Episode 189: Starting in 1963 and stretching over the next seven years, a militant French separatist group called the Front de libération du Québec (FLQ) terrorized La Belle Province. Their aim was to overthrow the Quebec government and leave Canada creating an independent Marxist- Leninist Quebec state. By 1970 the group had committed more than 200 violent criminal and terroristic acts including, bombings and high profile kidnappings. The group’s activities ultimately claimed the lives of eight people, including a Quebec provincial cabinet minister, and injured many more, before then Prime Minister, Pierre Elliot Trudeau, finding himself out of options, enacted the 1914 War Measures act to stem the violence of the October Crisis of 1970.
Sources:
Timeline of the Front de libération du Québec – Wikipedia
CBC Archives — What is the FLQ?
Web Archive | McGill.ca — October Crisis 1970
October Crisis – Canada’s Human Rights History
FLQ (FRONT DE LIBERATION DU QUEBEC) – SEVEN YEARS OF TERRORISM | Office of Justice Programs
Read Hostages Online by Gordon Kerr | Books
Read Terror Threat Online by Dwight Hamilton and Kostas Rimsa | Books
Read The Night Canada Stood Still Online by Robert Wright | Books
Read Trudeaumania Online by Robert Wright | Books
Read October Crisis: 50 Years After A Bloody Spasm That Nearly Tore Canada Apart
DEMOCRACY VERSUS TERRORISM: FLQ TERRORISM IN QUEBEC, A CASE STUDY on JSTOR
The Terrorist Activities of the Front de Liberation du Quebec (FLQ) – The Beginning of a New Era
Pierre Vallières (1937-1998) – The Beginning of a New Era
Front de libération du Québec (FLQ) | The Canadian Encyclopedia
THE FLQ: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF A TERRORIST ORGANIZATION by Lorne Weston
The FLQ Crisis – VALOUR CANADA
« Front de libération du Québec (FLQ)» : tous nos articles | Le Devoir
Commission of Inquiry Concerning Certain Activities of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police
Royal Commission of Inquiry into Certain Activities of the RCMP – Wikipedia
October Crisis: Who was Pierre Laporte, really? | Montreal Gazette
La police connaissait les ravisseurs de Cross et Laporte | Radio-Canada.ca
Canada – The Trudeau years, 1968–84 | Britannica
Regina v. Vallieres, 1969 CanLII 1000 (QC CA), <https://canlii.ca/t/hv0p9>
Regina v. Vallieres, 1973 CanLII 1418 (QC CA), <https://canlii.ca/t/htwgv>
R. v. Cossette-Trudel, 1979 CanLII 2876 (QC CQ), <https://canlii.ca/t/gbz8c>
Chronology of the October Crisis, 1970, and its Aftermath – Quebec History
Message of the FLQ to the Nation 1963
YouTube — Trudeau: Just watch me
Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/darkpoutine
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices