Home · War & Conflict · Civil Unrest · The October Crisis: Civil Liberties Suspended
Topic spans: 1970 - 1970
The October Crisis: Civil Liberties Suspended
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 libération du Québec; 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.
15 television clips
7 radio clips
British diplomat kidnapped
Broadcast Date: Oct. 5, 1970
On Oct. 5, 1970, armed kidnappers force British Trade Commissioner James Cross into a taxi as he leaves his Montreal home for work. His wife Barbara says four men, three with machine guns and one with a revolver, showed up at the couple's home about four hours earlier. Security tightens around government offices as the Association for the Release of Political Prisoners sets up a news conference for this afternoon.British diplomat kidnapped
• A French Canadian nationalist group Front de libération du Québec was responsible for Cross's kidnapping.• The day of the kidnapping was Cross's birthday.
• For Cross's ransom, the FLQ made seven demands: broadcast and publication of the group's manifesto, $500,000 in gold, a plane to Cuba or Algeria, the reinstatement of Lapalme postal workers, the release 23 "political prisoners" from police custody, an end to searches for the group and the identites of informers.
• Cross's captives never revealed their faces to him.
• In a letter to his wife while in captivity, Cross purposely made a spelling error, hoping to convey that the FLQ had dictated the note.
• Cross's captives gave him a wide selection of revolutionary material to read.
British diplomat kidnapped
Medium: Radio
Program: CBC Radio News
Broadcast Date: Oct. 5, 1970
Guest(s):
Reporter: Ken McCreath
Duration: 1:34
Last updated:
Dec. 4, 2008
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22 clips in this topic . page
Radio
2:00
Oct. 10, 1970
Quebec Labour Minister Pierre Laporte is kidnapped by the FLQ in the escalating October Crisis.
Television
7:32
Dec. 5, 1970
For the first time since the October Crisis kidnapping, James Cross describes eight horrific weeks of confinement by the FLQ.
British diplomat kidnapped.
The CBC Digital Archives Website.
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
Last updated: Dec. 4, 2008.
[Page consulted on Feb. 13, 2012.]