The October Crisis, 1970: An Insider’s View

Type of resource
Author/collaborator
Title
The October Crisis, 1970: An Insider’s View
Abstract
William Tetley (1927-2014) was the Minister of Financial Institutions, Companies, Cooperatives and Consumer Protection in the Cabinet of Quebec Liberal Premier Robert Bourassa during the time of the terrorist-instigated October Crisis of 1970. Following the kidnappings of British Trade Commissioner James Cross and Quebec Labour Minister Pierre Laporte (who was later murdered) by the Front de Libération du Québec (FLQ), a self-proclaimed revolutionary organization promoting an independent and socialist Quebec, Bourassa's government refused to exchange twenty-three jailed FLQ terrorists for the two hostages. By the evening of 15 October, 3,000 outraged Quebecers appeared poised to riot. Fearing insurrection, the federal government implemented the War Measures Act and jailed 497 people. Some historians cite this event as an unjustified assault on civil rights and political liberty. The author challenges this assumption. Tetley breaks the government's silence about the event and, with reference to now available documentation and passages from his own 1970 diary, he reveals details of the government's decision-making process.
Place
Montreal and Kingston
Publisher
McGill-Queen’s University Press
Date
2006
# of Pages
xxxviii-274p.
Language
en
ISBN
978-0-7735-3801-6
Citation
Tetley, William. The October Crisis, 1970: An Insider’s View. Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2006.
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