54th Anniversary of the Proclamation of War Measures
October 16, 1970
Police Powers Used to Imprison Hundreds During 1970 “October Crisis”
Youth fill Paul Sauvé Arena in Montreal in support of Quebec national liberation on the eve of the declaration of the War Measures Act in October 1970. A number of the youth in attendance are among those arrested in the raids which follow the Act being invoked.
This October 16 marks the 54th anniversary of the proclamation of the War Measures Act by Pierre Elliot Trudeau and his Liberal government. On this occasion, the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) salutes all those who were unjustly imprisoned and persecuted on that occasion and all who fought militantly in defence of democratic rights and freedoms and who, to this day, continue to uphold the right of Quebec to self-determination, up to and including secession if the Quebec people so decide.
Victims of the persecution under the War Measures Act in 1970, and the special measures taken before and after, include many CPC(M-L) members who spent months in jail along with many others arrested at that time. An Interpol warrant was issued at the time for the arrest of the Party’s leader Hardial Bains against whom several assassination attempts, frame-ups and other acts of political persecution were also organized under the CIA’s Operation Chaos, including depriving him of citizenship for 30 years.
CPC(M-L) vigorously participated across the country in organizing Canadians to oppose the use of the War Measures Act and arbitrary measures and the violence of the state. In Quebec, Party members organized without letup for the freedom of the political prisoners.
Three public commissions of inquiry (Duchaine, Keable and McDonald) were held into the use of the War Measures Act and the dirty deeds of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), especially in Quebec. They found a lack of justification for the adoption of such extreme measures as the suspension of civil rights at a time of peace. The newspaper La Presse also subsequently confirmed that at the October 14-15, 1970 Trudeau cabinet meeting ministers were made aware that the police would arrest hundreds of innocent people without expecting to find the two hostages the Front de Liberation du Quebec (FLQ) was holding.[1] The commissions brought to light the many illegal and even criminal activities of the RCMP.[2]
The extent of the wrong-doing of the Canadian state and its agencies at the time of the proclamation of the War Measures Act and surrounding events has still to come to light. CPC(M-L) calls for the archives to be opened and that all the wrongs committed at the time be made right, including an official apology from the Canadian state for its wrong-doing. It also condemns the Canadian state’s criminalization of democratic rights and freedoms that continue today, carried out in the name of high ideals.
Red salute to all who continue to fight for the rights of all under all conditions and circumstances.
Video
Notes
1. La Presse, January 31, 1992.
2. TML Weekly Supplement on 50th Anniversary of the War Measures Act Invoked in 1970, October 10, 2020.
(Text of PQ motion translated from original French by TML. Photos: Wikipedia, V. Keremidshieff)
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