An unforgettable time in recent Canadian history

The Front de libération du Québec — or FLQ Crisis — occurred as I left home to attend Acadia University. In the midst of many new experiences here, I remembered a gang of us sitting by the television in the common room at Horton House every evening.

We were glued to events happening in Montreal and Ottawa. They were unheard of in our lifetime and made all of us in that girls’ section profoundly uneasy.

The British trade commissioner of the day, James Cross, was abducted at gunpoint on Oct. 5, 1970. His captors were disguised as deliverymen who appeared with a birthday present.

Five days later, members of another FLQ cell kidnapped provincial labour minister Pierre Laporte. He was out playing football on his front lawn with a nephew.

This was the kind of revolutionary lawlessness that was not then, nor is now, considered Canadian. As a a nation, we talk about the weather a lot and are meant to act nice.

It wasn’t long before troops were brought in to patrol Montreal’s streets, which might be common in France and Italy today, but not here, not then. On Oct. 13, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau was interviewed by the CBC about the military presence on the sidewalks. Trudeau’s famous line, when asked by the reporter how far he would go was, “Just watch me.”

All three Quebec opposition parties, including the Parti Quebecois, were united against the kidnappings, but support amongst youth for the FLQ was deemed to be growing. A rally of 3,000 worried many in Canada and, on Oct. 16, Trudeau imposed the War Measures Act.

A day later Laporte was found strangled in the trunk of a car near Montreal. Many were arrested, but it wasn’t until Dec. 4 that Cross was safely released and his five kidnappers granted safe passage to Cuba.

Wolfville novelist Judith Love has penned her second gripping novel about that unhinged time. Watershed begins in the late 1960s and runs through to the present day.

The novel is the story of a White Anglo Saxon Protestant ( WASP) woman in Ottawa. Anne Macleod is a young public servant from the Toronto area who finds herself caught up in the tumultuous events of that time.

She experiences the growing influence of Francophones in Ottawa, Trudeaumania, the FLQ crisis, and Quebec’s dream of separation. Falling in love with a handsome Quebecois man, she learns to her regret about broad linguistic divisions.

I remember my father taking French classes because he wanted to succeed despite his Celtic last name. He sent me to a French convent for extra French instruction outside of school. Thanks, Soeur Madelaine!

Later on, Macleod is confronted with an old mystery that she takes the time to unravel. I liked reading Watershed a lot. Her characters are intriguing and her plot evokes a time that resonates in the Canadian experience.

A watershed is a turning point, or historic moment. The day you got your braces off might have been a watershed moment in your life. For English-French relations in this country, the FLQ Crisis was a watershed time.

Love had a first hand perspective as she worked for many years in the federal public service. She helped implement Canada’s official languages policy and employment initiatives for women, Indigenous peoples and people with disabilities.

Her novel makes for good reading and a fresh perspective on the first Trudeau era. I recommend you look for Watershed at local bookstores.