The October Crisis of 1970 – 50th Anniversary ⚜️ | Royal Canadian Legion, US Zone, Branch #25

This is an interesting item from the Legion Magazine.

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TIMELINE

This timeline highlights the main events leading up to and at the height of the October Crisis, when the FLQ – a separatist group promoting an independent Quebec – kidnapped a cabinet minister and a British trade commissioner, prompting the federal government to enact the War Measures Act.

MEMOIRS

We invited readers from across Canada to submit their memories. What event was most vivid? Where were they? What were they doing?

FACE TO FACE

Should the James Cross kidnappers have been granted safe passage to Cuba?

ARTIFACTS

The FLQ embraced violence to achieve political and social reform—armed robbery, bombings, hijackings, kidnappings and murder. Eight people were killed in the violence, dozens maimed and hundreds injured.

October 5, 1970

British Trade Commissioner James Cross was kidnapped in Montreal, Quebec. Ransom demands from the Liberation cell of the FLQ included the release of 23 “political prisoners”; $500,000 in gold; broadcast and publication of the FLQ Manifesto; and an aircraft to take the kidnappers to Cuba or Algeria.

What happened next?