October Crisis

It is acting to make clear to kidnappers, revolutionaries and assassins that in this country laws are made and changed by the elected representatives of all Canadians -not by a handful of self-selected dictators. Those who gain power through terror rule through terror. The government is acting, therefore, to protect your life and your liberty” (Belanger). This statement, made by Pierre Elliot Trudeau, was a televised statement justifying the Prime Minister’s decision to declare the War Measures Act during the October Crisis of 1970. The October Crisis of 1970 was a civil war between the Canadian government and a separatist group, Le Front de Libération du Québec, otherwise known as the FLQ. The crisis consisted of a series of events sparked…

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…

This paper will compare and discuss the strengths and weaknesses of Dominique Clément’s “The October Crisis of 1970: Human rights abuses under the War Measures Act”, and Ross Lambertson’s “The Black, Brown, White and Red Blues: The Beating of Clarence Clemons”. Both articles are rich with facts and explore fascinating issues in Canadian human rights history. That being said, this paper will argue that Clément’s article is superior. Clément’s article is better organized with clearer diction and…

perspective in the source to the extent that a strong leader can create stability in society such as when Pierre Trudeau activated the War Measures Act during the FLQ Crisis but not to the extent that individual rights and freedoms are threatened such as when Adolf Hitler used the Enabling Act to gain power and restricted the rights of the occupants of Germany. If everyone had civil liberties it would best serve the common good because their life, liberty, and property would be protected; this…

In 1970, a national liberation movement sprung up in Quebec, calling for an independent province. In October 1970, a Quebec minister and a British diplomat were abducted. In 1960 Quebec wanted to decolonize. Socialist groups started to pop up in Quebec. There were many groups that really wanted to achieve independence for the province without using terrorism or socialism. This lead to the creation of the Parti Quebecois. A national liberation movement was formed in 1963. It was called Le…

The Front de Libération du Québec, better known as the FLQ, is one of the most important movements that have existed in Canada. Their motif was for Quebec to gain independence, to do this, they orchestrated several bombings and robberies in the 1960s, eventually leading up to the October Crisis in the late months of 1970. The kidnapping of James Cross and Pierre Laporte lead to the enactment of the War Measures Act. The ways the War Measures Act affected Canadians was drastic, though Pierre…

The War Measures Act had previously been used on two war occasions in Canadian history, therefore its use during the October Crisis was one of extreme desperation, eventuating positively. The War Measures’ Act was invoked in August of 1914 to transfer Parliamentary power to the federal cabinet, thus allowing Canada to eliminate corruption, alike with the First World War. The War Measures Act gave powers to the Government and suspended operation of the Canadian Bill of Rights, entailing that all…

The Handmaid's Tale It is a book by Margaret Atwood, a Canadian citizen. This was written by and issued in 1995. This story is set in New England in a totalitarian and Christian theonomy that overthrew the government of United States (Atwood, pg. 6). The novel entails the journey of the handmaid Offred, emphasizing on the possessive nature of Fred as handmaids are forbidden in using their names and echo the male or master that they serve. The tale explores the women themes of women in…

job setting. A crisis can be defined in many ways. According to Kanel (2014), a crisis is a state of disequilibrium that occurs after a stressor (precipitating event). The person is then unable to function in one or more areas of his or her life because customary coping mechanisms have failed. An example of a crisis that I recently dealt with was with one of the students I currently work with. He lost his mother on October 31st a few years ago. At the beginning of October he typically begins to…

establishment of the Republic as the first president Alexander Kerensky. As the setting for the popular uprising against the monarchy was already prepared, as the revolution: the acute food crisis that caused widespread famine, especially in the capital, frequent and crushing defeats of the Russian armies in the war against Germany and the bloody repression ordered by the government. It was in this climate that the revolution broke out in the Russian capital and then spread throughout the…