Political parties of Quebec

Last modified: 2004-10-30 by phil nelson
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• Ralliement National pour l'Indépendance du Québec (RIN)
• Front de Libération du Québec (FLQ)
• Chevaliers de l'Indépendance (CDI)
• Mouvement Souveraineté Association (MSA)
• Parti Quebecois (PQ)
• Mouvement National de Libération du Québec (MNLQ)

• Canada (Varia)
• Quebec

Ralliement National pour l'Indépendance du Québec (RIN)

Flag of 1965 :

by Luc-Vartan Baronian

Description: Three vertical bands of 1:1:4, black-white-red.

Use of the flag: This flag was used in 1965. When the RIN ceased to exist in early '70s, its members were encouraged by the ex-leaders to join the Parti Quebecois whose popularity was growing. The PQ holds the power in Quebec since 1994.
Luc-Vartan Baronian - 14 March 1997

Alternative versions used in the 1970's :

by Jaume Ollé - 1997

by Jaume Ollé - 1997

The design is a stylized ram's head.
Luc-Vartan Baronian - 19 March 1997

Front de Libération du Québec (FLQ)

by Luc-Vartan Baronian

Description: Vertically equally divided in blue and white, with a red star outlined in yellow in the fly .

It seems to reproduce the colours of Quebec, without any religious or ancient French reference. The star clearly represent socialism.

Use of the flag: The FLQ was an unorganized socialist movement of workers.

They posed many bombs in the West Island (of Montreal) in the '60s. They are remembered for the kidnapping of a British diplomat, James Richard Cross, and a Quebec minister, Pierre Laporte, and the murder of the later in October 1970.

This is remembered as the October Crisis, where the federal army invaded Montreal, suspended civil rights in Quebec and arrested hundreds of people without justification.
Luc-Vartan Baronian - 14 March 1997

Did the FLQ actually use this flag themselves, or was it used by FLQ supporters and sympathizers? The FLQ was a tiny underground group (or rather two or three groups that succeeded each other but adopted the same name). If such a group used a flag it would be an invitation to the police to come and get them. This goes for all groups that engage in political violence of the kind FLQ did. Being in the underground and hoisting a flag is somewhat contradictory.
Jan Oskar Engene - 20 March 1997

Excellent question. I can't say what I remember, because I wasn't born back then. The flag comes from the article by Francois Beaudoin : Flags of Quebec in The Flag Bulletin. He doesn't give more details than what I've said.

The FLQ was made of dif