FLQ kidnapper dies

MONTREAL—Convicted terrorist Paul Rose, who died yesterday of a stroke, is best known as an architect of the 1970 October Crisis, which saw political kidnappings and murder and troops flooding into Quebec.
Now a member of the provincial legislature wants to honour him.

Amir Khadir, one of two members of the pro-sovereignty Quebec solidaire, promises to table a motion for him in the national assembly next week.
“This is someone who is significant to the independence movement,” Khadir told The Canadian Press when asked about Rose’s passing.
“You can share the reservations he had about his past in the FLQ, but no one can question his sincerity, his devotion, his integrity, his intellectual honesty.”
The party also issued a written statement offering its condolences—to Rose’s family and friends, and the progressive and sovereigntist activists “who had the pleasure of” working with him.
It saluted his decision to pursue the “emancipation of the Quebec people” using democratic means after 1970.
Rose, 69, was convicted in 1971 in the murder and kidnapping of then-Quebec vice-premier Pierre Laporte.
For its part, the Parti Quebecois government refused to issue any comment on the death.
Khadir decried the government’s silence about Rose, who had supported Quebec solidaire in recent years.
“It shows once again the government’s lack of courage,” he charged.
“This is an important figure in the Quebec independence movement and I invite all sovereigntist members, including ministers, to publicly express their condolences.”
The PQ repeatedly has distanced itself from the legacy of the October Crisis—one of the most tumultuous periods in Canadian history.
PQ founder Rene Levesque was scornful of the FLQ and its members. He was appalled in 1981 when delegates to a party convention gave a standing ovation to Jacques Rose, Paul Rose’s brother.
The PQ founder had been a friend to Laporte and a cabinet colleague.