Minister David Lametti, the name of Michèle Bachand will mean nothing to you. This woman has been a trade unionist, a feminist, and has spent her whole life fighting injustices. She has been active within the CSN and various groups. She passed away a few days ago. She was the sister of François Mario Bachand, this young member of the Front de liberation du Québec (FLQ) assassinated in Paris on March 29, 1971, probably the victim of a fratricidal struggle within the FLQ.
In 1997, with a team from the show Challenges from Radio-Canada, we had accompanied Michèle Bachand to Paris where, for the first time, she had been able to access the report of the French police who had carried out the investigation into the death of her brother in Saint-Ouen, in the suburbs from Paris.
More recently, the journalist from Press, Jean-Christophe Laurence, got his hands on the entire police report1. Like us, he understood that one of the last people to have seen François Mario Bachand alive had been identified by the tenant of the apartment where Bachand was staying. It could be another member of the FLQ, Normand Roy, writes in his report the divisional commissioner Roger Poiblanc of the French police.
PHOTO ARCHIVES THE PRESS
Mario bachand
Normand Roy and his felquist comrade Michel Lambert had been interviewed in the summer of 1970 by Pierre Nadeau in a Palestinian training camp, under the names of Selim and Salam. The two then joined another FLQ member in Algiers, Raymond Villeneuve, who had opened a “general FLQ delegation abroad” there, with the consent of the Algerian government.
A fight between two men
The reason for this murder, writes the French police investigator, came from a fight between Raymond Villeneuve and François Mario Bachand. Indeed, who of Raymond Villeneuve or François Mario Bachand could speak on behalf of the Front de liberation du Québec abroad? Both claimed this title of spokesperson.
According to the police report, it was at this precise moment that the plot to assassinate François Mario Bachand would have been carefully prepared. On March 29, 1971, Bachand was shot dead in his Parisian home. This murder followed the visit of a couple of Quebecers to the apartment where they were staying. Based on testimonies and a photo identification session, Bachand’s roommate, Pierre Barral, and his wife Françoise Laville have, according to the French police report, identified Normand Roy, Selim, as being the man of this couple who were the last to see Bachand alive.
PHOTO ADRIAN WYLD, ARCHIVES THE CANADIAN PRESS
David Lametti, Minister of Justice of Canada
In his report, the divisional superintendent Roger Poiblanc writes: “Finally, concerning these two men, it was specified to us that the victim did not know them personally, and their description which was provided to us, seemed to be able to apply, at least. for one of them, (Roy, Normand) to the man of the suspect couple who had visited Bachand François, shortly before his death. How is it that for so many years, this assassination could not be elucidated?
A few years ago, I promised Michèle Bachand that I would help her shed light on the murder of her brother.
A first step would be that the fingerprints found in the apartment where the murder was committed, be compared to those taken from Normand Roy and Michel Lambert when they returned from exile in Quebec in the 1970s. They were then imprisoned for their participation in FLQ attacks. Their fingerprints are somewhere in their files. We can therefore compare them with those found in the apartment by the French police.
This would perhaps be the only way to end this murder carried out against François Mario Bachand.
On behalf of her sister Michèle Bachand, now deceased, I invite the Minister of Justice of Canada and Attorney General, David Lametti, to make things happen in this direction. She would have liked so much to know the truth.
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