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Canada Dismayed Over Quebec Terrorist Game Plot
Thanks to Canoe.ca for their article discussing the Canadian reaction to the in-game plot of Sony's forthcoming PS2 title Syphon Filter: The Omega Strain, which has a level in which "...the [terrorist] Quebec Liberations Front has taken control of one of Toronto's underground subway tunnels." This is "an apparent reference to the Front de liberation du Quebec (FLQ), whose kidnapping and murder of Quebec cabinet minister Pierre Laporte in 1970 led to the imposition of the War Measures Act." A spokesperson for the Toronto transit commission has suggested: "The fact is someone is putting the Toronto subway as a terrorist site, that is a very dangerous thing to do", while a group of Quebec sovereigntists have commented: "It's difficult not to be made to feel like a target when you have a game inviting players to shoot at separatists." Update: 10/23 23:25 GMT by S : According to CTV.ca, Sony have now agreed to change the game, "rather than face a real-life storm of angry Quebecers."
It's not very difficult to reach for my credit card when you have a game inviting players to shoot at separatists.
Funny part is, I was just watching a Canadian reporter talking to an actual retired Quebec terrorist, and he kind of liked the idea, he thought it might make young people a little more militant.
A potential terrorist target is a potential terrorist target whether or not somebody says it's one. In fact, you're worsening the danger by *not* pointing out something like that, since likely not enough will be done about the problem otherwise. "...dangerous thing to do"? Bah. It's not like there's some Separatist at an underground cafe right now slapping his forehead and saying "Sacre merde, the subway! Why didn't we think of this?"
I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate.
What does the American Ambassor has to say about this?
;D hey someone has to be a villain demographic, and frankly they were tired of arabs and nazis. Its just a game guys! they can shoot "terrorist from Jersey" for what I care!
Am. Ambassor stands up, fixes his tie.
-Fuck Canada!
Canadian ambassor: "Hey! Fuck you buddy!"
"South Park: bigger, longer and uncut"
-p.s.
Just kidding!
Newfoundlan man fails attempting a terrorist attack on Toronto, Ontario.
More Information available here
You're just mad because the voices in your head talk to me.
"Counter-Strike"? sounds like much ado about nothing...
If you cave into Canada, who WON'T you cave into?
Cloud City Digital: DVD Production at its cheapest/finest
... you insensitive clod!
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Your source for commercial free 80's music!
I'm quebecois, and i don't give a ****. Hell, i'd probably have a lot of fun with the game if i had a PS2 :) However, I think it's a bit sad that the FLQ is only remembered for their one(and last) mistake. They did many things before the kidnapping-and-murder mistake, and it was very clean; it involved blowing statues representing the british domination, etc. While it was costly, but it made their point and didn't physically hurt anyone.
BTW, re the inflammatory comments: not all of us are like the hardline PQ, just like not every anglo's like Alliance-Quebec(or whatever their name is) people. Thank you.
Try Corewar @ www.koth.org - rec.games.corewar
A game based on Sherman's march to Atlanta?
War is cruelty, and you cannot refine it; and those who brought war into our country deserve all the curses and maledictions a people can pour out. ~Gen. Sherman
"I only speak the truth"
Karma: null(Mostly affected by an unassigned variable)
Actually, some game a few years back (I -think- it was Hitman 2, but I know it was fairly recent) was forced to change the enemy skins because they resembled Arabs.
About the time their ancestors were over there, I seem to recall that the only reason that America won the Revolutionary War was because of support from the French.
Enjoy your freedom fries, moron.
Don't be so quick to blame Canada for this one. Queubec shouldn't even be considered part of the provinces. It's sort of like Texas, but without the cowboy hats or guns. ... Make that just without hats.
How rediculous. There IS a Quebec seperatist movement. Some of them HAVE used terrorism in the past. This is comparable to using IRA terrorists in a game, and then backing off because Sinn Fein complained.
Someone at Sony needs to grow a sack, and tell these PC assholes to shove it.
Life is hard, and the world is cruel
"rather than face a real-life storm of angry Quebecers."
Sheesh, they are probably angry for being called Quebecers.
Acording to Google...
Searched the web for Quebecois. Results 1 - 100 of about 792,000. Search took 0.32 seconds.
Searched the web for Quebecers. Results 1 - 100 of about 29,500. Search took 0.15 seconds.
There's a book called Infinite Jest in which Quebecois separatist terrorists play a pretty central role in the plot.
It takes place in the future, and the Quebecois want to secede more than ever partly because the US has taken to lofting all of their radioactive waste into an area right on the Quebec border... and Canada proper didn't object. Apparently the wasteland is prowled by feral giant fetuses and such.
I don't imagine the PS games has much else in common with the book... but David Foster Wallace certainly gave no apologies for his plot, so why should they? Who complains about terrorist plots anywhere else, for however outlandish reasons?
There are only 10 types of people: those who understand decimal, those who don't, and, uh, 8 other types I forget.
Man, it's getting so you cant kill anyone anymore...
The / in
The hypocrisy of North Americans never ceases to amaze me. It's quite allright to label every Arab in the planet a hardcore terrorist, but if someone lets out a game where there are North American white terrorists, an outrcy is instant. I thought Jamaican limbo dancers had gone as low as man can go. Sadly, I was very wrong...
You forgot our free health care and social programs. We are also the only G7 country to be in the black.
[SIG] Far better to be thought a fool then to post on
I seem to recall that the only reason that America won the Revolutionary War was because of support from the French.
Yes, it's the only reason, because I read it on Slashdot.
Regardless of how much help the US got from France in the Revolution, the French sure got plenty of help from the US since then, like a couple of World Wars. I seem to recall that France was occupied by Germans for a while there.
-PainKilleR-[CE]
I love how governments can claim to have a budget surplus when they are in debt. Yeah, I could save a lot of money if I didn't pay my debts, too.
I'm not saying that this isn't a good thing for Canada, since the other governments don't seem to understand the idea of spending less money than they bring in, but being in the black when you have a multi-billion dollar debt is just a matter of accounting rather than a grounded view of reality.
-PainKilleR-[CE]
Um, what? What the hell are you talking about? My point is that every jingoistic asswipe rallying behind the American flag right now is beating on the French as if they're somehow a morally inferior species. I find a lot of frenchmen annoying, but let's remember that they do have a history before 1870, and that history did involve A LOT of cooperation with us. I seem to remember something about a statue or something....
..Canadians aren't dismayed. Militant Quebecois who love to take offence are dismayed.
Slightly OT, but have you ever noticed that in almost every SF story or RPG that mentions Quebec, they always seem to break away and turn Communist?
Vintage computer games and RPG books available. Email me if you're interested.
I find it strange that shooting at Quebec terrorists is labeled offensive, yet it perfectly acceptable to make games where you can shoot at Middle Eastern terrorists or Latin American guerillas.
Does anyone else find this strange?
Suicide is only harmless to society if the victim is truly friendless, unloved and nothing but a burden to others.
The problem is, most suicides *aren't* worthless friendless unlovable human beings. They're just ill.
GCHQ Quantum Insert installed. If only our tongues were made of glass, how much more careful we would be when we speak
So sad that Quebec takes more tax dollars per capita than any other Province now they have to take what sounds like super-fun battle in TO subway game levels from us. Damn you Quebec. Damn you straight to the very small trough the rest of us have to feed from.
Their bombing of the Montreal Stock exchange injured 27 people. They planted several mailbox bombs which injured several people, some critically. Their bombs killed three people, and their guns killed a couple more, and that's not counting M. Laporte's death by strangulation.
They were terrorists, and they hurt people. Yes they targeted itms that were symbolic (to them) of what they considered to be an opressive regime, but the collateral damage destroyed peoples lives. They scared people because of those injuries and deaths to further their cause. That's what terrorism is, and terrorists is what the FLQ, or at least the more extreme elements of the FLQ, were. Do a little reading on the FLQ's
Idiot, n. A member of a large and powerful tribe whose influence in human affairs has always been dominant
So that's why Men Without Hats came from Montreal. It all makes sense now.
Idiot, n. A member of a large and powerful tribe whose influence in human affairs has always been dominant
Mod parent up - very clever.
Maybe, but they're shovelling the debt back to the provinces, the provinces to the cities and the cities to the citizen. Way to go Paul Martin. I for won't be voting for the PLC next spring. Though the alternatives pretty much suck. At least in Quebec there's an alternative to the PQ (or PLQ, depending on which side of the fence you are), and there will probably be a third alternative coming next elections.
The federal level of government in Canada pretty much sucks and is in a dire need of a change. That's part why a lot of people in Quebec want to leave Canada.
We would start shooting anglophones here before of moving to Toronto's subway...
;) Personnally I dispise all terrorist groups, whatever the cause.
Just fscking with you guys.
FLQ Story 1, happened this weekPolice said they caught the men as they were trying to cut down a federalist symbol at the townhall with a chainsaw. Investigators said they later found several homemade pipe bombs in a suspect's car.
The graffiti included the words Canadians Go Home, Quebec Libre (A Free Quebec) and Fusion Montreal.
The letters FLQ, which stands for Front de liberation du Quebec, were also spray-painted onto the building. The separatist terrorist organization was responsible for the murder of provincial cabinet minister Pierre Laporte back in October 1970.
FLQ Story 2 same POV, different source.MONTREAL - Seven francophone men between the ages of 19 and 49 will appear in court Wednesday to answer to a host of charges related to the defacing the former Baie D'Urfe town hall with separatist slogans.
Some of the messages included "Une ile, une ville francaise", "Free Quebec" and "Go home Canadians." The vandals signed their worked "FLQ."
Om, nomnomnom...