Editing Francis Simard

<!-- Deleted image removed: [[Image:FrancisSimardterrorist.jpg|thumb|Francis Simard]] -->
{{short description|Quebec nationalist and convicted murderer}}
{{Infobox person
|nationality=Canadian
|birth_place=Val-Paradis, Quebec
|death_place=[[Montreal]], [[Quebec]]
|birth_date=June 2, 1946
|death_date={{dda|2015|1|10|1946|6|2}}
|occupation=activist, writer
|known_for=kidnapping and murder of [[Pierre Laporte]]
}}
'''Francis Simard''', (June 2, 1946 – January 10, 2015) was a Quebec nationalist and convicted murderer. Simard was a member of the [[Chénier Cell]] of the [[Front de libération du Québec]] (FLQ), a group dedicated to the creation of an independent [[Marxist]] state out of the [[Provinces and territories of Canada|Canadian]] province of Quebec. Members of the group were responsible for the events known as the [[October Crisis]].<ref name="auto">{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/22/world/americas/paul-rose-quebec-separatist-leader-dies-at-69.html|title=Paul Rose, Quebec Separatist Involved in a Kidnapping and Murder, Dies at 69|first=Douglas|last=Martin|newspaper=The New York Times|date=March 21, 2013}}</ref>

As a member of the [[Rassemblement pour l'indépendance nationale]] political party, he met [[Paul Rose (political figure)|Paul Rose]] and the two became involved in revolutionary activities in 1969 when Simard campaigned for the development of the French language in [[McGill University]], one of Montreal's English-language universities. During what became known as the [[October Crisis]], on October 5, 1970, members of the FLQ's [[Liberation Cell]] kidnapped the [[United Kingdom|British]] Trade Commissioner [[James Cross]] from his Montreal home as part of a violent attempt to overthrow the elected government and to establish a Marxist Quebec state independent of [[Canada]]. On October 10, Francis Simard, along with Chenier Cell leader, Paul Rose and his brother, [[Jacques Rose]] and [[Bernard Lortie]], kidnapped and then murdered Quebec [[premier|vice premier]] and cabinet minister [[Pierre Laporte]]. Believing many others would follow in an uprising, their goal was to create an independent state based on the ideals of [[Fidel Castro|Fidel Castro's]] [[Cuba]]. {{Citation needed|date=November 2015}} In 1982, Simard described the murder of Laporte as "a sincere gesture to show that what we were saying was not just words."<ref name="auto"/>

On May 20, 1971, Simard was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of Pierre Laporte. He was given parole in 1982. Simard wrote a book published in 1982 about the October Crisis titled ''[[Pour en finir avec octobre]]''. In 1994, Quebec [[film director]] [[Pierre Falardeau]] made a movie from it titled ''[[Octobre]]''. Simard died of a ruptured aneurysm in Montreal on January 10, 2015.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/flq-terrorist-convicted-of-killing-cabinet-minister-pierre-laporte-has-died/article22466196/|title=FLQ terrorist convicted of killing cabinet minister Pierre Laporte has died|access-date=2018-01-24}}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

== Bibliography ==

*Simard, Francis, ''Talking it out : the October Crisis from inside'', Montreal, Guernica, 1987  (translated by [[David Homel]])
*Simard, Francis, ''Pour en finir avec Octobre'', Stanké, Montreal, 1982.

{{October Crisis}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Simard, Francis}}
[[Category:1946 births]]
[[Category:2015 deaths]]
[[Category:Front de libération du Québec members]]
[[Category:Canadian people convicted of murder]]
[[Category:People convicted of murder by Canada]]
[[Category:Prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment by Canada]]
[[Category:Canadian prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment]]
[[Category:People paroled from life sentence]]
[[Category:October Crisis]]
[[Category:Canadian people convicted of kidnapping]]