Major Political Developments
 

Robert Bourassa

 

 October Crisis of 1970
  • The crisis involved the Front de Libération du Québec, a terrorist organization in Quebec, and the federal government of Canada. Members of the  FLQ, wanting an independent Quebec,  kidnap James Cross, a British diplomat, and Pierre Laporte, the Minister of Labour in the Quebec government.  Laporte later was found murdered. 
  • It led to the imposition of the War Measures Act allowing the federal government led by  Pierre Trudeau, to send in troops  to Montreal, on Quebec's request, and to suspend civil liberties. Several hundred people were imprisoned during the crisis.
Bill 22 (1974)
  • replaced Bill 63 which was passed in 1969 and which allowed freedom of choice with regards to language of instruction
  • decreed that French was the official language in Quebec
  • only immigrant children having a sufficient amount of knowledge of the English language were allowed to go to English schools
Montreal Olympics 1976
  • Quebec gets a higher international profile.

Political opposition
  • The  Parti Québécois was founded in 1968 by René Lévesque, former Liberal minister under Jean Lesage, whose Mouvement souveraineté-association joined forces with other political groups, espousing the independence of Quebec, to create the Parti Québécois.

    • The newly created  Parti Québécois got 24 % of the popular vote in the elections of 1970, 30 % in 1973, and it came to power in 1976. 

RETURN TO MODULE 7 UNIT 4 AND DO RENÉ LÉVESQUE.