From Nowhere: Utopian and Dystopian Visions of our - Chris J. Young

62. B.W. Powe (1955–). Killing Ground: The Canadian Civil War. Toronto: Peter
Martin Associates, 1968.
Written under the pseudonym of Ellis Portal, two years before the October Crisis of 1970, Powe’s
Killing Ground: The Canadian Civil War presents an almost prophetic, dystopian account of what
actually was about to occur in the chaotic weeks of October 1970 in Québec. Told from the point of
view of a Canadian Army officer who has just returned from a U.N. peacekeeping mission in South
Africa, the novel traces the development of Québec separatist assassination squads into full-scale
civil war militants. The Federal Government is reluctant to publicize the gravity of the situation
and calls back regular military units from commitments to NATO, SEATO, and the U.N. Taking
advantage of the Federal Government’s weak position, the separatist Provisional Government of
Québec blocks roads and the St. Lawrence Seaway, mobilizing hordes of youth, or ‘Whiteshirts,’
and deploying provincial police and disaffected French Canadian troops to key locations across
the province. Battlegrounds between Federalist and Separatist forces erupt in Montréal, Ottawa, St.
Hubert, and Québec City, resulting in the death of thousands of civilians, terrorists, and soldiers
alike. The manuscript inscription in this first edition, signed by the author, chillingly reads, ‘Jack,
this is going to happen. Ellis.’
63. Eric Koch (1919–). The French Kiss: a Tongue-in-Cheek Political Fantasy.
Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, [1969].
Combining historical fact and fiction, this satirical novel recounts President Charles de Gaulle’s visit
to the Montréal Expo in 1967 when he famously proclaimed ‘Vive Montréal! Vive le Québec! Vive
le Québec libre!’ The story follows a secret agent attached to de Gaulle, Jo-Jo, who was stationed
in Montréal in 1967. Jo-Jo tries to fathom why the President uttered his fateful words when he had
told Jo-Jo, just weeks earlier, that he would observe all the rules of international protocol during
his state visit to Canada. Ten years later, while exiled in Switzerland, Jo-Jo writes a biography of
Plonplon, cousin to Napoleon iii (1808–1873), and begins to see more and more parallels between
Napoleon iii in nineteenth-century revolutionary Europe and de Gaulle in Québec. The parallels
are so striking that Jo-Jo foresees an independent Québec. This copy of The French Kiss belonged to
the distinguished Canadian poet and novelist, Earle Birney.
76 North of the 49th Parallel