Recall: How to Start a Revolution CBC Discover & Learn
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- History
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The 1950s & 60s saw a wave of radical movements. Che Guevara and the Cuban Revolution. The Black Panthers. Quebec and Canada had the FLQ — a showdown that dissolved into crisis. By October 1970, there were soldiers in the streets, communities on edge, kidnapping and terror in the headlines. But those frightening weeks were just the crescendo of a wave of terror and violence that was nearly a decade in the making. This series will reveal the stories of that time through immersive storytelling and the people who lived it: the bomb disposal expert on defusing live explosives, the survivors of terror, their families, and the radicals themselves.
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Recall Introduces: Broomgate: A Curling Scandal
For years, players have been too afraid to talk about it. But now, the truth about a broom that almost destroyed curling is finally coming out. In Broomgate: A Curling Scandal, semi-professional curler and fully professional comedian John Cullen (Blocked Party) is exposing the unbelievable, never-before-told scandal that rocked the sport of curling. Yes, curling. More episodes are available at: https://link.chtbl.com/-IRFrtx7
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Episode 7: The War of Nerves
In response to the kidnappings of James Cross and Pierre Laporte, the federal government invokes the War Measures Act. And when the body of Pierre Laporte is discovered, popular sentiment turns against the FLQ and leads to the collapse of the group.
For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/podcastnews/recall-how-to-start-a-revolution-transcripts-listen-1.6756227 -
Episode 6: Liberation
With the kidnappings of James Cross and Pierre Laporte, the FLQ earns the headline attention it craves, and creates a national crisis in the process.
For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/podcastnews/recall-how-to-start-a-revolution-transcripts-listen-1.6756227 -
Episode 5: The Bomber
Pierre-Paul Geoffroy and Bob Côté were at opposite ends of the busiest period of FLQ bombing activity. It began in May 1968 with a bomb at the 7-Up factory, and ended in February 1969 with the explosion at the Montreal Stock Exchange. Geoffroy was planting the bombs, Côté had to defuse them. For both men, the period took a toll.
For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/podcastnews/recall-how-to-start-a-revolution-transcripts-listen-1.6756227 -
Episode 4: The Whole Wide World
The FLQ’s campaign for liberation did not spring from a vacuum: radical Québec separatists were inspired by and in turn inspired decolonization movements around the world, including the Black Panthers.
For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/podcastnews/recall-how-to-start-a-revolution-transcripts-listen-1.6756227 -
Episode 3: The Mastermind
Pierre Vallieres taps into the anger and alienation felt by Francophone Quebecers by penning a book of essays that earns him comparisons to Malcolm X and Che Guevara. The revolutionary text inflames separatist sentiment, cements Vallieres’s position as the intellectual and philosophical father of the FLQ… and is held up in the courts as evidence of his guilt in earlier FLQ bombing campaigns.
For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/podcastnews/recall-how-to-start-a-revolution-transcripts-listen-1.6756227
Customer Reviews
Great story
Well told and well researched.
My one problem is the levity in the interviews with former terrorists. Some of these people have no remorse. They talk about planting bombs like it was a fun Sunday afternoon. All the while, the interviewers are enjoying themselves and I think they even laugh along at times. Maybe I don’t know what it’s like to interview someone like this. Maybe they had to do it to get them to continue talking. If that was the case, they could have addressed it in some way.
Other than that, I really enjoyed the podcast. I certainly learned a large part of Canadian history I knew shockingly little about.
A must listen!
Really well done - love the mix of interviews and the different perspectives presented throughout this podcast!
Surprisingly good
I enjoyed this. Some of the interviews were fantastic, I’ve never heard many of these first hand accounts. I suspect nobody else has until now.
Well researched.
What bothered me was the slight glamorization I felt some interview subjects got. These aren’t glamorous people, they’re former inmates who bombed an Eatons.
Moi je suis pas contente avec ça, ces gènnes ne sont pas des martyrs. Buddy qui a construite le gros bombe avec aucun regret... ça c’est vraiment pourquoi support pour le FLQ n’a pas vraiment continué à ce date le. C’est pas un blague, c’est pas nostalgie... je sais pas. Il y a un problème avec le narrative ici dans ce podcast.
Make up your own mind, I think it is worth a listen to decide.