The Front de libération du Québec (FLQ) was a Quebec separatist militant group which aimed to establish an independent and socialist Quebec. Founded sometime in the early 1960s, the FLQ conducted a number of attacks between 1963 and 1970, which totalled over 160 violent incidents and killed eight people and injured many more. These attacks culminated with the Montreal Stock Exchange bombing in 1969 and the October Crisis in 1970, the latter beginning with the kidnapping of British Trade Commissioner James Cross. In the subsequent negotiations, Quebec Labour Minister Pierre Laporte was kidnapped and murdered by a cell of the FLQ. Public outcry and a federal crackdown subsequently ended the crisis and resulted in a drastic loss of support for the FLQ, with a small number of FLQ members being granted refuge in Cuba.
FLQ members practised propaganda of the deed and issued declarations that called for a socialist insurrection against oppressors identified with Anglo-Saxon imperialism, the overthrow of the Quebec government, the independence of Quebec from Canada and the establishment of a French-speaking "workers' society" in Quebec. Up to 1970, it gained the support of many left-leaning students, teachers and academics, who engaged in public strikes in solidarity with the FLQ during the October Crisis. After the kidnapping of Cross, nearly 1,000 students at Université de Montréal signed a petition supporting the FLQ manifesto. This public support largely ended after the group announced they had killed Laporte, in a public communiqué that ended with an insult to the victim. The KGB, which had established contact with the FLQ before 1970, later forged documents to portray them as a CIA false flag operation, a story that gained limited traction among academic sources before declassified Soviet archives revealed the ruse. By the early 1980s, most of the imprisoned FLQ members had been paroled or released.
Members and sympathizers of the group were called "Felquistes" (French pronunciation: [fɛlˈkist]), a word coined from the French pronunciation of the letters FLQ. Some of the members were organized and trained by Georges Schoeters, a Belgian revolutionary. FLQ members Normand Roy and Michel Lambert received guerrilla training from the Palestine Liberation Organization in Jordan. The FLQ was a loose association operating as a clandestine cell system. Various cells emerged over time: the Viger Cell founded by Robert Comeau, history professor at the Université du Québec à Montréal; the Dieppe Cell; the Louis Riel Cell; the Nelson Cell; the Saint-Denis Cell; the Liberation Cell; and the Chénier Cell. The last two of these cells were involved in what became known as the October Crisis. From 1963 to 1970, the FLQ committed over 200 violent actions, including bombings, bank hold-ups, kidnappings, at least three killings by FLQ bombs and two killings by gunfire. In 1966, Revolutionary Strategy and the Role of the Avant-Garde was prepared by the FLQ, outlining their long-term strategy of successive waves of robberies, violence, bombings, and kidnappings, culminating in revolution. The history of the FLQ is sometimes described as a series of "waves". The ideology was based on an extreme form of Quebec nationalism that denounced Anglo exploitation and control of Quebec, combined with Marxist–Leninist ideas and arguments.
The first formation of the FLQ was composed of members of the Rassemblement pour l'Indépendance Nationale, some of whom wished for faster action. This group formed the Réseau de Résistance, or Resistance Network. This group eventually broke up, forming the FLQ. The group was recruited among various sources, eventually recruiting one Mario Bachand. The FLQ commenced their attacks on 7 March 1963. Some of their more notable crimes include bombing a railway (by which then–Prime Minister of Canada John Diefenbaker had arranged to travel within the week).
Three Molotov cocktails planted at the armouries of the Victoria Rifles of Canada, the Royal Montreal Regiment, and the 4th Battalion Royal 22e Régiment (in Châteauguay). Little to no damage done.
Leaflets with the aims of the FLQ were distributed widely throughout the city of Montreal. On the 9-by-12-inch (230 mm × 300 mm) documents can be found a crude crayon coloured drawing of the resistance flag along with the following inscription: "Suicide-commandos of the Quebec Liberation Front have as their mission to completely destroy, by systematic sabotage:
"All the symbols and colonial institutions (federal), in particular the [Royal Canadian Mounted Police] and the armed forces.
"All the information media of the colonial language (English) which holds us in contempt.
"All enterprises and commercial establishments which practise discrimination against Quebec people, which do not use French as their primary language, which have signs in the colonial language (English).
"All the factories that discriminate against French-speaking workers"
A saboteur with a bomb caused minor damage to a 25-inch (640 mm) section of rail between Montreal and Quebec City in the town of Lemieux. It appeared to go unnoticed as traffic continued on the rail line. An engineer eventually called in a "rough spot" that needed repair and a maintenance crew was immediately dispatched for repairs in time for Prime Minister Diefenbaker to travel through shortly after.
A bomb is detonated in the ventilation system of the Department of National Revenue. No one is injured.
The words Québec libre and the letters "FLQ" are written on the official residence of the Quebec lieutenant governor, Paul Comtois.
In response to increased FLQ activities, 50 police officers conducted predawn raids on the homes of 15 suspected members of the FLQ.
Shortly before 1:00 am, an individual claiming to be a member of the FLQ called the Canadian Press and announced "Operation Jean Lesage has started." Soon thereafter a stick of dynamite exploded outside the RCMP headquarters. No one was injured.
At approximately 11:45 pm a bomb detonated at the Canadian Army Recruiting Centre in Montreal. A 65-year-old furnaceman, William Vincent O'Neill, was killed instantly.
In the early morning 15 mailboxes in Westmount were planted with time bombs. Five exploded at 3 am. Nine of the remaining ten bombs were successfully dismantled. One bomb, planted by Jean-Denis Lamoureux, critically wounded a Canadian military bomb disposal expert, Walter Leja.
One car was completely destroyed and three others severely damaged when a car bomb detonated outside the Corps of Royal Canadian Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (RCEME) building in what was the largest explosion at the hands of the FLQ. No one was injured.