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The October Crisis

In the 1960s, Québec underwent a period of significant change—urbanization, secularization, and industrialization—known as the Quiet Revolution. The Quiet Revolution included the nationalization of many of Québec’s public services, and as the government took control of more industries, including, for example, hydroelectric plants, the provincial budget grew substantially. The dramatic social, political, and economic change that characterized this period raised questions about the role of Quebec in Canada, and made way for the emergence of Quebec nationalism, including separatist organizations. The most prominent among them, the Front de Libération du Québec (FLQ), engaged in a series of public actions including violent attacks over many years, culminating in violence in October 1970 that has come to be known as the October Crisis.

Background

Nationalist sentiment in Quebec has a much longer and more complex history, but by the 1960s some radical separatist parties were beginning to emerge in the province. Among them was the relatively radical group, the Front de Libération de Québec, known as the FLQ, which was established in March 1963. Within months, the FLQ conducted multiple violent attacks on various significant governmental bodies, including federal infantry regiments, banks, railways, and other English-owned institutions. Later that year, FLQ leaders were arrested along with eight other members after their bomb killed Wilfred O’Neill: an employee of the Canadian army.

Over the next few years, such attacks continued, but with less frequency. In the meantime, throughout the 1960s, Quebec nationalism grew in popularity. Separatist parties received nearly 9% of the popular vote in the 1966 Québec General Election. Notably, the separatist movement received international approval from then French President Charles de Gaulle, who famously stated “Vive le Québec Libre!” in a speech when he was visiting Montreal for Expo ’67. By the next year, well-known federalist Pierre Trudeau became Prime Minister when Lester Pearson stepped down. Trudeau and the Liberal Party won the 1968 Federal Election in which he promised national unity, and justice, raising concern from nationalists committed to Quebec’s sovereignty. Nationalists protested Trudeau and his vision at the Montreal Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day parade—the day before the 1968 election, which Trudeau and the Liberals won. In this same critical period—in 1967 and 1968–former Quebec cabinet minister René Lévesque left the Quebec Liberal party and created the Parti Québécois, a formal separatist party that would successfully contest elections in the province, and would later win.

Bombings and other incidents would continue to sporadically occur throughout the years leading to 1969. However, 1969 marked a significant increase in the severity and frequency of FLQ disruption and violence. On February 13, 1969 of that year, the FLQ detonated a bomb within the Montreal Stock Exchange, injuring 27 people and causing an estimated $1 million in property damage.

October 1970

October 5. The October Crisis began on October 5, 1970, with four members of the FLQ kidnapping British trade Commissioner James Cross from his Montreal home. In exchange for his release, the FLQ had a number of demands including the release of twenty-three previously arrested members of the FLQ, and the group’s manifesto to be read publicly. Other demands included: transportation to Cuba or Algeria; $500,000 in gold bars; reinstatement of postal drivers who lost their jobs when the Post Office took over a private contract; cessation of police activity; and the identification of a supposed police informant who had led police to another FLQ cell.

October 8. Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau and Premier of Quebec Robert Boussara allowed for the FLQ’s manifesto to be read in its entirety on Radio-Canada—limiting circulation elsewhere—but declined the FLQ’s other terms, although they did indicate a willingness to negotiate the terms of Cross’ release. The FLQ used a variety of strategies to appeal to the public in the reading of the manifesto, and it worked. There was a great deal of public support for the FLQ during this period.

The FLQ manifesto being read on Radio-Canada, via CBC.

October 10. The crisis escalated on October 10, 1970, when the FLQ kidnapped the Quebec Deputy Premier and Minister of Immigration and Labour, Pierre Laporte.  Laporte was kidnapped from his house “while he was playing with his nephew on his front lawn.” Negotiations between the FLQ and the government of Quebec for the release of Cross (and now Laporte) continued, but there was little in the way of progress.

October 12. With the kidnapping of Laporte, other politicians in Quebec began to ask for protection, and the federal government responded on October 12 by sending in the military to protect politicians and important buildings. The next day, during an interview with the CBC in Ottawa Prime Minister Trudeau was asked whether sending in the military was going too far, and how far he was willing to go to stop the FLQ, to which he famously responded: “Just watch me.”

October 16. Due to the rising tensions the Mayor of Montreal Jean Drapeau and Quebec Premier Robert Bourassa made urgent calls to Ottawa seeking the invocation of the War Measures Act. With the military already in the streets of Montreal, it seemed like the federal government had already taken control of the crisis. In the early morning of October 16, Trudeau invoked the War Measures Act.

The Act had been adopted during World War I as a means to maintain order during times of “war, invasion or insurrection” and gives the federal government, and namely Cabinet, the ability to limit civil liberties including the right to a free trial, the ability to hire a lawyer once detained, and subjecting them to search and seizures. These civil liberties include, among others, the right to a free trial, and the ability to hire a lawyer once detained. This was the first time the Act was invoked during a time of peace. Despite objections from some political leaders, a public opinion poll showed that a majority of Canadians supported the War Measures Act at the time. More than 250 people were arrested within 48 hours of the invocation of the Act. When the War Measures Act expired in December 1970, it was replaced with the Public Order Act (a temporary act which allowed many of the same civil liberties violations) and together they resulted in over 3000 police searches and the detainment of 497 people of which 435 were released without charge.

October 17. On October 17, 1970, a week after Laporte was kidnapped, he was found dead in the trunk of an abandoned car near a Montreal airport. His death marked Canada’s first political assassination in over a century and signalled a major turning point in public sentiment towards the FLQ. The following weeks, warrants were put out for multiple members of the FLQ, and those responsible for the kidnapping of James Cross were taken into custody on December 2, 1970. After these arrests, the police negotiated the release of Cross in exchange for the safe passage of some of the FLQ members to Cuba. Cross was released in relatively healthy conditions after spending over two months in captivity. Although investigations and arrests would continue, the crisis was over.

The Legacy of the October Crisis

The handling of the October Crisis became a defining moment for Pierre Elliot Trudeau and incited debate about how governments should respond to domestic threats to public safety. While Trudeau is often seen as a “champion of human rights,” the suspension of civil liberties under the War Measures Act and the search, arrest, and detention of people whose only crime was being nationalists would come, over time, to be seen as a major overreach on the part of the federal government infringing on the rights of Canadians. At the time that the War Measures Act was called, there was a great deal of support, although after, critique has been substantial and widespread.

On the one hand, Prime Minister Trudeau prioritized safety and the prevention of further violence. In the famous “just watch me” interview, he also addressed critics of the act, stating: “There’s a lot of bleeding hearts around that don’t like to see people with helmets and guns. All I can say is, go on and bleed. It’s more important to keep law and order in this society than to be worried about weak-kneed people who don’t like the looks of a soldier’s helmet.” On the other hand, the FLQ was not a large organization and it was known to police at the time there were relatively few people involved in the violent actions it undertook, yet many innocent Quebecers’ basic civil rights and liberties were suspended without reason. Ultimately, the use of the War Measures Act—justified or not—highlights the difficulties that democratic governments face when dealing with domestic concerns and threats to public safety.

In 1988, the War Measures Act was officially repealed, and replaced by the Emergencies Act. Under the act, all powers granted to the federal government require the approval and consent of the Canadian Parliament and can only be used for national emergencies, public welfare emergencies, public order emergencies, international emergencies, or war emergencies.

Further, unlike the War Measures Act, individuals who are impacted during the use of the Emergencies Act can seek compensation from the government, and government actions during the Emergencies Act are required to obey the rules and guidelines set out in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the Canadian Bill of Rights.  The changes from the War Measures Act and the parameters under which an emergency should be called under the Emergencies Act would be an important point of discussion during the 2022 truckers’ convoy which resulted in an occupation of downtown Ottawa in protest of COVID-19 related health restrictions.

Beyond the use of the War Measures Act the actions of the FLQ and the October Crisis had demonstrated the deep-seeded nature of nationalism. The FLQ manifesto had resonated deeply with a wide range of Quebecois, and particularly with students, unions, and others. Although the FLQ lost public support with the murder of Pierre Laporte, the nationalist commitments they had espoused were widespread. Over the course of the 1970s, there were many ways that nationalism in Quebec would grow, the most significant of which occurred in the legislature, with the rise of the Parti Québécois and their successful election to the Assemblée nationale in 1976. Immediately after their election, they would implement legislation to protect the French language, and their mandate was organized around obtaining autonomy for Quebec. The emergence of the Parti Québécois at the same time and in the wake of the October Crisis was not necessarily started by or even catalyzed by the October Crisis, but the events of October 1970 and the public exposure to both the FLQ’s ideas and the reaction of the federal government certainly brought the question of Quebec sovereignty to the fore of national and provincial politics.

Additional resources:

Contributors: Ashaz Ahmed, David Egedi, Stefan Derksen Hiebert, Bessie McGinn, Marcus Puntillo, Siming Tao, Lucas Vieira, Ariane Robbins, Kirsten Dunn, Michael Burrows, Jillian Franz, Jasmina Umarova, Jack McMillan, Laura Robichaud