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Labour minister found dead
Broadcast Date: Oct. 17, 1970
On Oct. 17, 1970, callers to a Montreal radio station tell reporters Quebec Labour Minister Pierre Laporte has been murdered and his body can be found in the St. Hubert airport parking lot. Laporte's body is discovered strangled in the trunk of a car, six days after the Front de libération du Québec snatched the minister from his Montreal home.Labour minister found dead
• The four members of the FLQ's Chenier cell were arrested.• Paul Rose and Francis Simard were sentenced to life in jail for Laporte's murder.
• Bernard Lortie was sentenced to 20 years for the kidnapping.
• Jacques Rose, who was initially acquitted, was later sentenced to eight years as an accessory to the crime.
• Years later the Duchaîne report, an official Quebec government inquiry, revealed Laporte was probably strangled by accident. In an attempt to restrain him from yelling for help, someone grabbed and held the neck of his sweater from behind, inadvertently strangling him with his gold necklace.
• The inquiry found that Paul Rose wasn't present the night Laporte died. In 1982, Rose was granted parole.
Labour minister found dead
Medium: Television
Program: CBC Television News
Broadcast Date: Oct. 17, 1970
Guest(s):
Duration: 1:21
Last updated:
March 3, 2008
Radio
1:34
Armed kidnappers forced British Trade Commissioner James Cross into a taxi as he left his Montreal home for work this morning.
Labour minister found dead.
The CBC Digital Archives Website.
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
Last updated: March 3, 2008.
[Page consulted on Feb. 13, 2012.]