Analysis of the October Crisis in Quebec
Analysis of the October Crisis in Quebec
The most extreme separatists in Quebec had never believed in democratic methods to solve the problem. The y wanted separation right away and would do anything they could to get that. In the 1950's and 1960's terror tactics such as bombing, kidnapping, and assassination to force governments to give them want they wanted were happening all over the world in pretty much all the countries. Since 1963 Quebec had suffered from scattered acts of separatist violence, mainly bombings which usually did little damage. Now, In October 1970, a small group of terrorist-separatists caused what became one of the most serious political crisis in Canadian history.
On October 5 the British trade commissioner in Montreal, James Cross, was kidnapped from his home by terrorists who called them selves the Front de Liberation du Quebec, or FLQ. While the government of Canada tried to negotiate Cross's release-Saying it would give in to some of the FLQ's Demands; another "cell" of the FLQ's decided to take another hostage. On October 10 the Pierre Laporte, Mister of labor for Quebec was playing football with his children when a group of armed men seized him and drove off.
While the police where determined to find Cross, Laporte, and the kidnappers, everyone wondered who or what would be next. A number of weapons and explosives had been taken from armories and construction sites in the recent months, with all of this all of Quebec was in a panic and in extreme fear not knowing what was going to happen next. On October 15 members of the Canadian forces were sent to Quebec to help out the exhausted local police. On October 16 the federal government, acting on Quebec's request, declared that an "apprehended insurrection" existed in Quebec and invoked the War Measures Act. This was Canada's emergency law, developed back in World War 1, which gave the government and the police special powers in a time of crisis, suspending most normal civil liberties. A crisis could be a war, a rebellion (insurrection), or a situation in which the government had reason to believe that a rebellion was likely (an apprehended insurrection). The kidnappings and the demands and threats the FLQ's were making seemed to add up to that situation. Using their special powers under the War Measures Act,...