Even after the extension of police powers with the announcement of the War Measures Aet, authorities failed to identify and apprehend any but a few of the most outspoken and publicly-known FLQ members, such as Lemieux, who was one of the first to be arrested after the measure went into effect.

Instead, police have seized many of the government's critics who are not otherwise associated with the FLQ.

Many of those arrested have been members of the Parti Quebecois, a separatist political party which won 23 per cent of the popular vote in Quebec's parliamentary election last April.

The reaction of Montrealers to the current situation is mixed. One Irish-Canadian student denounced Trudean for "treating politics like a power game. It's like Kennedy in the Bay of Pigs, Trudeau has now joined in that great tradition of politicians disappearing up their assholes."

However, one student from France criticized the French Canadians for being nationalistic. "They are dirty, they are stupid, they don't clean their windows," he said.

"They have no culture, they have no anything," he added.

"They can't speak the language. And they call theirselves [sic] French? HAH! Phhh..." And he spat on the cafe floor.