THE GAZETTE.
Montreal Thursday, November 19, 1981, page 5
Treat Quebec as 'foreign,' RCMP told
By RENE LAURENT
of The Gazette
John Starnes, right, with RCMP Inspector, Jim Warren.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police were told in 1967 to collect...
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THE GAZETTE.
Montreal Thursday, November 19, 1981, page 5
Treat Quebec as 'foreign,' RCMP told
By RENE LAURENT
of The Gazette
John Starnes, right, with RCMP Inspector, Jim Warren.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police were told in 1967 to collect intelligence data on Quebec just as if it were a foreign nation, a former top RCMP officer said yesterday.
William Kelly, once a deputy commissioner with the force, said the order to treat Quebec as a potential threat came from Marc Lalonde, then a policy adviser to Prime Minister Lester Pearson and now the federal energy minister.
‘Mr Lalonde wanted the RCMP to obtain political information in Quebec in the same way we would obtain information if the government of Quebec was a foreign power where
we perceived a threat, Kelly said.
Kelly was one of the witnesses at the opening day of the Sessions Court trial of 17 Mounties and former members of the force charged with illegal activities in Quebec during the early 1970s.
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