A history of the infamous Canadian terrorist crisis in October 1970.

This film covers the events of October 1970 when separate cells of the Quebec seperatist terrorist organization, Le Front de Liberation du Quebec (FLQ), kidnap the British Trade Consul, James Cross, and the Quebec Minister of Labor, Pierre Laporte. In response, the Canadian Prime Minister invoked the War Measures Act, in response to what seemed to be an insurrection, which gave the police sweeping powers and called out the military in order to stop the FLQ and find their captives. This film recounts the events of this move and it's consequences of that faithful month in Canadian history.—Kenneth Chisholm <[email protected]>

Writer/director Terence McKenna has crafted a riveting two-hour documentary that chillingly recounts one of the most explosive periods in Canadian history. On October 5, 1970, British Trade Commissioner James Cross was kidnapped by a sect of the FLQ. Five days later, Quebec Vice-Premier and Minister of Labour Pierre Laporte was also kidnapped, and Canada was thrown into its worst peacetime political crisis. Using dramatic re-creations, archival black and white film, news reports and interviews, Black October brings into focus the contradictions, misapprehensions and strengths of the decision-makers of the day. Reenactments show, in vivid terms, how the Cross and Laporte kidnappings were planned and executed. Actors read the words of the FLQ members responsible for the kidnappings and the murder of Laporte. Interviews include former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, his then Principle Secretary Marc Lalonde, Quebec Minister of Justice Jerome Choquette, former Le Devoir editor Claude Ryan, and James Cross.