October Crisis
Photo: Peter Bregg, October 16, 1970. Canadian Press, 922439
1970
In October 1970, the Front de libération du Québec (FLQ) kidnapped British Trade Commissioner James Cross and Quebec Labour Minister Pierre Laporte. In response, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau invoked the War Measures Act, a peacetime first, and hundreds of Quebecers were arrested. Cross was eventually released unharmed, but Laporte was murdered, and the FLQ soon collapsed.
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