“This was probably the most miserable time I had in my complete political life.”
— Marc Lalonde, former Liberal Cupboard Minister (1972-1984)
MONTREAL -- Marc Lalonde is 90 years outdated and he tells me: “virtually retired.” In 1965 as a younger Montreal lawyer, Lalonde went to Ottawa to work for Prime Minister Lester Pearson.
He was the one French Canadian within the Prime Minister’s Workplace and one in all his jobs was to transient Pearson on Quebec politics. Lalonde remembers there “have been rising issues about what was taking place in Quebec.”
Within the Sixties, Quebec was altering quickly. It was referred to as a “Quiet Revolution” as financial and social change rippled by the province.
The tempo of change was not quick sufficient for a small radical aspect in Quebec. It wished nothing lower than an impartial, socialist Quebec.
In 1963, a bunch of these younger radicals shaped the Entrance de Liberation du Quebec, the FLQ. It took up arms and started a seven-year marketing campaign of violence.
Suspected separatists are introduced right into a police station Oct. 16, 1970, as troopers and police make arrests in separatist areas beneath the prolonged provisions of the particular warfare emegencies act (THE CANADIAN PRESS)
The FLQ stole dynamite and started bombing federal buildings, army bases and distinguished symbols of English financial domination in Quebec, just like the Montreal Inventory Alternate.
At this time, Lalonde is the one Canadian left who can inform the story of the FLQ disaster from contained in the Prime Minister’s Workplace. Once I reached out to him to share his account of the impression of the Entrance de Liberation du Quebec, Lalonde agreed instantly.
For Lalonde, the FLQ’s actions have been the starkest indication of a rising nationalism in Quebec. “I used to be shocked and amazed that individuals would assume that they would wish to resort to this type of motion to make that time,” he mentioned.
The FLQ goal was clear from the outset. Its first manifesto, in April 1963, vowed: “To arms! The hour of nationwide revolution has come! Independence or demise!”
A bomb planted by the FLQ was detonated contained in the Montreal Inventory Alternate constructing on Feb. 13, 1969, injuring 27 folks (CTV)
And that month the phobia marketing campaign claimed its first sufferer, a safety guard killed by a bomb. A couple of weeks later, a bomb disposal skilled was critically maimed making an attempt to defuse one in all 10 bombs planted in mailboxes in Westmount.
By 1968, when Pierre Trudeau turned prime minister, the bombing marketing campaign was rising and changing into extra brazen. Lalonde was now Trudeau’s principal secretary and remembers there was a rising consciousness of the impression of the FLQ terrorism. Seven lengthy years of FLQ bombs had claimed six lives and injured many extra.
On October 5, 1970, the FLQ raised the stakes, kidnapping British Commerce Commissioner James Cross in Montreal. It was North America’s first political kidnapping and started what's now identified in Canadian historical past because the October Disaster.
The kidnapping surprised Ottawa.
“No one anticipated this to happen, truthfully. It was a complete shock and a transparent problem to the federal authorities,” mentioned Lalonde. The disaster deepened 5 days later when one other FLQ cell kidnapped Pierre Laporte, the Quebec labour minister.
Trudeau used Lalonde to remain on high of developments in Quebec. Lalonde was advised that if the federal government didn’t do one thing, “the scenario would get uncontrolled.”
On October 16, Trudeau’s authorities invoked the Battle Measures Act.
(THE CANADIAN PRESS / Peter Bregg)
Lalonde remembers the cupboard “spent quite a lot of time taking a look at options and at last gave up.” The consensus was that solely the Battle Measures Act would give the federal government the powers it wanted to cease what seemed to be an FLQ rebel.
The Act, first handed at the start of the First World Battle, gave the federal government unprecedented powers in peacetime. Inside days, virtually 500 folks have been arrested.
The arrests and the military on the streets of Ottawa and in Quebec didn't cease the FLQ. Lower than 48 hours after invoking the Battle Measures Act, the physique of Pierre Laporte was discovered within the trunk of the identical automobile used to kidnap him.
Lalonde believes by killing Laporte, the FLQ misplaced all its help in Quebec. “I believe the kidnapping of Laporte and the assassination of Laporte revolted Quebeckers,” he mentioned.
On December 3, 1970, police secured the discharge of James Cross. His kidnappers have been flown to Cuba. On the finish of December, Laporte’s kidnappers have been arrested. The disaster was over.
For Marc Lalonde the occasions of October Disaster marked “probably the most miserable time” in his political profession. He says he had “the sensation of seeing Quebec society destroying itself.”
With the demise of the FLQ, the battle for Quebec independence moved to the poll field. Negotiating Quebec’s position in Canada took up many hours of Lalonde’s political years in Ottawa.
In his house, looking on the St. Lawrence River, Lalonde displays on Quebec’s place in Canada, 50 years later: “I'm assured in regards to the future and I believe Quebeckers are reconciled that the notion that their greatest future is inside Canada relatively than separate from Canada.”
Troopers of the Royal twenty second Regiment from Quebec Metropolis stand guard on one of many many bridges in Montreal after the Battle Measures Act was invoked on Oct. 16, 1970. (THE CANADIAN PRESS)
Marc Lalonde (left) speaks with Lloyd Robertson on Dec. 12, 2019 (W5)
Former prime minister Jean Chretien (left), who was head of Indian and Northern Affairs throughout the October Disaster, speaks with W5's Lloyd Robertson on Dec. 17, 2019 (W5)
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