Pierre Laporte (French pronunciation: [pjɛʁ lapɔʁt]; 25 February 1921 – 17 October 1970) was a Canadian lawyer, journalist and politician. He was deputy premier of the province of Quebec when he was kidnapped and murdered by members of the Front de libération du Québec (FLQ) during the October Crisis.
Pierre Laporte, grandson of the Liberal politician Alfred Leduc, was born in Montreal, Quebec, on 25 February 1921. He was a journalist with Le Devoir newspaper from 1945 to 1961, and was known for his crusading work against Quebec's then-Premier Maurice Duplessis. In 1950, he graduated from the Law School at the Université de Montreal, and was hired by Le Devoir shortly afterwards.
During his years in journalism, he published a number of series targeting the management of the Duplessis government. At the same time that he criticized the Union Nationale government in public, he wrote campaign pamphlets for the Union Nationale during elections. In 1954, Le Devoir ran a six-part series on problems during the construction of the Bersimis-1 generating station. Laporte alleged that the government had taken kickbacks from construction companies building the dam. In a speech, Duplessis called Laporte "a man without a heart, a pig, a snake and a slothy individual" whose journalism "pandered to the vilest instincts of yellow journalism and the most ignoble sentiments". Duplessis referred to Laporte as a writer for a "Bolshevik journal". In 1954, Laporte published a column in the left-wing newspaper Vrai where he wrote: "The Union Nationale is rotten. Those who don’t have eyes to see clearly...at least have a nose to smell. It’s a rotten fruit, whose stink wafts all the way to the provincial borders." In 1958, he was part of a team of Le Devoir reporters exposing the natural gas scandal, leading to the formation of the Salvas Commission, soon after the election of 1960. Laporte's biographer, Jean-Charles Panneton, stated:Pierre Laporte was very courageous. He was a pioneer of investigative journalism in an era when investigative journalism was not practiced, when the media were very docile toward the government of Maurice Duplessis.Laporte was very close to his wife, Françoise, whom he adored. One who knew him stated:Pierre was the type of guy who went fishing with his wife. When he went travelling, he would always think how he could take his wife. He wouldn't go to a stag party. And he would introduce his wife with eyes that big — the way [a] young fellow would introduce his girl to relatives.Peter Edwards, the crime correspondent of The Toronto Star, wrote in 1990 that Laporte was a "devoted family man".
After Duplessis's death, Laporte successfully ran for the Parti libéral du Québec for a seat in Chambly in the Quebec National Assembly and served in the government of Premier Jean Lesage. Laporte was a member of the Quebec Liberal Party, and considered to be a leading member of the party's left wing. Laporte was elected in a by-election in 1961. Laporte served as minister of municipal affairs from 1962 to 1966. In 1962, he was involved in a scandal which it emerged that he lobbied successfully for the Quebec government to rent construction equipment from a firm he owned, leading to charges of conflict of interest violations. Several Québécois newspapers printed cartoons that mockingly showed Laporte leading hundreds of bulldozers and tractors into Quebec City for the government to rent. In 1962, Laporte was the leading force behind a bill passed in the National Assembly that disqualified from holding office, J. Aldéo Léo Rémillard, the Union Nationale mayor of Ville Jacques-Cartier, on the account of his criminal record. Laporte also served as minister of cultural affairs from 1964 to 1966. In 1965, Laporte introduced the bill that led to the merger of several municipalities that created the city of Laval.
Laporte took a populist line, presenting himself as the defender of the "little guy". In a speech, Laporte warned that the Liberals must look after the interests of the "average men" as he stated: "Otherwise, the masses, like those of France in 1789 or Germany in 1933, will be swept away in an undoubtedly unacceptable excess, one that has been sown by our faults and our omissions". He was frequently accused of accepting kickbacks during his time in office with his nickname being "Monsieur Dix Pour Cent" ("Mister Ten Percent"). In the 1966 Quebec general election, the Parti libéral du Québec government of Lesage was defeated by the Union Nationale, and Laporte sat on the opposition benches for the next four years. The Union Nationale premier Daniel Johnson Sr. called Laporte "le roi des patroneux" ("king of the porkbarrel"). After Lesage announced in 1969 that he would step down as party leader, Laporte ran to succeed him, but lost the 1970 Quebec Liberal Party leadership election to fellow cabinet member Robert Bourassa.
Laporte, and several other provincial politicians, received campaign contributions from gangster Frank D'Asti, a capo of the Cotroni family, though there evidence that Laporte had any involvement in crimial activities. Laporte's two principal aides, René Gagnon and Jacques Côté, met with D'Asti and another Cotroni family capo, Nicolo Di Iorio, to pick up briefcases full of cash during both Laporte's 1969 leadership bid and again in the 1970 provincial election, which was won by the Liberals. On 16 April 1970, a Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) surveillance team observed Laporte, Gagnon, and Côté meeting with D'Asti and Di Iorio in an apartment in Montreal. The RCMP surveillance team's report stated that Di Iorio, D'Asti, and Côté together entered Gagnon's apartment and were subsequently joined by Laporte at about "1740 hours"; Laporte later left at about "1850 hours". Gagnon and Côté later stated the meeting was called by D'Asti and Di Iorio who wanted to warn Laporte about allegations of electoral fraud in the Montreal area. According to Gagnon, the meeting ended with Laporte asking the two Mafiosi to "please keep Monsieur Côté informed of the developments in this affair".
On 3 May 1970, in a room that was wiretapped by the police, D'Asti talked with Di Iorio, Angelo Lanzo and Romeo Bucci about their hopes that Laporte would be appointed Attorney-General of Quebec. A Royal Canadian Mounted Police summary dated 17 September 1970 stated:They [D'Asti and Di Iorio] foresaw that they would be able to get favors from Laporte [...] They were very hopeful that Laporte would be appointed justice minister. At that time, René Gagnon and Jacques Côté were working hard to assure them that prospects were good and this would come about. Their aim was to obtain financial contributions for the campaign [...] They were very disappointed when Laporte was named minister of labour and immigration instead of minister of justice. However, they have been assured since then, mainly by Côté, that they would have no problems with Justice Minister Jerôme Choquette.The situation with Laporte was considered highly sensitive by the authorities in Ottawa who made it clear that they did not want the Mounties investigating Laporte.
After the Quebec general election in 1970, Premier Bourassa advised the Lieutenant Governor to appoint Laporte as Deputy Premier, Parliamentary Leader, Minister of Immigration, and Minister of Labour and Manpower.
On 5 October 1970, James Cross, the British trade commissioner in Montreal, was kidnapped by the FLQ. Laporte called the Cross kidnapping "a wind of madness temporarily blowing across Canada". On 10 October 1970, Laporte was kidnapped from his home on Robitaille Street in Saint-Lambert, Quebec, by the Chénier Cell of the FLQ. The kidnappers – Paul and Jacques Rose, Francis Simard, and Bernard Lortie – approached Laporte while he was playing football with his nephew Claude on his front lawn and forced him into their vehicle at gunpoint. Laporte was chosen partly because of his links to the Cotroni family (which would embarrass the Bourassa government) and partly because he had no bodyguards, which made him an easy man to kidnap. Laporte was heading towards the street to pick up the football when he was confronted with a masked man who had just gotten out of a car parked in front of his house who pointed a submachine gun at his face. The FLQ dubbed him the "Minister of Unemployment and Assimilation," and held him hostage, demanding the release of 23 "political prisoners" in exchange for his freedom.