On This Day: FLQ kidnaps Pierre Laporte, 1970

On Oct. 10, 1970, two masked members of the Front de libération du Québec kidnapped Quebec cabinet minister Pierre Laporte from the front lawn of his home in Saint-Lambert, a second abduction in six days that pushed Canada into the October Crisis.

Laporte, 49, was Quebec’s deputy premier and its minister of immigration, manpower and labour, according to The Canadian Encyclopedia. He was playing football with a nephew when the kidnappers arrived shortly after a government deadline had passed. The encyclopedia said they belonged to the FLQ’s Chénier cell and had found his address in the phone book.

The kidnapping came after a different FLQ cell, the Liberation cell, seized British trade commissioner James Cross from his Montreal home on Oct. 5. That cell issued seven demands, including the release of 23 FLQ “political prisoners,” publication of the group’s manifesto, $500,000 and safe passage to Cuba or Algeria.

The Quebec government rejected the ultimatum but said it was willing to negotiate. Police arrested 30 people in dawn raids in the days that followed.

The Liberation cell then extended its deadline to 6 p.m. on Oct. 10. Before it expired, Quebec justice minister Jérôme Choquette announced that Cross’s captors would be given safe passage out of the country if he was released, but that none of the other demands would be met. Laporte was taken shortly afterward.

The following day, the Chénier cell released two letters Laporte had written, one to his wife and one to Premier Robert Bourassa. The cell threatened to kill him unless all seven demands were met by 10 p.m. Shortly before the deadline, Bourassa said on radio that he would not meet the demands but was open to further negotiations. The cell postponed its threat.

The Canadian Museum of History said the kidnapping was unprecedented. “That sort of thing was unheard of in Canada,” the museum wrote, adding that rumours spread that an insurrection might be starting and that the Canadian Army was called in to support exhausted police officers.

On Oct. 16, at the request of Bourassa, the Montreal municipal government and the Montreal police, the federal government invoked the War Measures Act, citing an “apprehended insurrection.” The FLQ was outlawed, membership became a criminal offence and police were authorized to make arrests without charge. More than 250 people were arrested within 48 hours.

The decision drew sharp dissent in the House of Commons. NDP Leader Tommy Douglas called it “a sledgehammer to crack a peanut,” the encyclopedia said. Polls at the time showed a clear majority of Canadians supported the measure.

Laporte’s body was found at 10:50 p.m. on Oct. 17 in the trunk of a car abandoned near the Saint-Hubert airport. An autopsy later showed he had been strangled. The Canadian Encyclopedia said the car belonged to FLQ member Paul Rose, who was later found guilty of the murder. The Museum of History described it as the first political assassination in Canada since the killing of Thomas D’Arcy McGee in 1868.

Cross was released on Dec. 3 after 59 days in captivity, in exchange for safe passage to Cuba for the members of the Liberation cell. The encyclopedia said he lost 22 pounds, was otherwise in good health and described his captors as courteous.

The Public Order Act replaced the War Measures Act on Dec. 1, 1970, and remained in effect until April 30, 1971. Parliament later retired the War Measures Act altogether and replaced it with the Emergencies Act in 1988, a law that includes stronger safeguards and parliamentary oversight.

More than five decades later, the October Crisis remains one of the most debated episodes in Canadian history, cited whenever governments weigh emergency powers against civil liberties. It also marked the end of the FLQ as a force in Quebec politics.

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Sources: The Canadian Encyclopedia, October Crisis; The Canadian Encyclopedia, Pierre Laporte; Canadian Museum of History, The October Crisis: A Personal Experience.