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2. The Trudeau Years 1968-79
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| C. New Identities - 1963-1984 → 1. Return of the Liberals: Pearson to Trudeau, 1963-1968 →→ 2. The Trudeau Years 1968-79 → 3. The Constitutional Challenge 1979-84 →→ D. Global Challenges - 1984-Present |
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"By building a truly just society, this beautiful, rich and energetic country of ours can become a model in which every citizen will enjoy his fundamental rights, in which two great linguistic communities and people of many cultures will live in harmony and in which every individual will find fulfillment."
Pierre Trudeau, at the Liberal Leadership Convention, April 6, 1968
Lester Pearson Retires
On December 14, 1967, at the end of Centennial Year, Lester Pearson announced that he was retiring from politics. He had failed to win a majority government in two attempts, and wanted to renew the Liberal party by allowing someone else to become leader.
Pearson had many critics during his time as prime minister. Some believed that he did very little to stop the Americanization of Canadian society and economy. George Grant, a Canadian academic, was a very vocal critic of Lester Pearson. People in different regions of Canada did not think that the federal government addressed their needs when Pearson was leader. His decision to accept the BOMARC missiles in Canada, and arm them with nuclear warheads, was very unpopular with the peace movement. Pierre Trudeau wrote a scathing article attacking Pearson for this decision. It is ironic that Trudeau later became a cabinet minister in Pearson's cabinet, and the leader of the same party.
As is often the case, leading a country is incredibly difficult job while criticizing a prime minister is very easy. Pearson may have made mistakes, but he governed Canada during a difficult time. For example, how much could Pearson criticize the United States and it's war in Vietnam without affecting Canada's relations with its powerful neighbour? In 1965, for example, Pearson criticized the US bombing of North Vietnam in a speech in Philadelphia. Later that day President Lyndon Johnson privately berated Pearson for daring to criticize US policy while in the US. Officials who witnessed this exchange said that Johnson was not kind or gentle in his treatment of Pearson during that meeting.
After Pearson retired to a much quieter life, he served as Chancellor of Carleton University in Ottawa until his death in 1972. His three volume memoirs were published after his retirement.
Pearson Addresses the Quebec Question
Pierre Trudeau was a young Montreal law professor and editor of Cité libre magazine when Lester Pearson recruited him in 1965, along with his friends, labour leader Jean Marchand and Gérard Pelletier. They were soon nicknamed "The Three Wise Men". Trudeau first served as Pearson's parliamentary secretary, then quickly appointed to the plum cabinet portfolio of Justice Minister.
During his term at Justice, Trudeau was responsible for removing laws against homosexuality from the Criminal Code of Canada, remarking that "there's no place for the state in the bedrooms of the nation." Trudeau also liberalized Canada's divorce laws, and clashed with Quebec Premier Daniel Johnson, Sr., over negotiations to amend the constitution.
Trudeau Bursts on the Scene
Few individuals had as great an impact on Canadian politics in the 20th century as did Pierre-Elliot Trudeau. Not only is he remembered for his more than a decade and a half in power during which saw such notable achievements as official multiculturalism, the creation of PetroCanada, and the repatriation of the Constitution with an accompanying Charter of Rights and Freedoms, but he brought about systemic and lasting change.
Trudeau’s intelligence was acknowledged by all, even his fiercest rivals. Finally, his word was his bond. If he said he was going to do something, whether it was liberalizing Canada’s antiquated divorce laws as Justice Minister or standing up as a proud federalist during the separatist debates or finally in incurring the wrath of westerners by passing what they saw as a discriminatory oil and natural gas policy, he did it.
In short, Pierre-Elliott Trudeau was a dynamic and vibrant force on the political scene, one who changed the landscape for all who would follow him. This has made Trudeau a politician who evokes strong emotions from people. Even today many people admire Pierre Trudeau and consider him one of Canada's greatest prime ministers. Other people, however, consider him to have been a disaster as leader of Canada. Perhaps debate about Trudeau will never end.
Trudeau Wins the Leadership
Eight high profile cabinet ministers entered the race to succeed Pearson, including former Minister of Trade and Commerce Robert Winters, Finance Minister Paul Martin Sr., and Minister of Transport Paul Hellyer. But as the convention began on April 3, 1968, it was apparent that Pearson's Justice Minister, Pierre Elliot Trudeau, was the favourite to beat.
Trudeau's energetic leadership campaign attracted the attention of the news media, and his popularity with the young was dubbed "Trudeaumania."
His old-guard opponents failed to mount a united opposition, and at the Liberal convention in Ottawa, April 6, 1968, Trudeau won the leadership on the fourth ballot with the support of 51% delegates.
Pierre Trudeau was sworn in as Liberal leader and fifteenth Prime Minister of Canada on April 20, 1968, serving until June 3, 1979, when he was defeated by Joe Clark, and from March 3, 1980, to June 30, 1984.
The 1968 Election and Trudeaumania
Trudeau was a charismatic figure during the 1968 election campaign. Compared to the Conservative Party's leader, Robert Stanfield, Trudeau was modern media celebrity. During the campaign he made very few specific promises. Instead, Trudeau made general statements about creating what he called a "Just Society" in Canada.
Trudeau was very popular in English Canada. Part of this reason lay in his fierce opposition to Quebec separatism and his refusal to consider any special status for Quebec within Confederation. Many Canadians thought that Pearson had been to giving to Quebec, and welcomed Trudeau's desire to confront Quebec nationalism.
Trudeau's approach, however, affected the Liberal's election results. Even though they won a majority government (155 seats) on June 25, most of those seats came from Ontario and Quebec. The Liberals only won 4 of 19 seats in Alberta and 2 of 13 seats in Saskatchewan. In total the Liberals won 45.4% of the popular vote. Slightly more than half of Canada did not vote for Trudeau and the Liberals. However, Trudeau had won the first majority Liberal government since 1958.
Trudeau's First Ministry
Trudeau's candor and his flamboyance matched his intelligence and his integrity. He was unerringly honest as his famous "Just watch me" quip would attest. His flair and lively approach was evident time and time again in such instances as driving onto Parliament Hill in a Mercedes convertible, sliding down a banister, dating movie stars such as Barbra Streisand, Kim Cattrall, Liona Boyd, and Margot Kidder, wearing a red rose in his lapel and sandals in the House of Commons and doing a pirouette behind Queen Elizabeth.
In foreign affairs, Trudeau kept Canada firmly in the NATO Alliance, but he often pursued a path in international relations in advance of the United States. In 1970, he made Canada the first western power to establish diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China, and went on a state visit to Beijing. He was known to be a friend of Fidel Castro and Cuba, playing the role of "nice cop" to America's "bad cop" approach, to try and moderate Castro's communism and ties with the Soviet Union.
In his personal life, Trudeau married a young woman 30 years his junior, 22 year old Margaret Sinclair, daughter of a former Liberal cabinet minister, on March 4, 1971. The couple had three sons, and were the subject of close press coverage before their well-publicised legal separation in 1977. They were divorced in 1984.
Bilingualism and Multiculturalism
Canadian identity is a function of many different aspects, its history, its land, and its people. Two of the defining elements that make that identity unique are bilingualism and multiculturalism. Both testify to the open and tolerant nature of Canadian society. Both have their own unique histories.
The Royal Commission
Lester Pearson had set up the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism on July 19, 1963, with a mandate to "inquire into and report upon the existing state of bilingualism and biculturalism in Canada and to recommend what steps should be taken to develop the Canadian Confederation on the basis of an equal partnership between the two founding races, taking into account the contribution made by the other ethnic groups to the cultural enrichment of Canada and the measures that should be taken to safeguard that contribution".
Pearson's timing could not have been more fortuitous. Quebec’s Quiet revolution, bringing with it a wave of nationalist outpouring had begun three years before. The radical Front de Liberation du Quebec (FLQ), the dark face of the separatist movement, emerged in that same year. A Marxist terrorist group, the FLQ willingly used violence to achieve its ultimate aim, the separation of Quebec from Canada.
The old French Canadian nationalism drew less and less support from younger moderate Francophones during the 1960s. A new generation came to believe that Québec could only develop as a truly French nation if it was its own country. Many Quebecois nationalists criticized Canada's failure to bring the French language into the federal government, where English still predominated.
The so called "Bi and Bi Commission" was jointly chaired by André Laurendeau, publisher of Le Devoir, and Davidson Dunton, president of Carleton University. The coommission also had ten commissioners representing each of the provinces, reflecting the fact that education was an area of provincial responsibility under the constitution.
Laurendeau-Dunton Report
Laurendeau-Dunton issued a preliminary report in February, 1965, then their final report in 1969. In it, they argued that Francophones were not well represented in the nation's political and business communities, and called for sweeping changes.
Pierre Trudeau, Pearson’s successor as Liberal Prime Minister, moved quickly to implement some of the major recommendations of the Commission. Trudeau's government responded to the report by passing the Official Languages Act, making Canada an officially bilingual nation. The Act declared that French and English were the official languages of Canada, and all federal institutions were required to provide their services in English or French at the customer's choice. The Progressive Conservatives and NDP backed the new program in Parliament. Many provinces also overhauled their education systems, bringing in mandatory French language classes and French immersion options. New Brunswick enacted its own Official Languages Act making it Canada's only officially bilingual province.
The march of bilingualism continued into the decade of the 1970s as legislation was enacted regarding both languages on package labels. In addition, Pierre Trudeau’s government initiated a major program to encourage bilingualism through the federal civil service.
Today, most French-Canadians have access to government services in their own language, and many positions in the federal public service are now designated as mandatory bilingual - office holders must be fluent in both of Canada's official languages. In addition, senior jobs in the federal government require that a person be able to work in both French and English.
Similarly, the following decade of the 1980s saw further advances in bilingualism. Pierre Trudeau ensured that many official language rights were included in the Constitution Act, 1982, especially in Sections 16-23 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. In June 1987 Brian Mulroney's Conservative government expanded the Official Languages Act to promote official language minority rights.
Most major Supreme Court decisions upheld and widen bilingualism. Ford v. Quebec A.G. (1988) ruled that the banning of English on outdoor commercial signs in Québec was unconstitutional. A 2005 Supreme Court decision held that major provisions of Quebec’s language law violated linguistic guarantees within the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
While bilingualism has created controversy and debate, it has nevertheless become an important component of Canada's identity.
Multiculturalism
Another vital element of Canadian identity is multiculturalism, meaning that Canada supports a diverse variety of different national, ethnic, cultural, and religious groups. Canada's diversity is the product of decades of immigration as well as supportive government. The policy is sometimes referred to as a "cultural mosaic" or "Canada's salad bowl" especially to distinguish this society from the American "melting pot" to the south.
The term first came into existence in the 1960s. Pierre Trudeau’s Liberal government made Canada the first nation in the world to adopt the policy, which was also one of the major recommendations of the Royal Commission of Bilingualism and Biculturalism. A government department, headed by a cabinet minister was created, and funded with millions of dollars.
When Brian Mulroney came to power, his government passed the Multiculturalism Act in the summer of 1988. Even prior to its passage, and certainly in much greater numbers, federal dollars were directed towards various cultural groups in order for them to preserve and celebrate their ethnicity. Various annual parties began with Carivana and Caribbeana. A number of ethically oriented community centres were built with funds from Ottawa.
Although some criticism was directed at what was perceived as being politically motivated considerations in terms of where the federal dollars went, the policy, in large part, continued. Successive federal governments after Mulroney’s championed the official policy of multiculturalism believing that it promoted national unity by breaking down ethnic and cultural barriers.
The policy is, even its champions would acknowledge, not perfect. Multiculturalism does not eliminate racism. The presence of so many different ethnic and cultural and religious groups, will never exist in perfect harmony. Racial issues, such as racial profiling and stereotyping, exist. Then there is the financial argument, that supporting the policy of multiculturalism costs taxpayer dollars. Some opponents contend that multiculturalism diminishes the Canadian sense of national unity and a collective sense of belonging.
On the other hand, the policy of multiculturalism has far more advantages. It allows for, and indeed celebrates, cultural pluralism. It permits the free movement of immigrants into and around the country. Most of its supporters would argue that it diminishes racism as it brings cultures together and that promotes understanding and acceptance. Multiculturalism produces a far richer artistic outpouring. Finally, internationally it makes Canada a highly respected, if not a model, for other countries.
Canada’s version of a truly pluralistic society does much to promote Trudeau’s vision of a Just Society as well as enabling immigrants to integrate themselves into the social fabric of the country more easily. In short, multiculturalism, along with its companion policy of bilingualism, has done a great deal in forging Canada as a diverse and open society.
The October Crisis
On October 5, 1970, Trudeau's ministry faced a grave crisis when two cells of the Front de Libération du Québec (FLQ) kidnapped British Trade Commissioner James Cross and Québec Justice Minister Pierre Laporte. The Canadian government sent the Army into Quebec to aid the police. On October 15, Prime Minister Trudeau invoked the War Measures Act, temporarily suspending civil liberties.
FLQ Background
The FLQ (Front de Libération du Québec) was founded in 1963 as a Marxist terrorist group dedicated to overthrowing the Québec government, and creating an independent communist workers' state. The Soviet KGB spy organization gave backing to the movement, and some of the members were trained by a Belgian KGB agent named Schoeters, whose hero was Che Guevara. At least two FLQ leaders had received guerrilla training in selective assassination from Palestinian commandos in Jordan.
In 1966 the FLQ prepared a secret eight page document called Revolutionary Strategy and the Role of the Avant-Garde. The paper outlined its long term strategy of waves of robberies, violence, bombings and kidnappings, culminating in a violent insurrection and revolution.
The FLQ was organized by cells, each of which had only one contact with the other - The Viger Cell, the Dieppe Cell, the Louis Riel Cell, the Nelson Cell, The Saint-Denis Cell, the Liberation Cell and the Chénier Cell. This structure made the organization very difficult to penetrate.
FLQ targets included English owned businesses, banks, the Montreal Stock Exchange, McGill University, Loyola College, and the homes of prominent English speakers in the Westmount area of the city. On February 13, 1969 the Front de libération du Québec set off a powerful bomb that ripped through the stock exchange causing massive destruction and seriously injuring twenty-seven people.
By 1970, at least 23 of their members were in jail, and the public were turning against what they stood for. The remaining members determined to mount a campaign to raise their profile and radicalize young people.
The Kidnapping of James Cross
October 5, 1970
October 6, 1970 Excerpts of the FLQ Manifesto are published by several newspapers. Radio station CKAC broadcasts a communiqué at 1:30 from the FLQ for the release of British Trade Commissioner James Cross. Cross will be killed if FLQ demands are not met: publication of the complete FLQ Manifesto in newspapers, release of FLQ militants from jail, and rehiring of 400 ex-employees of the Lapalme transport company by the Post Office. Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau and Quebec Premier Robert Bourassa agree that the federal government and the Quebec provincial governmen will jointly decide on the FLQ demands. External Affairs Minister Mitchell Sharp says the government of Canada will refuse to meet the conditions of the FLQ: "I am hopeful that these criminals will be apprehended and that the diplomat will be released. That's our purpose."
October 7, 1970 Quebec Justice Minister Jerome Choquette says he is available for negotiations. The full FLQ Manifesto is read on CKAC radio; the demands of the terrorists have expired without action from the federal or provincial governments. Chronology of the day: at 9:00 am, police discover the taxi used for the kidnapping of James Cross; at noon, Windsor Station is ransacked; in the afternoon, the FLQ issue two more communiqués, and at 6:00 pm, their lawyer Robert Lemieux holds a press conference to discuss the government's offer to negotiate.
October 8, 1970 October Crisis continues; the FLQ Manifesto is broadcast on national French network Radio-Canada at 10:30 pm, as a condition for the release of James Cross. An excerpt: "We are Quebec workers and we are prepared to go all the way. With the help of the entire population, we want to replace this society of slaves by a free society, operating by itself and for itself, a society open on the world. Our struggle can only be victorious. A people that has awakened cannot long be kept in misery and contempt.
- - Long live Free Quebec!
- - Long live our comrades the political prisoners!
- - Long live the Quebec Revolution!
- - Long live the Front de Liberation du Quebec!"
- Complete Text of the FLQ Manifesto
October 9, 1970 Chronology of the day: at 6 am the FLQ terrorists issue a new communiqué; at 2:45 pm they release a letter from James Cross to his wife; at 4:30 pm, police arrest and detain several suspects for questioning; at 6:00 pm the FLQ extend their deadline.
The Pierre Laporte Kidnapping
October 10, 1970
October 11, 1970
October Crisis continues as Premier Bourassa receives a letter from Pierre Laporte pleading for his life. Chronology of the day: 2:15 am - police search the homes of several suspects; 9:03 am - discovery of communiqué from the Chénier FLQ cell; FLQ extend deadline; 10:30 am - FLQ lawyer/spokesman Robert Lemieux arrested; 12:00 am - Robert Bourassa meets his Cabinet in the Queen Elizabeth Hotel; 1:00 pm - discovery of a further communiqué from the Chénier FLQ cell; 5:00 pm - another communiqué from the Chénier cell; 9:45 pm - Bourassa offers to negotiate to free the hostages; 10:00 pm - FLQ deadline expires.
Letter of Pierre Laporte to Robert Bourassa:
My dear Robert,
I feel like I am writing the most important letter I have ever written.
For the time being, I am in perfect health, and I am treated well, even courteously.
In short, the power to decide over my life is in your hands. If there was only that involved, and the sacrifice of my life would bring good results, one could accept it ...
You know how my personal situation deserves to draw attention. I had two brothers, both are now dead. I remain alone as the head of a large family that comprises my mother, my sisters, my own wife and my children, and the children of Rolland of whom I am the guardian. My departure would create for them irreparable grief, and you know the ties that bind the members of my family ...
You have the power of life and death over me, I depend on you and I thank you for it.
Best regards,
Pierre Laporte
October 12, 1970
October Crisis continues as the Bourassa cabinet appoints Montreal lawyer Robert Demers to negotiate terms with the Front de libération du Québec for the release of hostages James Cross and Pierre Laporte. Chronology of the day: 1:45 am - new FLQ communiqué; 2:45 am - Cross writes a letter to CKLM; 8:00 am - Canadian Army troops leave Camp Petawawa and mobilize in Ottawa to meet terrorist threats, guard government buildings and officials, and protect the diplomatic community; 4:00 pm - FLQ Chénier cell issues another communiqué; 10:55 pm - new FLQ communiqué.October 13, 1970 October Crisis continues, as 15 soldiers from the 22nd Regiment arrive in Montreal to assist civil authorities; other units take up positions in Quebec City; police have Jacques Lanctôt under suspicion; Paul Rose picked up by surveillance but lost. Chronology of the day: 10:00 am - FLQ lawyer/spokesman Robert Lemieux set free; 2:00 pm - Robert Lemieux meets Quebec Government lawyer/negotiator Robert Demers; 5:20 pm - Robert Lemieux makes a speech critical of the Government; 5:30 pm - Government refuses to negotiate further.
October 14, 1970
October 15, 1970
October Crisis continues as Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau sends the Canadian Army into Montreal at the request of the Quebec government. Chronology of the day: 9:00 pm - Premier Robert Bourassa rejects conditions imposed by the FLQ for freeing hostages James Cross and Pierre Laporte; 10:00 pm - FLQ lawyer/spokesman Robert Lemieux declares that his mandate is over; 4:00 am following - Trudeau proclaims the War Measures Act, giving police sweeping powers to arrest and detain without warrant anyone suspected of involvement with the FLQ. In a speech on CBC and Radio-Canada, he says, "If a democratic society is to continue to exist, it must be able to root out the cancer of an armed, revolutionary movement that is bent on destroying the very basis of our freedom."
The War Measures Act
October 16, 1970 Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau declared "a state of apprehended insurrection" and imposed the War Measures Act before dawn, after Quebec Labour Minister Pierre Laporte was found murdered. Canadian troops were ordered to protect public figures, and police rounded up and interviewed 497 possible suspects, arresting 250, including Michel Chartrand, and searching 170 homes, in an attempt to break the FLQ cell structure and find British diplomat James Cross, also kidnapped by the terrorists.
The Act let Cabinet overrule civil rights and authority. It was the first time emergency powers had been used in peacetime, and the only use of the 1914 statute during a domestic crisis; it could be invoked when the Cabinet perceived the existence of 'war, invasion or insurrection, real or apprehended'.
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Trudeau's "Just Watch Me" Interview |
Chronology of the day: 04:00 am - Proclamation of the War Measures Act; 11:00 am - government issues special emergency regulations; 5:00 pm - Premier Robert Bourassa approves the proclamation of an emergency; 8:00 pm - Mayor Jean Drapeau approves the government's action; 10:15 pm - Pierre Trudeau gives a TV address, referring to those in prison whose freedom was demanded by the FLQ in return for release of hostages: "Who are these men who are held out as latter-day patriots and martyrs? Let me describe them to you. Three are convicted murderers; five others were jailed for manslaughter; one is serving a life imprisonment after having pleaded guilty to numerous charges related to bombings; another has been convicted of seventeen armed robberies; two were once paroled but are now back in jail awaiting trial on charges of robberies." See also: |
October 17, 1970 October Crisis continues. Chronology of the day: 6:18 pm - Front de libération du Québec Chénier cell members Paul Rose and Francis Simard murder their captive, Quebec Labour Minister Pierre Laporte; 7:30 pm - FLQ announces the 'execution' of Laporte; 10:00 pm - Quebec government issues communiqué deploring the action; 10:30 pm - St-Hubert Airport security reports suspicious Chevrolet sedan parked beside a hangar; 11:15 pm - police arrive at St-Hubert Airport and start checking the car for signs of a bomb; 12;15 am - police open the trunk and discover a body, apparently Laporte's, strangled with the chain of a religious medal; 2:45 am - Laporte's body positively identified; Pierre Laporte 1921-1970 was kidnapped by the FLQ Oct. 10.
October 18, 1970 October Crisis continues. Chronology of the day: 12:15 am - police open the trunk of a suspicious Chevrolet sedan parked beside a hangar at St-Hubert Airport; discover a body, apparently strangled with the chain of a religious medal; 2:45 am - body positively identified as that of Quebec Labour Minister Pierre Laporte, kidnapped by FLQ terrorists Oct. 10; 12:00 noon - new communiqué from the FLQ claiming responsibility; warrants issued for the arrest of Marc Charbonneau and Paul Rose; FLQ captive James Cross writes a letter to authorities.
October 19, 1970 Police discover the FLQ hideout where Quebec Labour Minister Pierre Laporte was hidden, and then murdered. Trudeau comments in TV interview: "The FLQ has sown the seeds of its own destruction. It has revealed no mandate but terror, no policies but violence and no solutions but murder. Savagery is alien to Canadians; it always will be, for collectively we will not tolerate it." The body of Pierre Laporte lies in state in the Palais de Justice.
October 20, 1970 Funeral held for Quebec Labour Minister Pierre Laporte, slain by FLQ terrorists.
October 21, 1970 Officials release report on the autopsy performed on the body of Quebec Labour Minister Pierre Laporte, murdered by FLQ terrorists.
November 2, 1970 The Canadian federal government and the Quebec provincial government together offer a reward of $150,000 for information leading to the arrest of the Cross and Laporte kidnappers.
November 6, 1970 Police raid the hideout of the Chénier cell, and arrest Bernard Lortie; other cell members escape. Inauguration of the Pont Pierre-Laporte at Ste-Foy, Quebec City.
November 9, 1970 Quebec Justice Minister Jérome Choquette asks the Canadian Army to stay in Quebec for another 30 days.
December 1, 1970 House of Commons passes Public Order (Temporary Measures) Act to replace War Measures Act; continues outlawing of FLQ, lets police arrest without warrant.
December 2, 1970 James Cross discovered, as police surround house where is held captive; British Trade Commissioner in Montreal kidnapped by FLQ terrorists.
December 3, 1970 James Cross taken to Cuban pavilion at Expo '67 site and put under the protection of the Commissioner after the FLQ are given assurance of their safe passage to Cuba; FLQ terrorists Jacques Cossette-Trudel and Louise Cossette-Trudel, Jacques Lanctôt and Micheline Lanctôt, Marc Charbonneau, Pierre Séguin and Yves Langlois stay in the pavilion; British Trade Commissioner in Montreal had been captured in October.
December 4, 1970 British Trade Commissioner James Cross finally released in return for safe passage to Cuba for his FLQ kidnappers. Federal Justice Minister John Turner says the exiles to Cuba would be for life. FLQ terrorists Jacques and Louise Cossette-Trudel, Jacques and Micheline Lanctôt, Marc Charbonneau, Pierre Séguin and Yves Langlois go to Cuba. They later moved to France. Eventually all returned to Canada and served short jail terms for kidnapping. Cross had lost weight, but says he was not physically mistreated. Three weeks later, Pierre Laporte's suspected kidnappers, Paul and Jacques Rose and Francis Simard, are arrested south of Montreal.
December 5, 1970 British Trade Commissioner James Cross returns to London after two days of debriefing following his release by FLQ terrorists.
December 24, 1970
Canadian Army troops are withdrawn from Quebec.
Paul Rose, his brother Jacques Rose, and Francis Simard are captured at 4;30 am in a tunnel under a farmhouse near Montreal; suspected FLQ terrorists, kidnappers and murderers of Quebec Labour Minister Pierre Laporte. They were the remaining three members of the Chénier cell. With Bernard Lortie, they are charged with kidnapping and murder. Paul Rose and Francis Simard later received life sentences for murder. Bernard Lortie was sentenced to 20 years for kidnapping. Jacques Rose was initially acquitted, but later convicted of being an accessory and sentenced to eight years in prison.
February 3, 1971 Justice Minister John Turner reports on the use of the War Measures Act; 497 people were arrested; of these, 435 were released, 62 were charged, 32 held without bail.
July, 1980 A sixth person, Nigel Hamer, is charged in the kidnapping of James Cross; later convicted and sentenced to 12 months in jail.
Womens Issues
Feminism; Women's Liberation; Issues; Criticism of the Movement; National Council of Women; United Farm Women of Alberta & Equal Farm Ownership; Trial of Dorothea Palmer; Committee for the Equality of Women in Canada; Royal Commission on the Status of Women; 1972 National Action Committee; Pay Equity
Status of Women Commission
Quite often government Royal Commissions are strategies of delay and obfuscation. Whenever the government in power is faced with a complex and controversial issue, a favoured tactic is such a commission which then amasses volumes of evidence and then pronounces weighty conclusions. Such pronouncements often are more flash and sizzle then meaningful and permanent. The tomes published by the Royal Commission often do little more than collect dust.
One notable exception to this rule was the February 1967 Royal Commission on the Status of Women called by Prime Minister Lester Pearson. "Women’s issues" were very much in the forefront of Canadian politics with the advent of the control bill, the full arrival of the workingwoman, gender pay equity issues, and the emotional issue of abortion.
The Commission was given a full mandate to investigate and report on all issues pertaining to the status of women and to make recommendations that would improve their position in all areas under federal jurisdiction.
Beginning in the spring of 1968, the Commission traveled the length and breadth of the country holding public hearings. By being so public and publicizing hundreds of briefs, the Commission attracted considerable media attention.
No issue, concern, or problem was ignored. In its almost 500-page final report, the Status of Women made a stunning total of 167 recommendations in such diverse areas as pensions, part-time work, the ‘glass ceiling’ (the shortage of women in managerial roles), day care, and family law. All were predicted on the legal and moral value of the absolute necessity of providing equality of opportunity and access to men and women.
As a result of those Commission recommendations, for example, a federal cabinet ministry responsible for the status of women was created. Most provincial governments quickly copied that federal initiative.
Also, in part as a result of the Royal Commission’s work, a number of other important initiatives were introduced. In 1992, Women’s Month was annually recognized in October to commemorate the groundbreaking 1929 Persons case. The number of women attending university increased dramatically in the decades following the Royal Commission. In the decade after the Commission’s Report, the divorce rate almost doubled. Pay equity legislation, sexual harassment protections, Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees all came subsequently, in part due to the Commission’s pioneering work.
It would be no exaggeration to say that the Royal Commission on the Status of Women did more to advance the cause of women in Canada than any other single event. It touched all aspects of society and critically altered the perceptions and attitudes of both men and women as regards gender relations. While many might argue that now, almost half century after the Commission, women are still not fully equal to men in all aspects, it was undeniably a landmark achievement in bringing a greater degree of equality.
Sidelight: The Famous Five Sculpture This bronze sculpture was first installed in Olympic Plaza in Calgary on Persons' Day, October 18, 1999. It depicts Nellie McClung, Irene Parlby, Emily Murphy, Louise McKinney and Henrietta Muir Edwards celebrating their important legal victory in the "Persons" Case, a 1929 court ruling which legally declared women as persons under the British North America Act and made them eligible for appointment to the Canadian Senate. A copy was donated to the Government of Canada by the Famous 5 Foundation, and inaugurated on Persons' Day, October 18, 2000, on Parliament Hill. The Famous Five are, left to right:
 This journal tablet represents the newspaper headlines as they appeared on 18 October 1929, and is an enlargement of the newspaper held by Nellie McClung in the statue. |
| 2. The Trudeau Years 1968-79 - Gallery | Stories & Texts | Web Links | Student Activities | Student Projects |
| C. New Identities - 1963-1984 → 1. Return of the Liberals: Pearson to Trudeau, 1963-1968 →→ 2. The Trudeau Years 1968-79 → 3. The Constitutional Challenge 1979-84 →→ D. Global Challenges - 1984-Present |
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