Last Stop, Paris: The Assassination of Mario Bachand and the Death of the FLQ

Steven R. Hewitt is an assistant professor of history at the University
of Saskatchewan.

In this riveting work of historical journalism, Ottawa researcher
Michael McLoughlin sets out to solve the mystery of who killed FLQ
terrorist Mario Bachand in a Paris apartment in 1971. The traditional
explanation for the murder has been factional infighting within the FLQ.
McLoughlin, however, contends that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police
terminated Bachand’s life on the orders of the government of Prime
Minister Pierre Trudeau. He even reveals the names of those he alleges
were directly involved in the murder.

Formerly classified documents obtained under the Access to Information
Act and interviews with former intelligence officers form the basis of
McLoughlin’s account of Bachand’s political life and the RCMP
operations surrounding it. Although the narrative emphasis makes for
compelling reading, it sometimes comes at the expense of a broader
historical perspective on the RCMP and Quebec nationalism.

The documentation becomes noticeably sparser at the book’s most
crucial point: Bachand’s murder and the RCMP’s alleged role in it.
Most of the information provided here seems to have come from a
“confidential source.” While not beyond the realm of possibility,
the RCMP hit scenario is problematic for many reasons. McLoughlin’s
book would have been stronger, though perhaps not as marketable, had he
admitted to a degree of doubt that can never be far removed in the
confusing world of terrorists and intelligence agents.