The Lessons of October

The October Crisis began in Montreal, Quebec, on October 5, 1970, when the British Trade Commissioner, James Cross, was kidnapped by the Front de Liberation du Quebec (the Front for the Liberation of Quebec), betterk nown as the FLQ. This was the first such political crime to have occurred on Canadian soil. Five days later, the Quebec Labour Minister, Pierre Laporte, was kidnapped by another cell of the FLQ.

These kidnappings, coupled with a bombing campaign in where bombs were left inside postal mailboxes (in total, one person died from the mailbox bombings), had raised fears of a militant overthrow of the social order. When asked how far he would go to defeat the FLQ, even at the cost of civil rights, then prime minister of Canada Pierre Trudeau simply replied "just watch me."

Subsequently, ten days after James Cross was first kidnapped, Trudeau introduced the War Measures Act, which never before had been enacted in peace time. By doing so, the entire country was under martial law, meaning that someone could be arrested and held without a warrant on the other side of the country, even though the disturbance was taking place thousands of kilometers away. Meanwhile, seven battalions of Canadian soldiers were sent into Montreal to re-establish "the rule of law".

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By noon the next day, some 455 men and and women suspected of being friendly to the FLQ had been arrested without warrants or charges. At the same time, the government's senior Quebec minister added to the sense of panic by warning a frightened parliament that the FLQ had 3,000 trained members with machine guns, bombs, and dynamite, and were ready to blow up downtown Montreal. The Quebec Justice Minister fanned the flames further calling the insurrection "a pre-revolutionary situation."

The FLQ, however, was not intimidated by all this. The next day, the body of Pierre Laporte was found, strangled with the chain of his own crucifix and stuffed into a car which had been abandoned at an airport parking lot.

Politics Over Reality

Without getting too much into the details of Canadian history and politics, at the center of the issues facing the country during that turbulent time was akin to the liberation movements going on throughout the world, including several western societies as well. The province of Quebec is like a state within a state: the population is French, Catholic, and they have a long and proud history. They are surrounded by the rest of the country which is English, Protestant, and has a more fragmented heritage.

The 1960s was a period when Quebec became more aware and expressive of its national identity. It was also the birth of the separatist movement, which sought to separate the province from the rest of the country in order to preserve its cultural heritage. Henceforth, politics in Canada has been a power struggle between the federalists, who want strong, central control, and those who want more power at the provincial level.

The importance of the October Crisis for the Trudeau government then was not that different to what 9/11 was for the Bush government now: an opportunity to exploit an event to advance a political agenda. In both cases, the media was used as a means to further this agenda. The way the Bush administration first tried to connect Saddam Hussein to 9/11, then to Osama bin Laden, and finally to weapons of mass destruction, all as an excuse to attack Iraq so as to get rid of a political opponent, is perhaps the most vivid example of this.

It was not obvious at the time with Trudeau in Canada, however, nor is it obvious even today. In order for Trudeau to get away with his cheeky defiance when prompted how far he would go to defeat the FLQ and, more importantly, in order to use the War Measures Act as a weapon with which to intimidate Quebec separatists, he needed to turn the disturbances which were going on in Montreal into a national crisis. This he achieved by portraying a discussion by several leading Quebec figures as a coup plot.

Consequently, rumors put out anonymously by Trudeau were passed on to the media. News reports soon began to circulate that a parallel power was attempting to set up a provisional government in Quebec that would preside over the transfer of constitutional powers to a revolutionary regime. While some analysts ridiculed the idea as a "fantasy born of hysteria", others took the claim quite seriously.

It since has been revealed that news of the coup plot was a concocted lie. The discussions which had taken place among influential Quebec leaders did actually occur, but was not about setting up a parallel government. Instead, it was mostly concerned with enlisting the help of community leaders to strengthen the provincial government's fragile hold on power. Many feared that if the provincial government lost control of the situation, then the federal government would place Quebec under some sort of stewardship. For those who were not separatists yet still proud citizens of Quebec, the idea of full federal control of the province was unacceptable.

The formula of Trudeau

While the tactics employed by Trudeau in the 1970s and Bush nowadays are in many ways similar, the major difference between them has to do with style and substance. George W. Bush is basically a puppet; if the Master Puppeteer (i.e., Karl Rove) is not around to orchestrate his every move and sentence, the inability of Bush to communicate is plain for all to see. Trudeau, on the other hand, had the charisma and the ability to communicate his message clearly and cleverly.

As a result, Trudeau was able to deftly handle the aftermath of the October Crisis. At a press conference on October 31, 1970, when the worst seemed to be over, he distanced himself from the rumors that he himself had circulated so that he could enact the War Measures Act. He admitted that the administration was "looking over the shoulder" of those who were supposedly intending to form a provisional regime, but then went on to remark that there had never been any hard evidence that the group was going to carry out its intentions. He then dismissed the rumors and unconfirmed speculation, noting that it was the political opposition and the mass media which were generally at fault.

In essence, what Trudeau had brilliantly done was to leave those who had carried his message in the lurch. The media turned on itself, killing the messenger in the process. Trudeau's abuse of power was far from anyone's mind.

The formula Trudeau used during the October Crisis has been often repeated since, yet none of them as skillfully as the original. For instance, aside from the scale and global aspect to the so-called war on terror, George W. Bush's legacy will be perpetually haunted by the lies and misinformation that had erroneously led the US to war.

Pierre Trudeau, meanwhile, can continue to rest peacefully in his grave. Although his machinations have been made public since his death, his image remains largely untarnished. Indeed, most Canadians are no longer aware of the significance to the October Crisis -- that is, if they even knew or cared about what happened 35 years ago in the first place.