The FLQ: A Canadian Insurgency

TL;DRAbstract

Canada was shaken by separatist violence 25 years ago when a group calling itself the Front de Liberation du Quebec (FLQ) was nearing the end of a nearly 10-year bombing and bank-robbing spree that was about to turn even more violent. In October 1970, a British diplomat and Quebec government minister were kidnapped. The diplomat, James Cross, was released unharmed 59 days later, and his captors were allowed to fly to Cuba. But the FLQ cell holding the minister, Pierre Laporte, strangled him to death on October 17th. Ottawa meanwhile had invoked the rarely used War Measures Act to flood the province of Quebec with troops and summarily arrest 497 people, the vast majority of whom were shown to have had nothing to do with the violence. After considerable police bungling, the FLQ was finally broken up and its members imprisoned or exiled. More than two decades later, the "October Crisis" continues to provoke debate in Canada. A controversial 1994 movie called "October" re-examines the Lapo

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