William and Kate hit bump in Quebec

MONTREAL — Prince William and his bride Catherine's first official foreign trip as newlyweds turned grim when Quebec republicans welcomed them to Montreal shouting "down with the monarchy.""We will never bend, Willy go home!" some 60 protesters shouted outside a Montreal children's hospital the royal couple visited. "French Quebec!" and "Parasite go home!" they chanted.The group pounded on buckets as the couple entered the hospital without acknowledging them, drowning out a much larger group of well-wishers, many of whom cried out "We love you Kate!"Outside the Quebec tourism and hotel business institute, a line of riot police with shields and rooftop snipers watched over a second group of protesters behind a barricade when the royal couple arrived for a cooking class.Britain conquered the former French colony of Quebec in 1763, but its culture and language survived, and today it is a bastion of French culture in North America.British rule, however, still evokes resentment in some quarters of the Canadian province.The first of Saturday's demonstrations was organized by a group rattling for the defense of the French language in North America.Its president, Mario Beaulieu, told AFP the duke and duchess's visit "raises the issue of francophone assimilation," as well as "the linguistic purging of Quebec, in which the Canadian government is complicit."The monarchy "is an obsolete institution, anti-democratic and sexist, and Quebec wants none of it," he added.As a member of the Commonwealth, Canada's official head of state is Queen Elizabeth, who is represented by a governor general.But a poll released on the eve of William and Kate's visit found that a third of Canadians want to cut ties with the British monarchy.In Quebec, where 83 percent of the population speaks French and only 10 percent speak English, disaffection with the royals runs as high as 60 percent, according to the Angus Reid survey.Quebec twice rejected independence in referendums in 1980 and 1995, the last time by a narrow margin.Separatists wo

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