Canadians Sceptical Of Assassination Rumours

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30558, 29 September 1964, Page 20

Canadians Sceptical Of Assassination Rumours

[By

MELVIN SUFFRIN,

N.Z.P.A. Special Correspondent]

TORONTO, September 28. Support appears to be widespread among Canadians for the decision to have the Queen go through with heir October visit, in spite of veiled hints that her life might be in danger in Quebec city 7.

Public opinion polls and the weight of newspaper editorials suggest that in the absence of a real threat, the Queen and Prince Philip should carry out their visit. Some say the tour should be called off as long as there is even an outside chance that someone will try to harm the Queen. Among them is Mr Michael Wardell, publisher of the “Frederiction Gleaner” and a protege of the late Lord Beaverbrook, who says Prime Minister Lester Pearson would not be showing weakness in advising the Queen to cancel the tour. “He would not be surrendering to violence or a vicious minority. Rather, he would be showing himself strong enough to make a wise decision in the face of dangers over which he can have no control.”

Another view is expressed by the French-language newspaper in Quebec, “L’Action.” “The Queen cannot stay home any more than General de Gaulle can stay in his palace instead of mixing with the French crowds which are not always reliable. These are the risks of the job.” The “Montreal Star” speaks for many when it said: “No society can survive which allows itself to be blackmailed by fear into altering a

perfectly proper course of action. Precautions must and have been taken. The lunatic and malcontent are not peculiar to this province (Quebec). He or she exists in every community, but the fact does not justify a single change in the arrangements which have been made.” The Royal visit is to commemorate meetings in Charlottetown and Quebec city 100 years ago which led to the union of the Canadian provinces into a self-governing Dominion in 1867. Fears for the Queen’s safety in Quebec city, capital of the predominantly French-speaking province of Quebec, arise chiefly from a statement made in Toronto last February by Marcel Chaput. Chaput, the former leader of the Quebec Republican Party, an organisation seeking independence for the province of 5,000,000, said: “Some of my own people are ready to let her know —brutally—that she is no longer welcome in French Canada.” Since then remarks by other separatists have suggested an attempt on the

Queen’s life may be made when she is in Quebec city on October 10. Investigations by police and security men have turned up no real evidence of any organised threat At the root of the furore is the continuing Quebec revolt against what it regards as economic and political domination by English Canada. There is reason to expect that Quebec will in all probability give the Royal couple a courteous reception. Even those who favour seeking independence for Quebec by violent means must surely be aware that any effort to harm the Queen would produce a reaction that would eliminate any hope they might have of succeeding. “We believe she will risk no more than the boos and eggs that greeted her in Scotland recently,” says the French-language “Le Droit” of Ottawa. “Such demonstrations certainly would be regrettable but cancellation of the visit would be an insult to French-Canadians and a victory for the Separatists.”