I hadn’t encountered terrorism first-hand prior to that year. It was 1970, my second year as a McGill undergrad. It was terrifying and unreal at the same time. We read The McGill Daily for news of what was going on and to interpret the seemingly unbelievable events as they were unfolding: The War Measures Act. Armed soldiers in camouflage, on streets of concrete, amid brick buildings!
Friends disappeared. They’d been hauled off to jail. I read of Robert Lemieux, the lawyer for the FLQ, in The Daily, and one day was hitchhiking on Sherbrooke, and it was he who gave me a lift. I recognized his face from the paper. I will always remember the slow deliberate way he said “Oui, je m’appelle Robert Lemieux.”
The McGill Daily was our student voice, our source of news concerning McGill, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, and the world. It mattered.
Fiona Reid is an actor and Member of the Order of Canada.
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