Ghyslain Raza, best known as Star Wars Kid, is all grown up and curating a military history exhibition on the botched US invasion of Quebec. (Thanks, Fipi Lele!)

  • http://www.facebook.com/ramseyhong Ramsey Hong

    I see nothing wrong with how he looks. He’s wearing a good suit and appears to have a good job. Good on him.

  • http://www.flickr.com/photos/koocheekoo/ Koocheekoo

    I wish I could read French. I will have to look up this botched US invasion of Quebec – sounds like a great story from both our histories.

    • Jonathan Badger

      It’s a pretty standard part of the American revolutionary war — basically the US revolutionaries assumed that the Quebecois would side with their small invasion force against their British rulers — and they didn’t.

      • Guillaume Filion

        If I can add to that, the Americans assumed that the Québécois would side with them since they hated the Brits. And the Brits were doing no less than ethnic cleansing with anyone who didn’t speak english — that’s why the french speaking acadiens/cajun were forced to move to Louisiana.

        But at the last minute, the Brits made a deal with the French-Catholic church and the priests convinced the Québécois to side with the Brits.

        I sometimes wonder what would North America look like if that deal had not taken place…

    • petsounds

      Google translate. The article is a fluff piece; you’re better off looking it up on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_1812

  • http://twitter.com/MomJokes Mother Joker

    I see my reply to the mean person was removed?
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_5Qyg5Ivw8#t=1m18s

    Sorry, in the future I will try to be more constructive with my feedback.

  • Richard Knowler
    • Toby

       Damn it, you beat me.

    • Petzl

       Was that really necessary?

      • http://www.aarongilliland.com/ Aaron Gilliland

        You know it was.

      • CognitiveDissident

        More like, inevitable, with the way the Internet is going. I say, watch the kid make a fool of himself, but leave his poor older self alone.

  • isabelleparis

    It’s not the same Quebec that was invaded as the province today – and the people who lived there and the invaders called it Canada, Quebecois only referred to someone living in Quebec City at that time  – it included only the southern part of modern Ontario and Quebec and parts of the US, Newfoundland and Manitoba.  Also, the invasion that this guy is talking about was the one by the Continental Army in 1775/76, before the declaration of independence, and so before there was a US.

  • http://www.aarongilliland.com/ Aaron Gilliland

    Viva la Raza?

  • schadenfreudisch

    only recently (on a trip to canada) did i realize that BOTH canada and the US are claiming they “won” the war of 1812.   go figure.

    • Jerril

       We burned your Whitehouse down. Point to us :)

      • http://www.youtube.com/user/ziccup akbar56

        Instead we went Washington! and burned down all his stuff! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRwiH18QwpU

      • CognitiveDissident

        I think that they changed the statue-of-limitations on the “Domestic Terrorism Event of 1812″ in the USA! USA! Patriot Act. You will be receiving a visit shortly from Canadian officials who will be glad to deliver you to the border for implicating yourself. Better find a friendly embassy pronto!

  • rocketpjs

    Well, we burned the White House, but got our asses whupped at New Orleans (the bloody british were actually mostly from Canada).  Something to do with running so fast the hounds couldn’t catch us.  Probably the big bacon and beans gap.

    As for who ‘won’ – we all did.  The US had aspirations of Manifest Destiny – taking over the rest of North America, particularly Canada.  Canadians had aspirations of not being annexed, and the Brits more generally had aspirations of beating up the Americans.

    The US did not annex – win Canada.  The Brits did not (really) beat up the Americans – win US.  The Brits did beat Napoleon (where the real war was happening) – win Brits.  The French got rid of Napoleon – win French, sort of.

    Of course most of the people who benefitted from all of this fighting did just fine, but lots of soldiers and civilians died in a very long and nasty war.

  • franko

    i’m glad he is happy now. i know he went through a terrible patch with that notoriety. i felt a kinship with him — that whole video pains me.

  • petsounds

    Cory, to clarify: there have been two American invasions of Quebec; this museum apparently covers both of them. The first, during the Revolutionary War, concerned forces led in 1775 by Richard Montgomery and the infamous Benedict Arnold. Arnold convinced Gen. Washington and the Continental Congress that attacking Canada would be crucial to preventing British attacks on New York from the north.

    Unfortunately, due to a combination of marching for Canada in the winter via swampy marshes, and with bad maps of the area, Arnold’s force of 1,100 men had been reduced to about 650 by the time they reached Quebec. Arnold met up with the more-successful Montgomery who had traveled from the west and captured two forts. Together they attacked Quebec on the night of Dec. 31 in a two-pronged plan. However, British forces in the fort were alerted to the attack due to signal flares, and Montgomery’s forces were ambushed in the city. It was a slaughter. Montgomery was killed and Arnold wounded, escaped with some men.

    An ancestor of mine was involved in the attack on the American side. I have no record of whose command he was under, only that he was captured at Quebec and died in prison there on Feb 28, 1776.

  • http://twitter.com/thissortofthing thissortofthing

    It’s nice to see this, but I kind of hope it doesn’t get much play. I’m sure the last thing Mr Raza wants is more attention from the internet.