Conflict episode

October Crisis, 1970

After FLQ kidnappings, the federal government invoked the War Measures Act; Pierre Laporte was killed and hundreds of people were detained.

What happened

In October 1970 the Front de libération du Québec kidnapped the British Trade Commissioner, James Cross, and the Quebec cabinet minister Pierre Laporte.[1] On 16 October the federal government invoked the War Measures Act, its first use in peacetime, allowing arrest and detention on suspicion.[2] Laporte was found dead the next day, killed by the FLQ.[3]

Police carried out more than 3,000 searches and detained 497 people.[4] The historian Dominique Clément argues that the measures were applied with a bias against nationalists and the left and led to extensive human-rights abuses.[5]

Sources for this page

Each number marks a specific claim. Notes give the source, its locator and how it relates to the claim.

  1. 1.

    Claim: In October 1970 the Front de libération du Québec, a separatist group, kidnapped British Trade Commissioner James Cross and Quebec cabinet minister Pierre Laporte.

    • CBC Archives, ‘Just watch me’: When Pierre Trudeau confronted the October Crisis (CBC, 21 June 2018) link, article text. Source record
  2. 2.

    Claim: On 16 October 1970 the federal government invoked the War Measures Act, the first peacetime use of the Act, giving police power to arrest and detain people on suspicion.

    • CBC Archives, ‘Just watch me’: When Pierre Trudeau confronted the October Crisis (CBC, 21 June 2018) link, article text and photo caption. Source record
    • Clément, Dominique, The October Crisis of 1970: Human Rights Abuses Under the War Measures Act, Journal of Canadian Studies (Spring 2008) link, p. 166. Source record
  3. 3.

    Claim: Pierre Laporte was found dead the next day, killed by the FLQ.

    • Clément, Dominique, The October Crisis of 1970: Human Rights Abuses Under the War Measures Act, Journal of Canadian Studies (Spring 2008) link, p. 166. Source record
  4. 4.

    Claim: Police conducted more than 3,000 searches and detained 497 people under the emergency measures.

    • Clément, Dominique, The October Crisis of 1970: Human Rights Abuses Under the War Measures Act, Journal of Canadian Studies (Spring 2008) link, p. 167. Source record
  5. 5.

    Claim: Dominique Clément argues that police actions under the War Measures Act showed a clear bias against nationalists and the political left, and that the crisis produced extensive human-rights abuses across Canada. Attributed to Dominique Clément (2008)

    • Clément, Dominique, The October Crisis of 1970: Human Rights Abuses Under the War Measures Act, Journal of Canadian Studies (Spring 2008) link, pp. 160 and 167. Source record

Source note

Show in the notes list