October Crisis 1970s
The War Measures Act was brought in to destroy the FLQ (Front de Liberation du Quebec) in the nineteen seventies which affected many French-Canadians living in Quebec especially people living near the city of Montreal. This group was originated mainly from Quebec because the French-Canadians felt that they were isolated from the rest of the society, they decided to make their own country which they could keep practicing their culture, speak their language and have their own laws. Pierre Trudeau was a great prime minister of Canada especially when he dealt with the October Crisis by bringing in the War Measures Act to wipe out the FLQ. The FLQ were determined to get sovereignty for Quebec by using any means necessary including
…show more content…
They are responsible for almost 200 violent incidents including the kidnapping of James Cross and death of Pierre Laporte. In addition The FLQ had bombed the Montreal Stock Exchange injuring 27 people. Moreover when the October Crisis was finished, the five James Cross kidnappers fled to Cuba. However, they went to France and eventually came back to Canada but one member stayed in Montreal and was arrested in 1980. Further, the FLQ did achieve their goal of making the politicians realize that they were being unfair to the French-Canadians and later in the future this will start to change. As a matter of fact when the FLQ kidnapped James Cross and Pierre Laporte many were shocked raising the issue of bringing in the War Measures …show more content…
The War Measures Act gave power to the military to arrest and detain anyone who is “suspected” to be one of the members of the FLQ. In addition many officers they abused these powers, one of the French-Canadians said “my friend was taking a picture of one of the officers and he came up to him and arrested him”. When the death of Pierre Laporte happened it affected many Canadians from coast to coast bringing up the issue more. Moreover, the military were determined to find out where James Cross is before the same situation happens to him. Pierre Trudeau he was interviewed while he was going to work and his response was “Well there are a lot of bleeding hearts who just don’t like to see people with helmets and guns”. Furthermore, he was then asked by the interviewer how far he was going to take this situation and he said this famous quote “Just watch me”. Finally, near the end of the crisis the French-Canadians will realize they want to have their own country, coming forth an emerging democratic separatist