Tokyo subway sarin attack - I - Huntington Mayor say's his town is under ATTACK

Tokyo subway sarin attack




The Tokyo subway sarin attack, usually
referred to in the Japanese media as the
Subway Sarin Incident, was an act of
domestic terrorism perpetrated on March
20, 1995 in Tokyo, Japan by members of
the cult movement Aum Shinrikyo.
In five coordinated attacks, the
perpetrators released sarin on several
lines of the Tokyo subway during the
rush hour, killing 12 people, severely
injuring 50 and causing temporary vision
problems for nearly 1,000 others. The
attack was directed against trains
passing through Kasumigaseki and
Nagatachō, home to the Japanese
government. It is the most serious
attack to occur in Japan since the end
of World War II.
Background
Aum Shinrikyo is the former name of a
controversial group now known as
andquot;Alephandquot;. In 1992, Shoko Asahara, the
founder of Aum Shinrikyo, published a
book in which he declared himself
andquot;Christandquot;, Japan's only fully enlightened
master and identified with the andquot;Lamb of
Godandquot;. He outlined a doomsday prophecy,
which included a Third World War, and
described a final conflict culminating
in a nuclear andquot;Armageddonandquot;, borrowing the
term from the Book of Revelation 16:16.
His purported mission was to take upon
himself the sins of the world, and he
claimed he could transfer to his
followers spiritual power and ultimately
take away their sins and bad works. He
also saw dark conspiracies everywhere
promulgated by Jews, Freemasons, the
Dutch, the British Royal Family, and
rival Japanese religions. Initially, the
Japanese police reported the attack as
the cult's way of hastening an
apocalypse. The prosecution said that it
was an attempt to bring down the
government and install Shoko Asahara,
the group's founder, as the andquot;emperorandquot; of
Japan. Asahara's defense team claimed
that certain senior members of the group
independently planned the attack, but
their motives for this were left
unexplained.
Aum Shinrikyo first began their attacks
on 27 June 1994 in Matsumoto, Japan.
With the help of a converted
refrigerator truck, members of the cult
released a cloud of sarin which floated
near the homes of judges who were
overseeing a lawsuit concerning a
real-estate dispute which was predicted
to go against the cult. From this one
event, 500 people were injured and seven
people died.
Main perpetrators
Naoko Kikuchi, who was involved in
producing the sarin gas, was arrested
after a tipoff in June 2012, and Katsuya
Takahashi soon thereafter.
Ten men were responsible for carrying
out the attacks: five released the
sarin, while the other five served as
getaway drivers.
The teams were:
= Ikuo Hayashi=
Prior to joining Aum, Hayashi was a
senior medical doctor with andquot;an active
'front-line' track recordandquot; at the
Ministry of Science and Technology. The
son of a doctor, Hayashi graduated from
Keio University. He was a heart and
artery specialist at Keio Hospital,
which he left to become head of
Circulatory Medicine at the National
Sanatorium Hospital in Tokai, Ibaraki.
In 1990, he resigned his job and left
his family to join Aum in the monastic
order Sangha, where he became one of
Asahara's favorites and was appointed
the group's Minister of Healing, as
which he was responsible for
administering a variety of andquot;treatmentsandquot;
to Aum members, including sodium
pentothal and electric shocks to those
whose loyalty was suspect. These
treatments resulted in several deaths.
Due to his actions in reporting to the
Japanese police investigators about the
sarin attacks and Aum activities
post-Tokyo subway attack, Hayashi was
exempted from death sentence and was
instead given life imprisonment.
Tomomitsu Niimi, who was his getaway
driver, received the death sentence due
to his involvement in other crimes
perpetrated by Aum members.
= Ken'ichi Hirose=
Hirose was thirty years old at the time
of the attacks. Holder of a postgraduate
degree in Physics from Waseda
University, Hirose became an important
member of the group's Chemical Brigade
in their Ministry of Science and
Technology. He was also involved in the
group's Automatic Light Weapon
Development scheme.
Hirose teamed up with getaway driver
Koichi Kitamura. After releasing the
sarin, Hirose himself showed symptoms of
sarin poisoning. He was able to inject
himself with the antidote and was rushed
to the Aum-affiliated Shinrikyo Hospital
in Nakano for treatment. Medical
personnel at the given hospital had not
been given prior notice of the attack
and were consequently clueless regarding
what treatment Hirose needed. When
Kitamura realized that he had driven
Hirose to the hospital in vain, he
instead drove to Aum's headquarters in
Shibuya where Ikuo Hayashi gave Hirose
first aid.
Hirose's appeal of his death sentence
was rejected by the Tokyo High Court on
July 28, 2003. The sentence was upheld
by the Supreme Court of Japan on
November 6, 2009.
Kitamura was sentenced to life
imprisonment.
= Toru Toyoda=
Toyoda was twenty-seven at the time of
the attack. He studied Applied Physics
at University of Tokyo's Science
Department and graduated with honors. He
also holds a master's degree, and was
about to begin doctoral studies when he
joined Aum, where he belonged to the
Chemical Brigade in their Ministry of
Science and Technology.
Toyoda was sentenced to death. The
appeal of his death sentence was
rejected by the Tokyo High Court on July
28, 2003, and was upheld by the Supreme
Court on November 6, 2009.
= Katsuya Takahashi=
Katsuya Takahashi was Toru Toyoda's
getaway driver. Takahashi was arrested
in June 2012.
= Masato Yokoyama=
Yokoyama was thirty-one at the time of
the attack. He was a graduate in Applied
Physics from Tokai University's
Engineering Department. He worked for an
electronics firm for three years after
graduation before leaving to join Aum,
where he became Undersecretary at the
group's Ministry of Science and
Technology. He was also involved in
their Automatic Light Weapons
Manufacturing scheme. Yokoyama was
sentenced to death in 1999.
Kiyotaka Tonozaki, a high school
graduate who joined the group in 1987,
was a member of the group's Ministry of
Construction, and served as Yokoyama's
getaway driver. Tonozaki was sentenced
to life imprisonment.
= Yasuo Hayashi=
Yasuo Hayashi was thirty-seven years old
at the time of the attacks, and was the
oldest person at the group's Ministry of
Science and Technology. He studied
Artificial Intelligence at Kogakuin
University; after graduation he traveled
to India where he studied yoga. He then
became an Aum member, taking vows in
1988 and rising to the number three
position in the group's Ministry of
Science and Technology.
Asahara had at one time suspected
Hayashi of being a spy. The extra packet
of sarin he carried was part of andquot;ritual
character testandquot; set up by Asahara to
prove his allegiance, according to the
prosecution.
Hayashi went on the run after the
attacks; he was arrested twenty-one
months later, one thousand miles from
Tokyo on Ishigaki Island. He was later
sentenced to death and has appealed.
Hayashi's getaway driver was Shigeo
Sugimoto. His lawyers argued that he
played only a minor role in the attack,
but the argument was rejected and he has
been sentenced to death.
Attack
On Monday March 20, 1995, five members
of Aum Shinrikyo launched a chemical
attack on the Tokyo subway, one of the
world's busiest commuter transport
systems, at the peak of the morning rush
hour. The chemical agent used, liquid
sarin, was contained in plastic bags
which each team then wrapped in
newspaper. Each perpetrator carried two
packets totaling approximately .9 liters
of sarin, except Yasuo Hayashi, who
carried three bags totalling
approximately 1.3 liters of Sarin. Aum
originally planned to spread the sarin
as an aerosol but did not follow through
with it. A single drop of sarin the size
of a pinhead can kill an adult.
Carrying their packets of sarin and
umbrellas with sharpened tips, the
perpetrators boarded their appointed
trains. At prearranged stations, the
sarin packets were dropped and punctured
several times with the sharpened tip of
the umbrella. Each perpetrator then got
off the train and exited the station to
meet his accomplice with a car. By
leaving the punctured packets on the
floor, the sarin was allowed to leak out
into the train car and stations. This
sarin affected passengers, subway
workers, and those who came into contact
with them. Sarin is the most volatile of
the nerve agents, which means that it
can quickly and easily evaporate from a
liquid into a vapor and spread into the
environment. People can be exposed to
the vapor even if they do not come in
contact with the liquid form of sarin.
Because it evaporates so quickly, sarin
presents an immediate but short-lived
threat.
= Chiyoda Line=
The team of Ikuo Hayashi and Tomomitsu
Niimi were assigned to drop and puncture
two sarin packets on the Chiyoda Line.
Hayashi was the perpetrator and Niimi
was his getaway driver. On the way to
Sendagi Station, Niimi purchased
newspapers to wrap the sarin packets
inâ€"the Japan Communist Party's Akahata
and the Sōka Gakkai's Seikyo Shimbun.
Hayashi eventually chose to use Akahata.
Wearing a surgical mask commonly worn by
the Japanese during cold and flu season,
Hayashi boarded the first car of
southwest-bound 07:48 Chiyoda Line train
number A725K. As the train approached
Shin-Ochanomizu Station, the central
business district in Chiyoda, he
punctured one of his two bags of sarin,
leaving the other untouched, and exited
the train at Shin-Ochanomizu.
The train proceeded down the line with
the punctured bag of sarin leaking until
4 stops later at Kasumigaseki Station.
There, the bags were removed and
eventually disposed of by station
attendants, of whom two died. The train
continued on to the next station where
it was completely stopped, evacuated and
cleaned.
= Marunouchi Line=
Ogikubo-bound
Two men, Ken'ichi Hirose and Koichi
Kitamura, were assigned to release two
sarin packets on the westbound
Marunouchi Line destined for Ogikubo
Station. The pair left Aum headquarters
in Shibuya at 6:00 am and drove to
Yotsuya Station. There Hirose boarded a
westbound Marunouchi Line train, then
changed to a northbound JR East Saikyō
Line train at Shinjuku Station and got
off at Ikebukuro Station. He then bought
a sports tabloid to wrap the sarin
packets in and boarded the second car of
Marunouchi Line train A777.
As he was about to release the sarin,
Hirose believed the loud noises caused
by the newspaper-wrapped packets had
caught the attention of a schoolgirl. To
avoid further suspicion, he got off the
train at either Myogadani or Korakuen
Station and moved to the third car
instead of the second. As the train
approached Ochanomizu Station, Hirose
dropped the packets to the floor,
repeated an Aum mantra and punctured the
sarin packets with so much force that he
bent the tip of his sharpened umbrella.
Both packets were successfully broken,
and all 900 mL of sarin was released
onto the floor of the train. Hirose then
departed the train at Ochanomizu and
left via Kitamura's car waiting outside
the station.
At Nakano-sakaue Station, 14 stops
later, two severely injured passengers
were carried out of the train car, while
station attendant Sumio Nishimura
removed the sarin packets. The train
continued with sarin still on the floor
of the third car. Five stops later, at
8:38 am, the train reached Ogikubo
Station, the end of the Marunouchi Line,
all the while passengers boarding the
train. The train continued eastbound
until it was finally taken out of
service at Shin-Kōenji Station two stops
later. The entire ordeal resulted in one
passenger's death with 358 being
seriously injured.
Ikebukuro-bound
Masato Yokoyama and his driver Kiyotaka
Tonozaki were assigned to release sarin
on the Ikebukuro-bound Marunouchi Line.
On the way to Shinjuku Station, Tonozaki
stopped to allow Yokoyama to buy a copy
of Nihon Keizai Shimbun, to wrap the two
sarin packets. When they arrived at the
station, Yokoyama put on a wig and fake
glasses and boarded the fifth car of the
Ikebukuro-bound 07:39 Marunouchi Line
train number B801.
As the train approached Yotsuya Station,
Yokoyama began poking at the sarin
packets. When the train reached the next
station, he fled the scene with
Tonozaki, leaving the sarin packets on
the train car. The packets were not
fully punctured. During his drop,
Yokoyama left one packet fully intact,
while the other packet was only
punctured once, resulting in the sarin
being released relatively slowly.
The train reached the end of the line,
Ikebukuro, at 8:30 am where it would
head back in the opposite direction.
Before it departed the train was
evacuated and searched, but the
searchers failed to discover the sarin
packets. One passenger attributes this
oversight to the fact that the search
was conducted by a part-time employee
instead of a full-time train assistant.
The train departed Ikebukuro Station at
8:32 am as the Shinjuku-bound A801.
Passengers soon became ill and alerted
station attendants of the sarin-soaked
newspapers at Kōrakuen Station. One
station later, at Hongō-sanchōme, staff
removed the sarin packets and mopped the
floor, but the train continued on to
Shinjuku. After arriving at 9:09 am, the
train once again began to make its way
back to Ikebukuro as the B901. The train
was finally put out of service at
Kokkai-gijidō-mae Station in Chiyoda at
9:27 am, one hour and forty minutes
after Yokoyama punctured the sarin
packet. The attack resulted in no
fatalities, but over 200 people were
left in serious condition.
= Hibiya Line=
Tōbu Dōbutsu Kōen-bound
Toru Toyoda and his driver Katsuya
Takahashi were assigned to release sarin
on the northeast-bound Hibiya Line. The
pair, with Takahashi driving, left Aum
headquarters in Shibuya at 6:30 am.
After purchasing a copy of Hochi Shimbun
and wrapping his two sarin packets,
Toyoda arrived at Naka-Meguro Station
where he boarded the first car of
northeast-bound 07:59 Hibiya Line train
number B711T. Sitting close to the door,
he set the sarin packets on the floor.
When the train arrived at the next
station, Ebisu, Toyoda punctured the
packets and got off the train. He was on
the train for a total of two minutes, by
far the quickest sarin drop out of the
five attacks that day.
Two stops later, at Roppongi Station,
passengers in the train's first car
began to feel the effects of the sarin
and began to open the windows. By
Kamiyacho Station, the next stop, the
passengers in the car had begun
panicking. The first car was evacuated
and several passengers were immediately
taken to a hospital. Still, with the
first car empty, the train continued
down the line for one more stop until it
was completely evacuated at Kasumigaseki
Station. This attack killed one person
and seriously injured 532 others.
Naka-Meguro-bound
Yasuo Hayashi and Shigeo Sugimoto were
the team assigned to drop sarin on the
southwest-bound Hibiya Line departing
Kita-Senju Station for Naka-Meguro
Station. Unlike the rest of the attacks,
Hayashi carried three sarin packets onto
the train instead of two. Prior to the
attack, Hayashi asked to carry a flawed
leftover packet in addition to the two
others in an apparent bid to allay
suspicions and prove his loyalty to the
group. After Sugimoto escorted him to
Ueno Station, Hayashi boarded the third
car of southwest-bound 07:43 Hibiya Line
train number A720S and dropped his sarin
packets to the floor. Two stops later,
at Akihabara Station, he punctured the
packets, left the train, and arrived
back at Aum headquarters with Sugimoto
by 8:30 am. Hayashi made the most
punctures of any of the perpetrators.
By the next stop, passengers in the
third car began to feel effects from the
sarin. Noticing the large, liquid-soaked
package on the floor and assuming it was
the culprit, one passenger kicked the
sarin packets out of the train and onto
Kodenmachō Station's subway platform.
Four people in the station died as a
result.
A puddle of sarin remained on the floor
of the passenger car as the train
continued to the next station. At 8:10
am, after the train pulled out of
Hatchōbori Station, a passenger in the
third car pressed the emergency stop
button. The train was in a tunnel at the
time, and was forced to proceed to
Tsukiji Station, where passengers
stumbled out and collapsed on the
station's platform and the train was
taken out of service.
The attack was originally believed to be
an explosion and was thus labeled as
such in media reports. Eventually,
station attendants realized that the
attack was not an explosion, but rather
a chemical attack. At 8:35 am, the
Hibiya Line was completely shut down and
all commuters were evacuated. Between
the five stations affected in this
attack, 8 people died and 275 were
seriously injured.
Aftermath
On the day of the attack, ambulances
transported 688 patients and nearly five
thousand people reached hospitals by
other means. Hospitals saw 5,510
patients, seventeen of whom were deemed
critical, thirty-seven severe and 984
moderately ill with vision problems.
Most of those reporting to hospitals
were the andquot;worried wellandquot;, who had to be
distinguished from those who were ill.
By mid-afternoon, the mildly affected
victims had recovered from vision
problems and were released from
hospital. Most of the remaining patients
were well enough to go home the
following day, and within a week only a
few critical patients remained in
hospital. The death toll on the day of
the attack was eight.
= Injuries=
Witnesses have said that subway
entrances resembled battlefields. In
many cases, the injured simply lay on
the ground, many with breathing
difficulties. Several of those affected
by sarin went to work in spite of their
symptoms, most of them not realizing
that they had been exposed to sarin.
Most of the victims sought medical
treatment as the symptoms worsened and
as they learned of the actual
circumstances of the attacks via news
broadcasts.
Several of those affected were exposed
to sarin only by helping those who had
been directly exposed. Among these were
passengers on other trains, subway
workers and health care workers. A 2008
law enacted by the Japanese government
authorized payments of damages to
victims of the gas attack, because the
attack was directed at the government of
Japan. As of December 2009, 5,259 people
have applied for benefits under the law.
Of those, 47 out of 70 have been
certified as disabled and 1,077 of 1,163
applications for serious injuries or
illnesses have been certified.
Surveys of the victims showed that many
were still suffering from post-traumatic
stress disorder. In one survey, twenty
percent of 837 respondents complained
that they felt insecure whenever riding
a train, while ten percent answered that
they tried to avoid any nerve-attack
related news. Over sixty percent
reported chronic eyestrain and said
their vision had worsened.
= Emergency services=
Emergency services, including police,
fire and ambulance services, were
criticised for their handling of the
attack and the injured, as were the
media and the Subway Authority, which
failed to halt several of the trains
despite reports of passenger injury.
Health services including hospitals and
health staff were also criticised: one
hospital refused to admit a victim for
almost an hour, and many hospitals
turned victims away.
Sarin poisoning was not well understood
at the time, and many hospitals only
received information on diagnosis and
treatment because a professor at Shinshu
University's school of medicine happened
to see reports on television. Dr. Nobuo
Yanagisawa had experience with treating
sarin poisoning after the Matsumoto
incident; he recognized the symptoms,
had information on diagnosis and
treatment collected, and led a team who
sent the information to hospitals
throughout Tokyo via fax.
St. Luke's International Hospital in
Tsukiji was one of very few hospitals in
Tokyo at that time to have the entire
building wired and piped for conversion
into a andquot;Field Hospitalandquot; in the event of
a major disaster. This proved to be a
very fortunate coincidence as the
hospital was able to take in most of the
600 victims at Tsukiji Station,
resulting in no fatalities at that
station.
As there was a severe shortage of
antidotes in Tokyo, sarin antidote
stored in rural hospitals as an antidote
for herbicide/insecticide poisoning was
delivered to nearby Shinkansen stations,
where it was collected by a Ministry of
Health official on a train bound for
Tokyo.
= Defense offered by American scholars=
In May 1995, after the sarin attack on
the Tokyo subway, American scholars
James R. Lewis and J. Gordon Melton flew
to Japan to hold a pair of press
conferences in which they announced that
the chief suspect in the murders,
religious group Aum Shinrikyo, couldn't
have produced the sarin that the attacks
had been committed with. They had
determined this, Lewis said, from photos
and documents provided by the group.
The Japanese police had already
discovered at Aum's main compound back
in March a sophisticated chemical
weapons laboratory that was capable of
producing thousands of kilograms a year
of the poison. Later investigation
showed that Aum not only created the
sarin used in the subway attacks, but
had committed previous chemical and
biological weapons attacks, including a
previous attack with sarin that had
killed eight and injured 144.
During the Aum Shinrikyo incident Lewis'
and Melton's bills for travel, lodging
and accommodations were paid for by Aum,
according to The Washington Post. Lewis
openly disclosed that andquot;Aum [...]
arranged to provide all expenses [for
the trip] ahead of timeandquot;, but claimed
that this was andquot;so that financial
considerations would not be attached to
our final reportandquot;.
= Murakami book=
Popular contemporary novelist Haruki
Murakami wrote Underground: The Tokyo
Gas Attack and the Japanese Psyche. He
was critical of the Japanese media for
focusing on the sensational profiles of
the attackers and ignoring the lives of
the victimized average citizens. The
book contains extensive interviews with
the survivors in order to tell their
stories. Murakami later added a second
part to the work, The Place That Was
Promised, which focuses on Aum
Shinrikyo.
Aum/Aleph today
The sarin attack was the most serious
terrorist attack in Japan's modern
history. It caused massive disruption
and widespread fear in a society that
had previously been perceived as
virtually free of crime.
Shortly after the attack, Aum lost its
status as a religious organization, and
many of its assets were seized. The Diet
rejected a request from government
officials to outlaw the group. The
National Public Safety Commission
received increased funding to monitor
the group. In 1999, the Diet gave the
commission broad powers to monitor and
curtail the activities of groups that
have been involved in andquot;indiscriminate
mass murderandquot; and whose leaders are
andquot;holding strong sway over their
membersandquot;, a bill custom-tailored to Aum
Shinrikyo.
Asahara was sentenced to death by
hanging on 27 February 2004, but lawyers
immediately appealed the ruling. The
Tokyo High Court postponed its decision
on the appeal until results were
obtained from a court-ordered
psychiatric evaluation, which was issued
to determine whether Asahara was fit to
stand trial. In February 2006, the court
ruled that Asahara was indeed fit to
stand trial, and on 27 March 2006,
rejected the appeal against his death
sentence. Japan's Supreme Court upheld
this decision on 15 September 2006. Two
re-trial appeals were declined by the
appellate court. In June 2012, Asahara's
execution was postponed due to the
further arrests of the two remaining Aum
Shinrikyo members wanted in connection
with the attack. Asahara is currently
awaiting his death sentence.
On 27 November 2004, all the Aum trials
concluded, excluding Asahara's, as the
death sentence of Seiichi Endo was
upheld by Japan's Supreme Court. As a
result, among a total of 189 members
indicted, 13 were sentenced to death,
five were sentenced to life in prison,
80 were given prison sentences of
various lengths, 87 received suspended
sentences, two were fined, and one was
found not guilty. In May and June 2012,
the last two of the fugitives wanted in
connection with the attack were arrested
in the Tokyo and Kanagawa area. Of them,
Katsuya Takahashi was taken into custody
by police near a comic book cafe in
Tokyo.
The group reportedly still has about
2,100 members, and continues to recruit
new members under the name andquot;Alephandquot; as
well as other names. Though the group
has renounced its violent past, it still
continues to follow Asahara's spiritual
teachings. Members operate several
businesses, though boycotts of known
Aleph-related businesses, in addition to
searches, confiscations of possible
evidence and picketing by protest
groups, have resulted in closures.
See also
A, a documentary film made following the
arrest of the leaders of Aum Shinrikyo
Banjawarn Station, a cattle station in
Western Australia owned by Aum Shinrikyo
Religion in Japan
List of people claimed to be Jesus
References
= Notes=
= Bibliography=
andquot;Survey: Subway sarin attack haunts more
survivorsandquot; in Mainichi Online June 18,
2001.
Detailed information on each subway
line, including names of perpetrators,
times of attack, train numbers and
numbers of casualties, as well as
biographical details on the
perpetrators, were taken from
Underground: The Tokyo Gas Attack and
the Japanese Psyche by Haruki Murakami.
Ataxia: The Chemical and Biological
Terrorism Threat and the US Response,
Chapter 3 - Rethinking the Lessons of
Tokyo, Henry L. Stimson Centre Report
No. 35, October 2000
Tu A. T.. andquot;Overview of sarin terrorist
attacks in Japanandquot;. ACS Symposium Series
745: 304â€"317.
doi:10.1021/bk-2000-0745.ch020.
Ogawa Y, Yamamura Y, Ando A, et al.. andquot;An
attack with sarin nerve gas on the Tokyo
subway system and its effects on
victimsandquot;. ACS Symposium Series 745:
333â€"355. doi:10.1021/bk-2000-0745.ch022.
Sidell, Frederick R.. Jane's Chem-Bio
Handbook 3rd edition. Jane's Information
Group.
Bonino, Stefano. Il Caso Aum Shinrikyo:
Società, Religione e Terrorismo nel
Giappone Contemporaneo, 2010, Edizioni
Solfanelli, ISBN 978-88-89756-88-1.
Preface by Erica Baffelli.
External links
Aum Shinrikyo A history of Aum and list
of Aum-related links
The Aum Supreme Truth Terrorist
Organization - The Crime library Crime
Library article about Aum
I got some pictures of sarin scattered
on the metro floor Several pictures
taken by One of the passengers on the
scene
andquot;Homebrew chemical terror bombs, hype or
horror?,andquot; The Register

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RsL0e9QzUM


I - Huntington Mayor say's his town is under ATTACK




SURVEILLANCE VIDEO, BECAUSE HE
DIDN'T WANT TO RUIN HIS SHIRT.
>>> THE MAYOR OF HUNTINGDON,
QUEBEC, SAYS HIS TOWN IS UNDER
ATTACK AND BILINGUALISM IN THE
COMMUNITY IS THE REASON.
THE TOWN'S COUNCIL VOTED TO
REFUSE TO COMPLY WITH BILL 101
WHICH STATES THAT FRENCH IS THE
ONLY OFFICIAL LANGUAGE, BUT AS
CTV'S MAYA JOHNSON REPORTS, THE
MAYOR CLAIMS VANDALS ARE NOW
TRYING TO INTIMIDATE HIM.
>> Reporter: WHAT'S A
CONVERSATION LIKE OVER AN
AFTERNOON COFFEE IN HUNTINGDON?
>> WE ALWAYS GET ALONG TOGETHER.
LOOKED LIKE WE'RE TALKING NOW,
WE'RE TALKING HALF FRENCH, HALF
ENGLISH, YOU KNOW, AND THE
CONVERSATION GOES ON.
>> Reporter: A STATEMENT THAT
SUMS UP THE SPIRIT OF THE SMALL
TOWN.
BUT BEING BILINGUAL HAS MADE THE
TOWN A TARGET.
>> AND NOW IT'S LIKE A
WITCH-HUNT.
>> Reporter: THE MAYOR SAYS
FRENCH LANGUAGE EXTREMISTS ARE
RESORTING TO THREATS AND
INTIMIDATION TRYING TO PRESSURE
THE TOWN TO LIMIT THE USE OF
ENGLISH.
NEW WEB SITES AND facebook
GROUPS CALLED GENDRON A TRAITOR
TO THE QUEBECOIS.
THEY'RE ENCOURAGING PEOPLE TO
TAKE PICTURES OF BY LINGUAL
SIGNS AND FILE COMPLAINTS --
BILINGUAL.
OVER THE WEEKEND VANDALS SPRAYED
GRAFFITI ON GENDRON'S HOME AND
CAR.
>> THEY'RE SO INSECURE THEY WANT
TO ATTACK US.
IT'S LIKE AN UNDERGROUND WAR.
THIS IS INTELLECTUAL TERRORISM
THAT IS GOING ON IN HUNTINGDON.
>> Reporter: GENDRON SAYS MORE
THAN 40% OF HIS TOWN'S
POPULATION IS ENGLISH, AND IT
ONLY MAKES SENSE TO OFFER THEM
INFORMATION IN THEIR OWN
LANGUAGE.
>> YOU DON'T PROMOTE A CULTURE
BY CRUSHING ANOTHER ONE OR
ERASING ANOTHER ONE.
YOU KNOW, THESE OUTSIDERS, THEY
DON'T KNOW HUNTINGDON.
>> Reporter: THE LQOF SAYS
THEY DON'T CONDONE THREATS OR
INTIMIDATION, BUT THE TOWN ISN'T
OFF THE HOOK.
>> WE WILL CONTINUE TO
INTIMIDATE WITH HUNTINGDON, YOU
KNOW, THE MUNICIPALITY BECAUSE
WE WILL STILL TRY TO MAKE THEM
CHANGE THEIR MIND SO THE LAW CAN
BE APPLIED.
>> Reporter: MANY RESIDENTS IN
HUNTINGDON SAY THEY JUST DON'T
EGYPT STAND THE FUSS AND --
UNDERSTAND THE FUSS AND ARE FINE
WITH ENGLISH AND FRENCH.
>> [Speaking in French].
>> Reporter: THE WHOLE MATTER
COULD END UP IN COURT
EVENTUALLY, BUT FOR NOW THE TOWN
SAYS IT WILL RESIST ALL EFFORTS

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgiyAS8kAc4