MONTREAL - A group of radical Quebec sovereigntists with a history of raising a ruckus has found a new target: Prince Charles.
The Reseau de Resistance du Quebecois pounced on word that the prince's planned Canadian tour next month would include a stop in Quebec. The group's leader Patrick Bourgeois warned the Prince of Wales to stay out of Quebec.
"Quebecers have nothing to do with the British monarchy," Bourgeois wrote in Le Quebecois newsletter, released Monday.
"They want to be rid of such a retrograde and exploitive symbol, they don't recognize themselves at all in a foreign kingdom with hands reddened by the blood of people that the English subjugated throughout history . . ."
The RRQ played a major role in forcing organizers to scrap a planned military re-enactment earlier this year of the pivotal 1759 battle of the Plains of Abraham in which the English defeated the French.
In a rant that also targeted Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Gov. Gen. Michaelle Jean, and Prince Charles' wife, Camilla Parker Bowles, Bourgeois called the monarchy "crassly anti-democratic."
Bourgeois said British monarchs generally avoid Quebec "like the plague". He suggested Charles follow that example.
"We promise to scorch the ears of the one in line to sit next on the English throne if he dares to put his feet in Quebec," he wrote.
Royal visits have a history of controversy in Canada's most populous French-speaking province.
Charles' mother, the Queen, has been jeered by protesters in Quebec.
