The Liberation Cell was a

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple ...

-based cell that was part of Front de libération du Québec (FLQ) revolutionary movement in

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

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 The October Crisis (french: Crise d'Octobre) refers to a chain of 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 Cr ...

.CanadaHistory.com: FLQ
/ref> As part of a violent attempt to overthrow the elected government and to establish a

socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the ...

Quebec state independent of

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

, on October 5, 1970, the members of the Liberation Cell kidnapped the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

Trade Commissioner

James Richard Cross James Richard Cross (29 September 1921 – 6 January 2021) 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) durin ...

from his Montreal home. The kidnappers posed as deliverymen and tricked the house maid into letting them in, after which they pulled out their guns and seized Cross. Five days later, members of the FLQ's Chénier Cell kidnapped and then murdered the Deputy Premier of Quebec and Labour Minister,

Pierre Laporte Pierre Laporte (25 February 1921 – 17 October 1970) 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 ...

. Believing many others would follow in an uprising, the goal of the FLQ was to create an independent state based on the ideals of Fidel Castro's

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...

. After holding the British Trade Commissioner for more than sixty days, the known members of the Liberation Cell negotiated his release in exchange for their safe passage to Cuba. Four weeks later, the known members of the Chénier Cell were located in a country farmhouse basement. The known Liberation Cell members: * Jacques Cossette-Trudel *

Louise Lanctôt Louise Lanctôt (born March 24, 1947) 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 Rass ...

(Louise Cossette-Trudel) * Jacques Lanctôt * Marc Carbonneau * Yves Langlois (aka Pierre Seguin) * Nigel Barry Hamer

References

{{October Crisis October Crisis

See also

References