Blog #9: October Crisis and War Measures Act

The French Canadians didn't want to be treated as second-class citizens. By the late 1960s separatist groups began terrorist acts to press their demands. On October 5, 1970, the British trade commissioner, James Cross was kidnapped by four men from the Front de Liberation du Quebec (FLQ). The FLQ demanded $500 000 in money, transportation to Cuba, release of the "political prisoners" and read the FLQ manifesto(declaration of beliefs) over national television networks. Only 5 days later, Quebec cabinet minister Pierre Laporte was kidnapped. Unfortunately, Pierre Laporte's dead body was found later and the crisis deepened. When Quebec Premier Robert Bourassa asked the federal government for help, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau sent in Canadian Troops and brought the War Measures Act. It took away the civil rights of Canadian because it allowed police to arrest, question, and detain suspects, without charging them, for up to ninety days.

Was the use of War Measures Act justified? In my opinion, it was justified because the FLQ was going too far and the government could not just give all the things that the FLQ wanted because they were communicating though kidnapping, terrorizing, dealing and the use of threats. If Pierre Trudeau's government had not acted strong toward this crisis and had given what was demanded by the FLQ, then the crisis could have turned out worse. I also think that it was a good opportunity to show the power of the government in prevention of the future occurrences of the events like the October Crisis and the creation of  the groups such as the  FLQ. Police all over Quebec conducted thousands of searches and arrested more than four hundred people. After two months, the RCMO and the Quebec police found James Cross. The significance of this event would be that it put a stop to separatist terrorism and it played its role as an alarm for Canada to realize that the relations between the French Canadians and the English Canadians are critical and that it is time to resolve the conflicts which soon led to the Meech Lake Accord and the Charlottetown proposal.