Sony pulls terrorist segment from video game

MONTREAL -- A last-minute ceasefire has ended a Canadian role in a fictional cyber-war to protect Toronto's subway tunnels from Quebec separatist terrorists. Following complaints, Sony Computer Entertainment America announced yesterday that it's removing any reference to the Toronto fantasy mission from its video game Syphon Filter: The Omega Strain, scheduled for release in February.

"The production version worldwide will contain no component related to the Quebec separatist adventure," said John Challinor, spokesman for Sony Canada. "We deeply regret any misunderstanding this may have caused."

DESIGNED IN CALIFORNIA

The decision was made after the America-based games division received complaints from the public and Sony Canada, Challinor said. He said he didn't know why the game, which was designed in California, included the Quebec reference.

In Syphon Filter: The Omega Strain, players take on the roles of recruits in an agency that's trying to uncover a conspiracy that has unleashed the deadly Syphon Filter virus. It's the fourth in a series of games by the global video game giant.

In one proposed mission, the Quebec Liberations Front took control of one of Toronto's subway tunnels. Players had to kill terrorists in a fortified a position near a stopped train.

The terrorist group was an apparent reference to the Front de liberation du Quebec (FLQ), whose kidnapping and murder of Quebec cabinet minister Pierre Laporte in 1970 led to the imposition of the War Measures Act.

Before Sony agreed to withdraw the game, the Toronto Transit Commission strongly objected to the way the TTC was to be used in the game as a scene for hostile activities.

"The fact is someone is putting the Toronto subway as a terrorist site, that is a very dangerous thing to do," TTC spokesman Marilyn Bolton said in an interview.