Fourth Dimension

October 12, 1970

It is the evening of Thanksgiving Day in Ottawa, and trucks and buses loaded with 1 000 soldiers from 2 Combat Group in CFB Petawawa are rolling into CFB Rockcliffe and CFB Uplands. Their orders were issued at 1315 hr, and three Voyageur heavy lift helicopters and eight Huey tactical helicopters arrived in Ottawa with the first elements of the task force at 1730 hr. Colonel D.S. Nicholson, deputy commander of 2 CG, quickly gets his headquarters up and running at the Drill Hall on Cartier Square, and soon soldiers in fighting order are fanning out through the downtown grid of office buildings and the city’s ritzier neighbourhoods. Mobilized under Operation GINGER to “assist civil authority”, the soldiers are here to guard diplomats, parliamentarians and vital points—in normal times, a task for the RCMP—while police at every level of jurisdiction concentrate on the Front de libération du Québec.

The FLQ is a Montréal-based terrorist network that intends to bring about a workers’ revolution in Quebec to separate it from Canada and create a Marxist republic. FLQ cells began robbing banks, stealing weapons and planting bombs in 1963, and Quebec prisons now hold 23 “felquistes” sentenced for crimes of violence, including four convicted murderers. The latest FLQ outrages—two political abductions—are particularly unsettling because they indicate a change of strategy. A British trade official kidnapped at gunpoint from his apartment on October 5 and the deputy premier of Quebec snatched from his front yard on October 10 are being held to coerce the Quebec and Canadian governments to comply with a long list of demands. The FLQ is undeniably the worst threat to Canadian domestic security since the Second World War, and Ottawa, Montréal and Québec City are in turmoil.

The task force deployed on Op GINGER is made up of soldiers from the 3rd Battalion, The Royal Canadian Regiment, the 8th Canadian Hussars (Princess Louise’s), the 2nd Regiment, Royal Canadian Horse Artillery, 1 Field Squadron, Royal Canadian Engineers, and 2 Signals Squadron. Operational control is held by Mobile Command Headquarters at CFB Saint-Hubert, but CF headquarters holds operational command. At the tactical level, Col Nicholson and his boss, Brigadier-General V. Radley-Walters, both have extensive peacekeeping experience in Cyprus and Egypt, and are consequently used to such complex arrangements. The soldiers, too, understand GINGER in peacekeeping terms: their job is to ensure nothing bad happens to their charges while avoiding confrontations that could turn the tension and fear widespread even in Ottawa to anger and violence.

Under RCMP direction, every cabinet minister, party leader, ambassador, consul and senior bureaucrat gets a military escort, and 10-man sections guard the homes of the most likely kidnap targets, much to the consternation of the neighbours. Military patrols monitor crucial infrastructure such as the bridges over the Ottawa River and the hydro lines in west Quebec. It is boring, chilly work, made difficult by the constant requirement to be calm and polite while maintaining vigilance.

Late in the afternoon on October 13, in an interview with television reporters Tim Ralfe and Peter Reilly, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau indicates that Op GINGER is only the beginning of his campaign against the FLQ.

To the disingenuous first question—“Sir, what is it with all these men with guns around here?”—Mr. Trudeau points out how the FLQ has become a serious threat to Canadian society. The journalists argue that the government has over-reacted, at one point saying “… my choice is to live in a society that is free and democratic, which means that you don’t have people with guns running around in it.” To this, Mr. Trudeau snaps: “Yes, well, there are a lot of bleeding hearts around who just don’t like to see people with helmets and guns. All I can say is, go on and bleed, but it is more important to keep law and order in the society than to be worried about weak-kneed people who don’t like the looks of—.” The journalist interrupts: “At any cost? How far would you go with that? How far would you extend that?”

“Well, just watch me,” says Mr. Trudeau.

Sources

Maj Guy Morchain, “Peace-Keeping at Home”, Sentinel Vol.7, No.2 (February–March 1971).

Ron Haggard and Aubrey E. Golden, Rumours of War (Toronto: new press, 1971).

Sean M. Maloney, “A Mere Rustle of Leaves: Canadian Strategy and the 1970 FLQ Crisis”, Canadian Military Journal Vol.1, No.2 (Summer 2000).

Marianopolis College, “Documents on the October Crisis” http://www2.marianopolis.edu/quebechistory/docs/october/index.htm