Black October | |
---|---|
Written by | Terence McKenna |
Directed by | Terence McKenna |
Narrated by | Terence McKenna |
Country of origin | Canada |
Original language | English |
Production | |
Producer | Stephen Phizicky |
Original release | |
Network | CBC |
Release | October 8, 2000 |
Black October is a 2000 documentary film written, directed and narrated by Terence McKenna and produced by Stephen Phizicky for CBC television on the October Crisis in Canada which aired in October 2000. It focuses on the autumn of 1970, following the kidnapping of British Trade Commissioner James Cross and Quebec Minister of Labour Pierre Laporte by the Front de libération du Québec in October. The War Measures Act was declared by Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau a day before it was discovered Laporte was executed.
The film includes interviews with Pierre Trudeau, his then Principal Secretary Marc Lalonde, Quebec Minister of Justice Jerome Choquette, then British Trade Commissioner James Cross, and former Le Devoir Editor Claude Ryan who became a key participant in the crisis. [1]
Joseph Philippe Pierre Yves Elliott Trudeau was a Canadian lawyer and politician who served as the 15th prime minister of Canada from 1968 to 1979 and from 1980 to 1984. Between his non-consecutive terms as prime minister, he served as the leader of the Opposition from 1979 to 1980.
The Front de libération du Québec (FLQ) was a militant Quebec separatist group which aimed to establish an independent and socialist Quebec through violent means. It was considered a terrorist group by the Canadian government. Founded sometime in the early 1960s, the FLQ conducted a number of attacks between 1963 and 1970, which totaled over 160 violent incidents and killed eight people and injured many more. These attacks culminated with the Montreal Stock Exchange bombing in 1969 and the October Crisis in 1970, the latter beginning with the kidnapping of British Trade Commissioner James Cross. In the subsequent negotiations, Quebec Labour Minister Pierre Laporte was kidnapped and murdered by a cell of the FLQ. Public outcry and a federal crackdown subsequently ended the crisis and resulted in a drastic loss of support for the FLQ, with a small number of FLQ members being granted refuge in Cuba.
Paul Rose was a Québécois nationalist, a lecturer at Université du Québec à Montréal, convicted murderer and terrorist known for his role in the October Crisis. He was convicted of the kidnapping and murder by strangulation of Quebec Deputy Premier Pierre Laporte in 1970. A Quebec government commission later determined in 1980 that Rose was not present when Laporte was killed, despite a recorded confession. He was the leader of the Chenier cell of the Front de libération du Québec (FLQ), an armed group which was fighting what they considered the oppression of French Quebecers.
Francis Simard, was a Quebec nationalist and convicted murderer. Simard was a member of the Chenier Cell of the Front de libération du Québec (FLQ), a group dedicated to the creation of an independent Marxist state out of the Canadian province of Quebec. Members of the group were responsible for the events known as the October Crisis.
The October Crisis was a chain of political events that started in October 1970 when members of the Front de libération du Québec (FLQ) kidnapped the provincial Labour Minister Pierre Laporte and British diplomat James Cross from his Montreal residence. These events saw the Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau invoking the War Measures Act for the first time in Canadian history during peacetime.
Pierre Laporte was a Canadian lawyer, journalist and politician. He was deputy premier of the province of Quebec when he was kidnapped and murdered by members of the Front de libération du Québec (FLQ) during the October Crisis.
Bernard Lortie of Montreal, Quebec, Canada was a member of the Chenier Cell of the Front de libération du Québec (FLQ) who were responsible for a decade of bombings and armed robberies in the province of Quebec.
James Richard Cross was an Irish-born British diplomat who served in India, Malaysia and Canada. While posted in Canada, Cross was kidnapped by members of the Front de libération du Québec (FLQ) during the October Crisis of October 1970. He was ultimately released almost two months later, and subsequently returned to the United Kingdom.
Events from the year 1970 in Canada.
Louise Lanctôt is a Canadian convicted kidnapper and writer. Born Montreal, Quebec, Canada, Lanctôt is a political activist for the cause of Quebec independence from Canada. Louise Lanctôt was an active member of the Rassemblement pour l'indépendance nationale political party that later merged with the Parti Québécois. She was also a member of the Front de libération du Québec (FLQ) and is the sister of convicted kidnapper Jacques Lanctôt, and was married to Jacques Cossette-Trudel who joined the FLQ with her.
This section of the Timeline of Quebec history concerns the events between the Quiet Revolution and the patriation of the British North America Act.
Michel Chartrand was a Canadian trade union leader from Quebec.
The Chénier Cell, also known as the South Shore Gang, was a Montreal-based Front de libération du Québec (FLQ) terrorist cell responsible for the bombing, armed robbery and kidnapping that led to the October Crisis in 1970.
The Liberation Cell was a Montreal-based cell that was part of Front de libération du Québec (FLQ) revolutionary movement in Quebec whose members were responsible for a decade of bombings and armed robberies in the 1960s that led to what became known as the October Crisis.
October 1970 is an eight-part made-for-television series that played on Canadian television in October and November 2006. It is a dramatization of the actual events surrounding the October Crisis in the Canadian province of Quebec, when members of the militant separatist group Front de libération du Québec abducted British Trade Commissioner James Cross and then Pierre Laporte, the Vice-Premier and Minister of Labour of Quebec, the latter of whom they murdered.
"Just watch me" is a phrase made famous by Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau on October 13, 1970, during the October Crisis. The term is still regularly used in Canadian political discussion.
The FLQ Manifesto was a key document of the group the Front de libération du Québec. On 8 October 1970, during the October Crisis, it was broadcast by CBC/Radio-Canada television as one of many demands required for the release of kidnapped British Trade Commissioner James Cross. It criticized big business, the Catholic Church, René Lévesque, and Robert Bourassa, and even branded Pierre Trudeau "a queer".
Just Watch Me: Trudeau and the '70s Generation is a Canadian documentary film by Catherine Annau, produced in 1999 by the National Film Board of Canada.
Yves Langlois a.k.a. Pierre Seguin was a Canadian terrorist and member of the Quebec terrorist group Front de libération du Québec (FLQ), the group responsible for the 1970 October crisis. Langlois is one of the men who kidnapped British Trade Commissioner to Canada James Cross. Langlois also helped in the kidnapping and killing of Quebec cabinet minister Pierre Laporte who was another victim in the kidnappings.
Action: The October Crisis of 1970 is a 1973 Canadian feature from Robin Spry, produced by the National Film Board of Canada (NFB). It is one of two NFB films by Spry completed in 1973 about the 1970 October Crisis, along with Reaction: A Portrait of a Society in Crisis.