New Oliveros Book Details FLQ’s Reign of Error
By Dan Brown The new book from cartoonist Chris Oliveros, Are You Willing to Die For the Cause?, is an insightful look at a dark chapter in Canadian history. It’s even, in a way, darkly funny.It’s the tale of a bunch of stumblebums cosplaying as terrorists who – if you believe them – didn’t set out to take any lives, but still ended up with plenty of blood on their hands.You know what happened during the October Crisis of 1970 in Quebec, right? Well, this graphic novel fills you in on what was happening in the decade prior to that pivotal moment. It is, in comic terms, the origin story of the FLQ, the group (I hesitate to call it an “organization”) that would eventually prompt Pierre Trudeau to trigger the War Measures Act.You may know Oliveros as the founder and former publisher of Drawn & Quarterly, which has become a force in the comics world since its inception in 1989.This volume is the first in a two-part series about the Front de Liberation du Quebec – the second book, yet to come, will deal with events that are better-known, like Trudeau’s hard-nosed response to the supposed “parallel power” that arose in la belle province by advocating, violently, for separation.By the end of the 1960s, different iterations of the FLQ had gained notoriety with, among other glorious feats, the blowing up of innocent Canada Post mailboxes. One FLQ honcho even imagined he was a contemporary of Fidel Castro, the communist revolutionary who had taken over Cuba not long before. If Oliveros’ goal is to show the would-be Quebec liberators to be amateurs, he does a good job.One of the FLQ members stores sticks of dynamite in his apartment pantry, next to the breakfast cereal his children eat. A guiding manifesto is dictated, seemingly improvised on the spot. And on at least one occasion, a bomber has to find his own way to the target site because no one in the FLQ has access to a car. (The authorities come across not only as inept, but corrupt to boot.)It’s clear the storytelling project here is to underline the difference between the grand ambitions of the terrorists, and how events actually played out in the real world. So the reader will see page upon page setting forth what was supposed to happen as envisioned in the plans of the FLQ’s commanders, followed by a second sequence outlining the less-than-impressive real results. Or Oliveros will depict a historical figure like former Montreal mayor Jean Drapeau recalling the reign of terror, then the next panels will outline what the historical record indicates really happened. For example, the FLQ robbery of a gun store in 1964 wasn’t supposed to go off the rails, no one was supposed to get hurt, yet the “panic and confusion” that ensues once the would-be terrorists storm the place turns the raid into a “fiasco” in which two employees are left dead. Oliveros goes over the scene several times to illustrate what happens in the fog of a play war.And in case you don’t agree with any of his conclusions, at the end of Are You Willing to Die For The Cause?, Oliveros carefully explains where he got key details, such as dialogue.Even better, the artist/writer pulls the curtain back on himself, showing the gaps in his own creative process. He is open about how he compressed some events in his narrative, and fictionalized other panels in the interests of clear storytelling, which makes sense: Although Oliveros was born in the 1960s, he wasn’t, you know, in the room where any of this happened.So it’s consistent with his overall project that he would point to the constructed nature of this comic. That doesn’t make the book any less tragic, or comedic. Of course, the ultimate irony is how despite all of the FLQ’s actions, including the dramatic and deadly ones that will be the subject of Oliveros’s next graphic novel, Quebec remains part of a united Canada. As this book demonstrates, the best-laid plans often go awry.Dan Brown has covered pop culture for more than 31 years as a journalist and also moderates L.A. Mood’s monthly graphic-novel group.
