Twitter users identified as an AK-47 or Valmont Hunter weapon.

Lafrenière said two guns were recovered at the scene but there was no reason to believe there was more than one shooter.

Urgences Santé spokesperson Stéphane Smith said a man died on the scene and two others were transported to hospital.

The life of the second shooting victim is no longer considered in danger, Lt. Guy Lapointe of the Sûreté du Québec confirmed this morning. The third person was treated for shock, Smith said.

Lafrenière said the dead man was in his 40s, but refused to say more out of respect for the victim’s family.

However a witness told The Gazette at least one of the two men shot was a stage technician waiting to dismantle the set where Marois was speaking. The deceased was a freelance lighting technician who worked with Solotech, a company that had been hired to work at Metropolis on election night. The men were inside the building when they were shot near the artists’ entrance.

Employees at Solotech, who knew the victim, were stunned by their colleague’s death. “He went to work and was shot, it is unbelievable,” said one employee. Another employee, who knew the victim, fought back tears as he talked about his friend. “My heart goes out to the family,” he said. The employees did not divulge the man’s name because they were not certain that his family had been notified.

A co-worker of the deceased technician told LCN news that he was at the rear of Metropolis when the gunman fired a few shots before his rifle jammed. “We were about 12 feet away – if it didn’t jam, we could have all been (hit). I lost a work colleague and another one was seriously injured because of this psychopath.” The co-worker said he immediately called 911 and gave a description of the suspect who was arrested near the scene.

Witnesses also said the suspect launched some kind of incendiary device into a nearby Dumpster, igniting it briefly before the flames were doused.

A section of Ste. Catherine St. in front of the Metropolis was been closed as a security perimeter was erected around the scene.

Marois, Quebec’s premier-elect, was rushed from the stage mid-speech by her bodyguards just before midnight after her Parti Québécois won a minority government.

Marois returned to the microphone shortly after and told stunned supporters an “unfortunate incident” had occurred. She asked the crowd to leave the theatre and appealed for calm, saying: “That is what a woman head of government does.”

The incident put a damper on what was a noisy, happy celebration of Marois’s victory as the first woman to lead Quebec.

Sylvain Giguere, a PQ supporter, said after Marois was yanked offstage, “the room went deadly quiet.”

The other party leaders, including outgoing premier Jean Charest and Coalition Avenir Québec leader François Legault denounced the tragic turn of events.

Montreal police downplayed how close the suspect got to Quebec’s newly elected premier.

“Yes, he entered inside the theatre, but he was only in the entryway ... a vestibule,” Lafrenière said. “The suspect was quickly apprehended. The incident took place behind the theatre.”

He added that it was too early to speculate about the suspect’s motivations or whether he has a criminal record.

“What was his motive? Those are things we are looking into,” Lafrenière said.

Marois sent out a press release following the shooting saying her thoughts are with the family and friends of the deceased. “All Quebecers are in mourning today because of this act of violence. Never would a society like ours allow violence to dictate our collective choice. It is through democracy that we have to express ourselves, like Quebecers were able to do yesterday.”

© Copyright (c) The Montreal Gazette

Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com/Suspect+custody+after+killing+victory+party+premier+elect+Pauline+Marois/7192567/story.html#ixzz25bEpqhKY

A joyous moment was darkened by what is clearly a madman.

**Jihadin**

Here we go on another "guns are bad" thread

**TheHammer**

I know, right? It's horrible that the lamestream media doesn't report all the instances of political assassination by blowdart!

**Frazzled**

Canada already has substantial regulation, so by the laws of physics this can't have happened...

When the US permits Canada to become part of Greater Texas, France can have Quebec.

Wife: "Why do you always make fun of France. Aren't you part French."
Frazzled: "Thats because all the guys who don't surrender bailed when Napaleon lost."
Wife: "Is that why you're so crotchety?"
Frazzled:"You're just jealous because all the voices talk to me."
Team Weinie from the kennel: "Thats right. We only talk to him."

**TheHammer**

I always thought Canada had a ton of guns, maybe not quite as many as the United States but close per capita.

Say what you want about Michael Moore, but I thought Bowling For Columbine was a pretty good discussion on why the US has so many more gun deaths than Canada when they aren't too dissimilar in gun ownership.

I was mostly making fun of insecure gun owners up above who jump to defend gun ownership when there is literally no one actually talking about gun control. I hate to be cynical but it's been a great marketing tactic by the gun industry to create imagined threats to gun ownership, since it has resulted in a surge in gun sales in America.

**Frazzled**

You thought wrong.

**Kovnik Obama**

TheHammer wrote:
I always thought Canada had a ton of guns, maybe not quite as many as the United States but close per capita.

2.67 firearms per heads. Mostly rifles.

Jihadin wrote:
Here we go on another "guns are bad" thread

I was more aiming at 'This is sad, and pretty much the first act of 'ethnic' violence between Anglo and Francophone in decades'.

After all, we'll need those guns when the ROC will decide to invade us after the Separation.

**TheHammer**

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number_of_guns_per_capita_by_country

30.8 guns per 100 people seems like quite a lot of guns! Sure, it doesn't reach American standards of insanity, at almost 90 guns per 100 people, but it still seems like a lot.

What is strange, and what I was talking about above, is that there is a huge disparity between gun homicides between the two:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_firearm-related_death_rate

So, while Canada has 1/3 the amount of guns per capita as America it only has close to 1/6 the amount of gun homicides per capita as America.

**Manchu**

Is this a freak thing or is there really some resurgent ethnic hostility?

**Kovnik Obama**

Frazzled wrote:
Canada already has substantial regulation, so by the laws of physics this can't have happened...

We've had many guns related troubles. The oldest school shooting I know of was here (and perpetrated by a distant cousin of mine

).

When the US permits Canada to become part of Greater Texas, France can have Quebec.

That's evil, dude. Quebecers make fun of french people like nobody else. Can't stand fething Parisians.

**sirlynchmob**

Its Quebec though, its not really part of Canada

Its more like Canada's drunken uncle.

**kronk**

"Television footage showed a heavy-set man in a blue bathrobe and black balaclava..."

You don't wear black with your blue bathrobe after Labor Day, unless you're a Jacksonville or Baltimore fan.

The guy sounds like a crazy and should be spending the rest of his life in either the nut house or prison.

**Kovnik Obama**

Manchu wrote:
Is this a freak thing or is there really some resurgent ethnic hostility?

The Anglophone medias have really done a number on Marois and the PQ, calling it a racist party and such. Of course, it didn't help that Marois refused addressing the Anglo community during the race.

Since it was really a close race between 3 party, 2 of which tried to covet the Anglo vote, and the other one being the elected one, with promises of a referendum on separation ''soonish'', their might be some rise of hostility. But until now, said hostility is pretty much contained in debates and newspapers editorials. This is the first act of violence clearly claimed as ethnic.

**Jefffar**

Manchu wrote:
Is this a freak thing or is there really some resurgent ethnic hostility?

Well some members of the PQ campaigned pretty hard on the idea of a heavily french first culture, to the point of eroding minority English rights. So to say that this incident came out of nowhere is naive.

However I suspect this was an isolated incident following a high stakes, high pressure election campaign.

**Frazzled**

TheHammer wrote:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number_of_guns_per_capita_by_country

30.8 guns per 100 people seems like quite a lot of guns! Sure, it doesn't reach American standards of insanity, at almost 90 guns per 100 people, but it still seems like a lot.

What is strange, and what I was talking about above, is that there is a huge disparity between gun homicides between the two:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_firearm-related_death_rate

So, while Canada has 1/3 the amount of guns per capita as America it only has close to 1/6 the amount of gun homicides per capita as America.

Its because: 1) their population density is extremely low in much of the country; 2) they are the most polite people on the planet secure in their freedom from attack, sitting on the oil sands, and their ultimate monopoly of maple syrup. You can't be cramy when you dominate the maple syrup trade.

He who controls the maple, controls the universe!

**ShumaGorath**

Jihadin wrote:
Here we go on another "guns are bad" thread

Sure does suck that tools designed to kill people are getting misused constantly!

Automatically Appended Next Post:

Jefffar wrote:
Manchu wrote:
Is this a freak thing or is there really some resurgent ethnic hostility?

Well some members of the PQ campaigned pretty hard on the idea of a heavily french first culture, to the point of eroding minority English rights. So to say that this incident came out of nowhere is naive.

However I suspect this was an isolated incident following a high stakes, high pressure election campaign.

Is the concept of a Quebec secession a realistic one? I'm not particularly aware of Canadian polity.

**Kovnik Obama**

Jefffar wrote:
Manchu wrote:
Is this a freak thing or is there really some resurgent ethnic hostility?

Well some members of the PQ campaigned pretty hard on the idea of a heavily french first culture, to the point of eroding minority English rights.

The PQ always campaigned on the idea of a francophone Quebec ONLY. Separation is for the sole purpose of protecting our culture from assimilation, and it's the 1st article the the PQ platform. It's nothing new.

Was there some questions on the Anglo's access to english colleges that was brought up during the race, that I might have missed? From what I gathered, it was mostly the popular based referendum (for everyone else, Marois promised that if she would get 60k signatures on a petition, she'd do a referendum on the separation). Considering that at any point in time there's between 1.6 and 2.5 millions quebecers for separation, it was seen as a bit of an easy process.

**Manchu**

Jefffar wrote:Well some members of the PQ campaigned pretty hard on the idea of a heavily french first culture, to the point of eroding minority English rights.

That sounds blatantly bad. I'm not condoning the violence but I will say that it makes more sense than, for example, our recent theater shooting in Colorado.

Automatically Appended Next Post:

Kovnik Obama wrote:
The PQ always campaigned on the idea of a francophone Quebec ONLY. Separation is for the sole purpose of protecting our culture from assimilation, and it's the 1st article the the PQ platform. It's nothing new.

How can the age of bigotry justify it?

**Kovnik Obama**

ShumaGorath wrote:

Is the concept of a Quebec secession a realistic one? I'm not particularly aware of Canadian polity.

Seeing as we once obtained 49.5% for separation on a referendum, it definitely isn't as outlandish as, let's say, an Albertan separation (there's a separatist party in just about every province, btw). Right now the support is between 30 and 37% depending on the age groups. That's after about a decade of doing everything to avoid thinking about the question.

And, just a minor point, it's a Separation. A secession would follow a (majority) sovereignist party being elected and simply annoncing the secession. That was the initial plan, but it's been ruled out before the PQ was first elected. A referendum isn't legally required, but it lends legitimacy to the process.

**Frazzled**

Why does Quebec want to leave? All the oil is in the West.

**Kovnik Obama**

Manchu wrote:

How can the age of bigotry justify it?

Not sure I get the question...?

Frazzled wrote:
Why does Quebec want to leave? All the oil is in the West.

We actually have a fething motherlode of natural gaz. We just haven't exploited it yet.

**Frazzled**

Kovnik Obama wrote:
Manchu wrote:

How can the age of bigotry justify it?

Not sure I get the question...?

He's saying: Discriminating against English speaking Canadians-BAD.

**sirlynchmob**

Frazzled wrote:
Why does Quebec want to leave? All the oil is in the West.

They're like texas, always threatening to split off and form their own country. They even took a vote on it in 1995.

**Kovnik Obama**

Frazzled wrote:
Kovnik Obama wrote:
Manchu wrote:

How can the age of bigotry justify it?

Not sure I get the question...?

He's saying: Discriminating against English speaking Canadians-BAD.

It's not really what's happening. That's what's presented by a few anglophone medias. I really don't know what type of 'erosion of minority rights' that's been presented. No one has, to my knowledge, asked to repel the rights of Anglo to obtain an education in English.

Quebec is a predominantly french culture, in a country that's from the moment of the conquest publicized the wish to assimilate us. So yes, we are particularly defensive on the language question.

**Frazzled**

sirlynchmob wrote:
Frazzled wrote:
Why does Quebec want to leave? All the oil is in the West.

They're like texas, always threatening to split off and form their own country. They even took a vote on it in 1995.

Well in Texas' defense, we did it...twice! (the second time was overruled in the case of Grant v. Lee cert denied)

**Kovnik Obama**

sirlynchmob wrote:
Frazzled wrote:
Why does Quebec want to leave? All the oil is in the West.

They're like texas, always threatening to split off and form their own country. They even took a vote on it in 1995.

And once before in 1980.

**Frazzled**

Kovnik Obama wrote:
Frazzled wrote:
Kovnik Obama wrote:
Manchu wrote:

How can the age of bigotry justify it?

Not sure I get the question...?

He's saying: Discriminating against English speaking Canadians-BAD.

It's not really what's happening. That's what's presented by a few anglophone medias. I really don't know what type of 'erosion of minority rights' that's been presented. No one has, to my knowledge, asked to repel the rights of Anglo to obtain an education in English.

Quebec is a predominantly french culture, in a country that's from the moment of the conquest publicized the wish to assimilate us. So yes, we are particularly defensive on the language question.

If I recollect can you even have signs in English at this point? IIRC, but they had to be something like half the size of the English portion.

**Manchu**

Kovnik Obama wrote:
Quebec is a predominantly french culture, in a country that's from the moment of the conquest publicized the wish to assimilate us. So yes, we are particularly defensive on the language question.

And yet after centuries, the English never did assimilate you. Perhaps the lesson of history is that diversity can persist even in the face of opposition without exclusivity and ethnocentrism? I dunno, maybe ethnocentrism is what you guys think has kept you speaking Québécois.

**Kovnik Obama**

Frazzled wrote:
If I recollect can you even have signs in English at this point? IIRC, but they had to be something like half the size of the English portion.

Law 101 goes in pretty crazy details over what can and can't be done in english up here. I don't know if the 'half the size of the french lettering' is correct or just a popular misconception, but yeah, the signs have to be predominantly in french.

If you think about it, it's not really any crazier than a city passing a law to say that all roofs are to be this or that colour. To a point it's an aesthetical question. On the other side, I admit that even the most rage-filled separatist doesn't really care about the signs. What's important are the services and the education.

**sirlynchmob**

I think it was just one small town that was passing laws about the size of english signs. I saw it on TV a while ago.