The October Crisis: An Important Event In Canadian History

The October Crisis marked an important event in Canadian history in which the tension between Quebec separatists and Canada (particularly the federal government) still carries on today. The FLQ was a group of Quebecois who strongly believed in the separation of Quebec from Canada and the enforcement of a “distinct society”. Because of this rebellious group, they committed many violent crimes and thus they were considered a group of terrorism. The extreme happened in December when they kidnapped James Cross and Laporte, later on killing Laporte. It was like a battle between the FLQ and prime-minster Pierre Trudeau (at the time) to show who is more capable of doing the extreme. Of course Trudeau had to control the situation and therefore he put in strict laws/acts such as the War Measures Act. The effect of that decision was great because there were many Canadians whom were totally against it and it led to numerous protests. …show more content…
Trudeau handled the situation very well. He remained fairly calm and didn’t let the FLQ scare him into allowing Quebec to be separated officially. His decision of using the War Measures Act was smart because if there is suspected terrorism happening then you have no choice but to enforce something that will help or completely stop it. In the time that the October Crisis was happening, people were starting to become so rebellious to the point where nothing phased them. I think that it was normal to anticipate for a situation like the October Crisis to happen because economic issues like massive inflation, increasing levels of unemployment and foreign ownership will obviously upset some people. It was just unfortunate that some Quebecois were so upset that their outcry was delivered through acts of