October Crisis Research Paper

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October 5th, 1970 saw one of the most traumatic episodes in Canada’s political and social history. We refer to it as the October Crisis. The October Crisis was a period in the rebellious 1970’s’s when many young Quebecois began to question many of our historic institutions and their role in Quebec society. The FLQ had a long history in Quebec prior to the October crisis. From 1963 onwards the FLQ had been involved in some overt political violence across Quebec. However the kidnapping of James Cross, and the eventual kidnapping and assassination of Quebec Labour minister Pierre Laporte opened up a whole new chapter in the FLQ’s campaign to use violent ends Laporte’s death marked the first time since the 1800’s and D’arcy McGee that a Canadian…show more content…
The FLQ (Front de libération du Québec) were certain people who were separatist and Marxist-Leninist paramilitary group in Quebec. Near the 1963 and 1970, the FLQ became violent for only one reason; for Quebec to be its own country. On October 5, 1970, four men abducted British trade commissioner James Richard Cross from his plush Montreal abode. The FLQ kidnappers threatened to kill Cross unless the government released 23 prison inmates charged with crimes committed in the name of the Front. Not only that, 5 days later, members of the Chénier cell took Pierre Laporte (Minister of Labour). The kidnappers' demanded, communicated in a series of public messages, included the freeing of a number of convicted or imprisoned FLQ members, a half-million dollar ransom and the broadcast of the FLQ manifesto. After few months, Pierrie Laporte was found dead in a trunk of a car. The kidnapping and murder raised a swift response from the federal government under Liberal leader Pierre Trudeau. He then invocated ‘War Measures Act’. It gave the Police and the military much broader powers of seizure and arrest. In doing so, the authorities (police and military) were given permission to arrest without warrants or proof. On December 1970, Paul Rose, Francis Simard, Bernard Lortie, and Jacques Rose were arrested and charged with

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