october crisis
...e FLQ manifesto, the publication of the names of the police informants for terrorist activities, an aircraft to take the kidnapers to Cuba or Algeria, the re-hiring of the Lapalme postal truck drivers and the cessation of all the police search activities. Quebec City and Ottawa rejected most of the FLQ's demands except the public broadcast of the FLQ's manifesto. On October 7 a manifesto encouraging the Quebec people to revolt was aired by a private radio station, and by Radio Canada the next day. As negotiations stalled, on October 10 the FLQ escalated their hostilities by abducting Pierre Laporte, Quebec's Labour Minister. Laporte pleads for his life in a letter sent to Quebec Premier Robert Bourassa. Bourassa's Cabinet agrees to negotiate with the FLQ. But the negotiations only last two days before breaking down and Quebec authorities are flooded with requests for protection from government officials. Two days later, the Quebec government and Ottawa decide to take action. Prime Minister Trudeau ordered the army to protect public buildings and senior government officials in Quebec. Sensing that the FLQ had some public support, on October 16 Ottawa invoked the War Measures Act to gain emergency powers, and send troops to Montreal to assist the police. The Act suspended all civil liberties in the entire country and gave the police extraordinary powers to arrest anyone whom they suspected of being involved in any type of conspiratorial group or of holding conspiratorial beliefs of search and arrest. It was the first time that the government had invoked the Act during peacetime. In the first twenty four hours, 250 people were arrested and held without charge. The number would eventually reach 497. Some of those arrested were not known criminals--they were labour leaders, entertainers, students, and writers. Only sixty two people were eventually charged with crime. Meanwhile, The War Measures Act did not prevent the FLQ from carrying out their threats. On October 17, the body of Pierre Laporte was found in the trunk of a car left outside a Canadian Forces army base. He had been strangled with the chain of the religious medallion he wore around his neck. Trudeau angrily reacted to the murder: “Savagery is alien to Canadians,” he said. “It always will be, for collectively we will not tolerate it.” On December 3, the police finally found James Cross. They surrounded a house in Montreal's north end, and after a day of negotiations, Cross was released. In return, the five kidnapers were flown to Cuba. Eventually, they move to Paris , and though they had been banned from Canada for life, they were allowed to return years later to ...