Justice & Law Quote by Robert Bourassa

The line lands with the flat, exhausted candor of a government discovering its own limits in real time. Bourassa isn’t reaching for grandeur; he’s offering a status report that doubles as self-defense. The repetition of “had been kidnapped” and the blunt escalation to “threats of murder” piles urgency without ornament, as if the only responsible rhetoric is the kind that refuses to dramatize what is already catastrophic. That plainness is the point: it signals competence through sobriety, even while admitting failure.

The most revealing phrase is “rather tired.” In the middle of a political crisis, it’s a strangely human descriptor - and a subtle attempt to reframe institutional impotence as physical fatigue. It nudges the listener toward sympathy for the state’s workers, not anger at the state’s capacity. “After a whole week” does similar work: it marks diligence and endurance, a quiet plea for patience from a public that likely wanted results yesterday.

Context matters. Bourassa is speaking as Quebec is rattled by political violence (the October Crisis atmosphere), when every sentence from a premier is also a negotiation: with citizens frightened of chaos, with police straining under pressure, and with radicals trying to prove the state can be humiliated. The final clause, “unable to find those that had effected the kidnappings,” is the key admission - not just that the perpetrators remain free, but that normal governance is being outpaced by an insurgent tempo. The intent is to justify whatever comes next, while sounding reluctant about the fact that “next” may require extraordinary measures.