Front de Liberation du Quebec

Front de Libération du Québec (FLQ) , Canadian separatist group formed in the 1960s to bring about the independence of Quebec, which has a French heritage, from the rest of Canada, which has a primarily British tradition. Using public demonstrations and terrorist activities, the FLQ attracted considerable attention. In 1970 members of the organization, demanding release of separatist prisoners, kidnapped a British official and the Canadian minister of labor; the latter was murdered. Their action persuaded Prime Minister Trudeau to institute martial law for six months.

Quebec Liberation Front A French Canadian separatist movement. Set up in the early 1960s, it launched a terrorist and bombing campaign to secure the separation of Quebec Province from Canada. The Front de Libération du Québec (FLQ) was greatly encouraged when DE GAULLE used the separatist slogan Vive le Québec Libre (Long Live Free Quebec) while visiting Canada in 1967. But its terrorist activities proved unpopular; much more support was given to the constitutional Parti Québecois, which won a majority of the seats in the Quebec legislative assembly in 1976 and remains an important force in the province.

Front de Libération du Québec (Quebec Liberation Front) A terrorist organization founded in 1963 with the aim of realizing independence for the Canadian province of Quebec. It caused over 200 bombings, 1963–70, but split into two groups in 1969, consisting of twelve members each. In 1970, it abducted the British Trade Commissioner James Cross and the Quebec Liberal minister Pierre Laporte, murdering the latter after seven days. Trudeau responded by invoking the War Measures Act, whereupon almost 500 people were arrested, including 150 suspected of links with the FLQ. Some of the movement's leaders fled to Cuba and then to France, but all were eventually brought to trial. The FLQ ceased to operate in 1971.