The Front de liberation du Québec is not a messiah, nor a modern-day Robin Hood. It is a group of Québec workers who have decided to use every means to make sure that the people of Québec take control of their destiny.
(from the FLQ Manifesto, 1970)
The Front de Libération du Québec (FLQ) was an underground separatist group in Québec that emerged during the 1960s. Their primary goal, as stated in their manifesto, was that of liberating the mostly-Francophone province of Quebec from the tyranny of an Anglocentric federal government that refused to acknowledge the province's concerns and special needs; radically left-wing, they also called for the formation of a society that might protect workers from exploitation. Their rise to prominence and notoriety came about mostly because of Québec's changing political climate, exemplified by the Quiet Revolution.
In 1960, Jean Lesage led his Liberal party to victory in a provincial election, beating out the Union Nationale, in disarray after the 1959 death of their leader, Maurice Duplessis. Despite his support for the principles of provincial autonomy, Duplessis had been a staunch conservative when it came to social and fiscal issues; he may well have been responsible for starting the modernisation of Québec, but by the end of his political career he was widely disliked for his lack of a social conscience and alleged corruption in his government.
Lesage's victory ushered in a new era of changes. Historically dominated by the Roman Catholic Church, Québec suddenly became far more secular as people began to reconsider and reject the Church's traditional values. Nationalism increased as Québecers started to question their place in a predominantly English-speaking country. As far as autonomy went, the new government picked up where Duplessis had left off, albeit considerably more left-leaning; a number of social programmes were created and implemented as Québec took more control over its own affairs rather than relying on the federal government for guidance.
The changes were so sudden that a Toronto journalist with the Globe and Mail coined the term "The Quiet Revolution" to describe them: this was nothing less than a wholesale political revolution, but so far it had taken place almost silently, with no vocal opposition and no violence.
The revolution turned bloody in spring 1963; on April 20 and 21, Anglophone districts of Montréal were rocked by Molotov cocktails and dynamite in mailboxes. Their first victim was an elderly watchman with the Canadian Army Recruitment Centre, Wilfred O'Neil; when he was killed by a blast, he was less than a month away from retirement.
The group that took credit for the attacks was the Front de Libération du Québec. They had been brought together and trained by a Belgian, Georges Schoeters; his inspiration came from Che Guevara's actions in Chile, and he tried to impart the revolutionary fervour he felt made Guevara admirable to those that he trained. At least two members of the FLQ had also been to Jordan, where they had received specialised guerilla training from Palestinian insurgents.
The measures that were taken to ensure that its members were well-prepared for anything that might come their way proves that the FLQ was not fooling around -- they took their cause very, very seriously, and fully intended to realise their ambition of a sovereign Québec. It is easy to sympathise with their cause; the Quiet Revolution caused the people of Québec to see themselves as Québecois, not merely Francophones, and to have this new identity assimilated into the Anglophone mainstream so soon after it was discovered would be a tragic loss indeed.
The means that they used to further their cause are more difficult to condone. As the 1960s progressed, more bombs were set off in more Anglophone areas; Schoeters was arrested shortly after the first series of bombings and given two five-year prison terms for political crimes, but the FLQ pressed on without him. From its inception until 1970, the FLQ was responsible for more than two hundred separate crimes, from bombings to bank robberies. Two people were killed by FLQ bombs; three others died in gunfights. Bombs tore through the Montréal Stock Exchange in February 1969, injuring twenty-seven. The worst was still to come.
Schoeters was gone, but FLQ membership was on the rise. To facilitate organisation, it was divided into mostly-independent cells, each with its own agenda within the common object of a free Québec: the Viger Cell, the Louis Riel Cell (named for the great Métis leader), the Dieppe Cell (after the World War I battle wherein Canada played an important role), the Nelson Cell, the Saint-Denis Cell, the Liberation Cell, and the Chénier Cell.
FLQ actions became far more serious in 1970. On October 5, members of the Chénier cell kidnapped British Trade Commissioner James Richard Cross. This was the beginning of the October Crisis; it continued when five days later, the Liberation cell kidnapped Québec's Minister of Labour, Pierre Laporte. Laporte was killed on October 17, after which point Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau brought in the War Measures Act, which among other things made membership in the FLQ illegal. The effective declaration of martial law made insurrection all but impossible; this signalled the beginning of the end of the crisis.
Cross was released unharmed when police discovered the house where he was being held in December. In return for his release, five of the FLQ members who had kidnapped him in the first place were granted safe passage to Cuba by the Government of Canada.
One of those involved with the Cross kidnapping was not a Francophone at all. Nigel Barry Hamer was an FLQ sympathiser and a radical socialist, but he was from Great Britain, not Québec. Hamer was also the first of the Liberation cell to be brought to justice. He was arrested and charged for his involvement in July 1980 -- nearly ten years after the fact -- and after pleading guilty was sentenced to a year in jail.
The members of the Liberation cell who had fled to Cuba after Cross was released had been exiled from Canada for life; but after some years spent living in Cuba and later in Paris, they decided to return. Jacques Cossette-Trudel, Louise Lanctôt, and Jacques Lanctôt pleaded guilty in their trial and were sentenced to two years in prison; they were released on parole after eight months. Marc Carbonneau faced a twenty-month prison sentence followed by three years of probation for his part in the kidnapping. Yves Langlois was given a two-year sentence, less a day, but was released after ten months.
The members of the Chénier cell had stayed in Canada, but managed to evade police capture until January 1971. All of the members of the cell -- Paul Rose, his brother Jacques Rose, Francis Simard, and Bernard Lortie -- were charged with kidnapping and murder, and subsequently found guilty.
Separatism is still a contentious issue in Canada, though its proponents have turned away from violence as a means to gain sovereignty for Québec. Since their release from jail, both Jacques and Paul Rose have been active supporters of the modern-day separatists; some have written and published analyses of the October Crisis, and still others have stepped away from the limelight entirely.
The FLQ left behind them a legacy of violence and terror -- but they were certainly successful in drawing attention to their cause from the entire country. This also saw to the emergence of two new political parties: the Parti Quebeçois provincially, and the Bloc Quebeçois on the federal level, both of which espoused separation. Both parties are still in existence, and both have enough popular support to ensure their longevity.
Sources:
Fournier, Louis. F.L.Q.: The Anatomy of an Underground Movement, trans. Edward Baxter. Toronto: NC Press Limited, 1984.
Belanger, Claude. Quiet Revolution. Marianopolis College. http://www2.marianopolis.edu/quebechistory/events/quiet.htm (19 August 2004)
Front de Libération du Québec. Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Front_de_Lib%E9ration_du_Qu%E9bec (19 August 2004)
Manifesto of the FLQ. Marianopolis College. http://www2.marianopolis.edu/quebechistory/docs/october/manifest.htm (19 August 2004)