Remembering the October Crisis

Re: Citizen@175: October Crisis prompts first peacetime use of War Measures Act, Oct. 3.

Bruce Deachman's Citizen@175 piece about the October crisis of 1970 brought back a lot of memories. My partner and I were the first RCMP officers to arrive at the residence of kidnapped British diplomat James Cross. When Cross was kidnapped, his wife called the Montreal police; when they realized the diplomatic implications, they referred the matter to the RCMP.

Considering that her husband had just been kidnapped, I was amazed how calm Mrs. Cross was. Perhaps it was the typical British need to keep a stiff upper lip. As Mrs. Cross had been expecting some ladies over for lunch and had to cancel, she was more than gracious in ensuring the ready-made sandwiches were made available to the officers on scene, who were setting up a communication to wait for the kidnappers' call.

The Cross-Pierre Laporte file kept the Montreal RCMP very busy with many hours and days of investigation and surveillance. Those were the days when the word overtime and related compensation was not part of the vocabulary.

Although some people may feel the War Measures Act was excessive, the government needed to send the right message. While awaiting parliamentary approval of the Act, every available RCMP member was assigned a location of a person to be arrested.

My partner and I were assigned a location in SaintJérôme. Everyone was told to wait in their cars until given the approval to arrest. I believe it was some time around 2 a.m. when the call came over the police radio to proceed in arresting the person we were given. Understandably, the individual arrested was not expecting us. When he requested to see the warrant for arrest, there was a look of dismay when he was told the new law eliminated that requirement.

Dale Boire, Ottawa