October Crisis

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This article is about the terrorist kidnappings in Quebec. For the confrontation over nuclear arms in Cuba, see Cuban Missile Crisis.

The October Crisis was a series of dramatic events triggered by two terrorist kidnappings of government officials by members of the Front de libération du Québec in the province of Quebec, Canada, in October 1970, which ultimately resulted in a brief invocation of the War Measures Act by Prime Minister Pierre E. Trudeau and the deployment of the national army in Quebec and in the national capital Ottawa.

The Premier of Quebec, Robert Bourassa, and the Mayor of Montreal, Jean Drapeau, requested that the Government of Canada invoke the War Measures Act. The act provided for far-reaching powers for police. Therefore, Prime Minister Trudeau invoked it in October of 1970 leading to arrests of any individuals the police thought to be separatists, and to their detentions without bail.

At that time, the federal government refused to differentiate the members of the FLQ, extremist separatists, and those of the PQ who advocated democratic ways of achieving independence.[1] Following that crisis, under Prime Minister Trudeau's directions, this led to a series of scandals surrounding the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, particularly to the RCMP's illegal break-in to steal the Parti Québécois's member list in its offices in 1973.[2]

Contents

[edit] Background

From 1963 to 1970 the Quebec nationalist group Front de libération du Québec (FLQ) had exploded over 95 bombs[3]. While mailboxes, particularly in the affluent and predominantly Anglophone city of Westmount, were common targets, the largest single bombing was of the Montreal Stock Exchange on February 13, 1969, which caused extensive damage and injured 27 people. Other targets included Montreal City Hall, RCMP recruitment offices, railroad tracks, and army installations. FLQ members, in a strategic move, had stolen several tons of dynamite from military and industrial sites. Financed by bank robberies, they threatened the public through their official communication organ, known as La Cognée, that more attacks were to come.

By 1970, 23 members of the FLQ were in prison, including four members convicted of murder. On February 26, 1970, two men in a panel truck were arrested in Montreal when they were discovered with a sawed-off shotgun and a communique announcing the kidnapping of the Israeli consul. One of them was a man named Jacques Lanctôt. In June, police raided a home in the small community of Prévost, north of Montreal in the Laurentian mountains, and found firearms, ammunition, 300 pounds (140 kg) of dynamite, detonators, and the draft of a ransom note to be used in the kidnapping of the American consul. [4]

[edit] Timeline

  • October 5: Montreal, Quebec: Members of the "Liberation Cell" of the FLQ kidnap British Trade Commissioner James Cross. This was followed by a communique to the authorities that contained the kidnappers' demands, which included the release of a number of convicted or detained terrorists and the CBC broadcast of the FLQ Manifesto. The terms of the ransom note were the same as those found in June for the planned kidnapping of the U.S. consul. At the time, the police did not connect the two.
  • October 8: Broadcast of the FLQ Manifesto in all French- and English-speaking media outlets in Quebec.
  • October 10: Montreal, Quebec: Members of the Chenier Cell approach the home of the Vice-Premier and Minister of Labour of the province of Quebec, Pierre Laporte, while he was playing football with his nephew. Members of the "Chenier cell" of the FLQ kidnap Laporte.
  • October 11: The CBC broadcasts a letter from captivity from Pierre Laporte to the Premier of Quebec, Robert Bourassa.
  • October 13: Prime Minister Trudeau is interviewed by the CBC in respect of the military presence. In a combative interview, Trudeau asks the reporter what he would do in his place, and when asked how far he would go replies "Just watch me".
  • October 15: Quebec City: The Government of Quebec, solely responsible for law and order, formally requisitions the intervention of the Canadian army in "aid of the civil power", as is its right alone under the National Defence Act. All three opposition parties, including the Parti Québécois rise in the National Assembly and agree with the decision. On the same day, separatist groups are permitted to speak at the Université de Montréal. The same day, about 3,000 students gather in a Montreal arena to show their support for the FLQ. The rally frightens many Canadians, who view it as a possible prelude to outright insurrection in Quebec.
  • October 16: Premier Bourassa formally requests that the government of Canada grant the government of Quebec "emergency powers" that allow them to "apprehend and keep in custody" individuals. This resulted in the implementation of the War Measures Act, which allowed the suspension of habeas corpus, giving wide-reaching powers of arrest to police. The City of Montreal had already made such a request the day before. These measures came into effect at 4:00 a.m. Prime Minister Trudeau made a broadcast announcing the imposition of the War Measures Act.
  • October 17: Montreal, Quebec: The Chenier cell of the FLQ announces that hostage Pierre Laporte has been executed. He is strangled to death, and his body is stuffed in the trunk of a car and abandoned in the bush near Saint-Hubert Airport, a few miles from Montreal. A communique to police advising that Pierre Laporte had been executed referred to him derisively as the "Minister of unemployment and assimilation". In another communique issued by the "Liberation cell" holding James Cross, his kidnappers declared that they were suspending indefinitely the death sentence against James Cross, that they would not release him until their demands were met, and that he would be executed if the "fascist police" discovered them and tried to intervene.
  • October 18: While denouncing the acts of “subversion and terrorism – both of which are so tragically contrary to the best interests of our people”, columnist, politician, and future Premier of Quebec, René Lévesque, criticizes the War Measures Act: “Until we receive proof (about how large the revolutionary army is) to the contrary we will believe that such a minute, numerically unimportant fraction is involved, that rushing into the enforcement of the War Measures Act was a panicky and altogether excessive reaction, especially when you think of the inordinate length of time they want to maintain this regime.” [1]
  • November 6: Police raid the hiding place of the FLQ's Chenier cell. Although three members escaped the raid, Bernard Lortie was arrested and charged with the kidnapping and murder of Pierre Laporte.
  • December 3: Montreal, Quebec: After being held hostage for 60 days, kidnapped British Trade Commissioner James Cross is released by the FLQ Liberation cell terrorists after negotiations with police. Simultaneously, the five known terrorist members, Marc Carbonneau, Yves Langlois, Jacques Lanctôt, Jacques Cossette-Trudel and his wife, Louise Lanctôt, are granted their request for safe passage to Cuba by the government of Canada after approval by Fidel Castro. They are flown to Cuba by a Canadian Forces aircraft. One of them is the same Jacques Lanctôt who earlier that year had been arrested and then released on bail for the attempted kidnapping of the Israeli consul.
  • December 28: Saint-Luc, Quebec: The three remaining members of the Chenier Cell still at large, Paul Rose, Jacques Rose, and Francis Simard, are arrested after being found hiding in a 6 m tunnel in the rural farming community. They would be charged with the kidnapping and murder of Pierre Laporte.

In the middle of the crisis, adding to the fear were the comments of labour leader Michel Chartrand, who said, "We are going to win because there are more boys ready to shoot members of Parliament than there are policemen."[5]

[edit] War Measures Act and military involvement

When a CBC Radio reporter asked how far he was willing to go to stop the FLQ, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau said, "Just watch me". Three days later, on October 16, he invoked the War Measures Act at the request of the Premier of Quebec, Robert Bourassa, and the Mayor of Montreal, Jean Drapeau. The provisions took effect at 4:00 a.m., and soon, hundreds of suspected FLQ members and sympathizers were rousted out of bed and hauled into custody. At the time, opinion polls in Quebec [6] and the rest of Canada showed overwhelming support for the War Measures Act. [7] Since then, however, the government's use of the War Measures Act in peacetime has been a subject of debate in Canada as it gave police sweeping powers of arrest and detention.

Simultaneously, under provisions quite separate from the War Measures Act and much more commonly used, the Solicitor-General of Quebec requisitioned the deployment of the military from the Chief of the Defence Staff in accordance with the National Defence Act. Troops from Quebec bases and elsewhere in the country were dispatched, under the direction of the Sûreté du Québec (Quebec's provincial police force), to guard vulnerable points as well as prominent individuals at risk. This freed the police to pursue more proactive tasks in dealing with the crisis.

Outside Quebec, mainly in the Ottawa area, the federal government deployed troops under its own authority to guard federal offices and employees. The combination of the increased powers of arrest granted by the War Measures Act and the military deployment requisitioned and controlled by the government of Quebec, gave every appearance that martial law had been imposed. A significant difference, however, is that the military remained in a support role to the civil authorities (in this case, Quebec authorities) and never had a judicial role. Nevertheless, the sight of tanks on the lawns of the federal parliament was disconcerting to many Canadians. Moreover, police officials sometimes abused their powers and detained without cause prominent artists and intellectuals associated with the sovereignty movement.[8]

Once the War Measures Act was in place, arrangements were made for all detainees to see legal counsel. In addition, the Quebec Ombudsman, Louis Marceau, was instructed to hear complaints of detainees, and the Quebec government agreed to pay damages to any person unjustly arrested. On February 3, 1971, John Turner, Minister of Justice of Canada, reported that 497 persons had been arrested under the War Measures Act, of whom 435 had already been released. The other 62 were charged, of which 32 had committed crimes of such seriousness that a Quebec Superior Court judge refused them bail.

[edit] Aftermath

Image:TrudeauCommentsOnCrossRelease1970.jpg
Pierre Trudeau commenting to reports on the release of James Cross

Pierre Laporte was eventually found to have been murdered by his captors while James Cross was freed after 60 days as a result of negotiations with the kidnappers who requested exile to Cuba rather than facing trial in Quebec. The cell members responsible for Laporte were arrested and charged with kidnapping and first-degree murder.

This incident proved to be the most serious terrorist attack on Canadian soil in modern times, and the response by the federal and provincial governments still sparks controversy. However, at the time, opinion polls showed overwhelming support in Quebec for the War Measures Act. [9] A few critics (most notably Tommy Douglas [10] and some members of the New Democratic Party) believed that Prime Minister Trudeau was being excessive in using the War Measures Act to suspend civil liberties and that the precedent set by this incident was dangerous. Federal Progressive Conservative leader Robert Stanfield supported Trudeau's actions but later regretted doing so. [11] The size of the FLQ organization and the number of sympathizers in the public was not known. However, in its Manifesto, the FLQ terrorists stated:

In the coming year Bourassa (Premier Robert Bourassa) will have to face reality; 100,000 revolutionary workers, armed and organized.[clarify]

Given that declaration, along with seven years of bombings and the wording of their communiques throughout that time that strove to present an image of a powerful organization spread secretly throughout all sectors of society, the authorities took significant action.

Some supporters of the governments' strong measures continue to maintain that there have been no equivalent terrorist incidents since 1970 because of the vigorous response by all levels of government. On the other hand, the more general consensus is that terrorism was found by Quebecers to be both repugnant and not required. Those who desire independence became fully conscious that it can and should be achieved through the democratic process. Those who are against independence, both in Quebec and elsewhere in Canada, received a traumatic shock and have made considerable effort to assuage French Canada's grievances as well as conceding that, if Quebec really wants to be independent, they cannot and will not stop it by force.[citation needed] There is a consensus in Canada amongst all factions that their differences will be resolved democratically.[citation needed]

Indeed, the events of October 1970 galvanized a loss of support for the violent wing of the Quebec secessionist movement that had gained support over nearly ten years, and increased support for political means of attaining independence, including support for the secessionist Parti Québécois, which went on to take power at the provincial level in 1976. After the defeat of the Meech Lake Accord, which sought to amend the Constitution of Canada to resolve the passage by a previous government of the Constitution Act 1982 without Quebec's ratification, a pro-independence political party, the Bloc Québécois was also created at the federal level.

[edit] Cinema and television

  • Orders (Les Ordres), a historical film drama, directed in 1974 and based on the events of the October Crisis and the War Measures Act; concerning the effect it had on people in Quebec.
  • Quebec director Pierre Falardeau shot in 1994 a movie titled Octobre which tells a version of the October Crisis based on a book by Francis Simard.
  • Nô is partially set in Montreal during the October Crisis and features fictional FLQ members planning a bombing.
  • CBC Television produced a two-hour documentary program Black October in 2000, in which the events of the crisis were discussed in great detail. The program featured interviews with former Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau, former Quebec justice minister Jérôme Choquette, and others.
  • An 8-part miniseries about some of the incidents of the October Crisis titled October 1970 was released on October 12, 2006.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ The Canadian Security Intelligence Service (84-27e)
  2. ^ The Canadian Security Intelligence Service (84-27e)
  3. ^ The Globe and Mail: Series – Pierre Elliott Trudeau 1919–2000. Retrieved on 2008-04-20. “Seven people had died and dozens had been injured. In retrospect, it seems impossible, but one bomb was planted somewhere in Quebec every 10 days.”
  4. ^ Chronology of the October Crisis, 1970, and its Aftermath – Quebec History
  5. ^ The Globe and Mail: Series – Pierre Elliott Trudeau 1919–2000. Retrieved on 2008-04-13.
  6. ^ Chronology of the October Crisis, 1970, and its Aftermath – Quebec History. Retrieved on 2008-04-13. “There was widespread editorial approval of the action taken by the federal government; only Claude Ryan, in Le Devoir, condemned it as did René Lévesque, leader of the Parti Québécois. Polls taken shortly afterwards, showed that there was as much as 92% approval for the action taken by the Federal government.”
  7. ^ Chronology of the October Crisis, 1970, and its Aftermath – Quebec History. Retrieved on 2008-04-13. “In a series of polls conducted over the next few weeks, public support for the course of action undertaken by the Government of Canada continued to be overwhelming (72 to 84% approval rate). In a poll conducted on December 19 by the Canadian Institute of Public Opinion, Canadians indicated that their opinion of Trudeau, Bourassa, Caouette and Robarts, who had all expressed strong support for the War Measures Act, was more favourable than before, while their view of Stanfield and Douglas, who had expressed reservations for the Act, was less favourable than previously.”
  8. ^ Socialist History Project – Socialists and the October Crisis, Part 2. Retrieved on 2008-04-13.
  9. ^ Quebec terrorists FLQ kidnapped 2 & began the Oct crisis. Retrieved on 2008-04-13. “Public opinion polls showed that nearly nine in 10 citizens – both Anglo and French-speaking – supported Trudeau's hardline tactics against the FLQ.”
  10. ^ Top Ten Greatest Canadians – Tommy Douglas. Retrieved on 2008-04-13. “The decision to vote against the motion (which passed with a majority vote) was not viewed favourably; the NDP's approval rating dropped to seven per cent in public opinion polls. Still, Douglas maintained that Trudeau was going too far: "The government, I submit, is using a sledgehammer to crack a peanut."”
  11. ^ Remembering Robert Standfield: A Good-Humoured and Gallant Man (PDF). Retrieved on 2008-04-13. “That particular backing [of the War Measures Act] was Stanfield’s only regret in a long political life. He later admitted that he wished he’d joined his lone dissenting colleague, David MacDonald, who voted against the Public Order Temporary Measures Act when it came before the House that November.”

[edit] External links