Alternative Enrergy

HUMAN RIGHTS IN CANADA - THE FLQ CRISIS OF 1970

Question 1

Explain the crisis and some of the people involved. (10)

FLQ, better known as "Front de libÐ"©ration du QuÐ"©bec", was a Quebec nationalist group that were involved in the exploding of several bombs, which had killed six people. The FLQ were nothing more than a group of QuÐ"©bec workers that had decided to use every means to make sure that the people of QuÐ"©bec take control of their destiny. Their primary goal, as stated in their manifesto, was that of liberating the mostly-Francophone province of Quebec from the tyranny of an Anglo-centric federal government that had 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.

While mailboxes, particularly in the affluent and predominantly Anglophone city of Westmount, were common targets, the largest single bombing was of the Montreal Stock Exchange on February 13, 1969, which caused extensive damage and injured 27 people. FLQ members, in a strategic move, had stolen several tons of dynamite from military and industrial sites. Financed by bank robberies, they threatened the public through their official communication organ, known as La CognÐ"©e, that more attacks were to come.

New ways of thinking had emerged, and socialism in particular was attractive to many people. The FLQ embodied the extreme fringe of this new thinking and promoted revolutionary Marxist politics. Its beliefs were also influenced by international events, including the independence movements in such former colonies as Algeria, Cuba, and Vietnam.

5 Members of Front de libÐ"©ration du QuÐ"©bec:

 Normand Roy

 Michel Lambert

 AndrÐ"© Lessard

 Pierre Marcil

 RÐ"©jean Tremblay

Question 2

Explain the act that was passed and its implication. (5)

The War Measures Act, enacted in August 1914, was a Canadian statute that allowed the government to assume sweeping emergency powers. War Measures Act was the statute conferring emergency powers on the federal Cabinet, allowing it to govern by decree when it perceives the existence of "war, invasion or insurrection - real or apprehended." The only use of the War Measures Act in a domestic crisis occurred in October