Front de Libération du Québec
The most extreme separatists in Quebec had never believed in democratic methods to solve problems. They wanted separation right away and would do anything they could to get that. In the 1950's and 1960's terror tactics such as bombing, kidnapping, and assassination to force governments to give them what they wanted were happening all over the world in pretty much all the countries. Since 1963 Quebec had suffered from scattered acts of separatist violence, mainly bombings which usually did little damage. In October 1970, a small group of terrorist-separatists caused what became one of the most serious political crisis in Canadian history.
The Front de libération du Québec, more commonly known as the FLQ, was a Canadian group of violent separatists formed in 1960 that wanted Quebec to be its own country with its own government system and its own laws. The FLQ was based mostly in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, where they performed terrorist attacks on government symbols to try and free Quebec from Canada. In 1963 members of the FLQ were organized and trained by Georges Schoeters, a Belgian revolutionary. The FLQ committed over 200 political actions since then, including bombings and bank hold-ups by 1970. The FLQ killed 5 citizens during those terrorist actions. The FLQ targeted government symbols, for example; English owned businesses, McGill University, and mail boxes. Members of the FLQ didn’t always get away with there dangerous stunts. By 1970, 23 members of the FLQ were in prison, including 4 convicted murders; one of them killed themselves in an FLQ bomb explosion.
The FLQ didn’t directly target the government until October 5, 1970, when the terrorist group kidnapped the British trade commissioner, James Richard Cross. The FLQ demanded that the government free a number of convicted FLQ members and that they could broadcast there manifesto. Demands were not met and only 5 days later the FLQ kidnapped another, this time the...