Source:
http://archives.radio-canada.ca
The Quiet Revolution turned bloody in 1963. On April 20 and
21, Molotov cocktails and dynamite time bombs planted by l'ArmŽe de libŽration
du QuŽbec rocked Anglo-Saxon Montreal. The
group's first victim was Wilfred O'Neil, a 65-year-old war veteran one month
away from his pension. Another, explosives expert Walter Leja, was maimed for
life while digging out a bomb in a Westmount mailbox on May 13, 1963 or
"black Friday." On Feb. 13, 1969, more bombs exploded, ripping
through the Montreal Stock Exchange and injuring 27. It was the work of fed-up
QuŽbŽcois nationalists looking for Ottawa's recognition. They became the Front
de libŽration du QuŽbec.
Ą Nationalist sentiment growing in Quebec under the government of Liberal Premier Jean Lesage was known as the Quiet Revolution.
Ą From 1960 to 1966 Lesage instituted social, economic and educational reform and helped foster a desire for special status for QuŽbec within Confederation.
Ą L'ArmŽe de libŽration du QuŽbec was an antecedent group to the FLQ. The two groups participated in the 1963 Montreal bombing spree.
Ą The FLQ was made up of several cells. Two separate ones orchestrated the October Crisis kidnappings: the Liberation cell, responsible for kidnapping then British Trade commissioner James Cross, and the more radical Chenier cell which abducted and killed then Quebec Labour minister Pierre Laporte.
In October 1970, tanks roamed city streets and soldiers in full battle gear raided homes in their hunt for "terrorists." They were looking for the Front de libŽration du QuŽbec; French Canadian nationalists who abducted a British diplomat and a Quebec minister. Some felt like they were living in a police state. How far would Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau go? "Just watch me," he said. Three days later he invoked the War Measures Act and a nation waited with civil liberties suspended.
Canada looks more like a police state than a democracy eight days after the kidnapping of British Trade Commissioner James Cross. On Parliament Hill a reporter confronts Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau: "What is it with all these men and guns around here?" By calling in army tanks and men in full gear, Trudeau boosted national security. But the military's presence makes some Canadians feel a whole lot less secure. How far will the prime minister extend law and order? Just watch him.
Ą Three days later Trudeau invoked the War Measures Act, giving police the right to arrest and detain people on suspicion alone.
Ą The act, created in 1914 for cases of war or national emergency, was repealed in 1985.
Ą Trudeau also outlawed the Front de libŽration du QuŽbec and told police to arrest those with "extreme-left" literature, posters, stickers or pamphlets.
Ą Eighty-five per cent of Canadians agreed with invoking the act.
Source:
http://archives.radio-canada.ca
En
octobre 1970, le QuŽbec conna”t la plus grande crise de son histoire. Un groupe
terroriste, le Front de LibŽration du QuŽbec (FLQ), enlŹve lŐattachŽ commercial
de Grande-Bretagne, James Richard Cross, et le ministre quŽbŽcois, Pierre
Laporte. La Loi sur les mesures de guerre est invoquŽe. James Cross sŐen tire
sain et sauf, mais Pierre Laporte est retrouvŽ mort dans le coffre dŐune
voiture