Cartoonist Chris Oliveros was a toddler when the Front de libération du Québec was busy blowing up mailboxes with homemade bombs. Between 1963 and 1970, the FLQ—a militant Quebec independence movement—would be responsible for over 200 bombings and dozens of robberies that left many Quebecers injured and at least seven dead: one a young FLQ member.
The FLQ sought to establish a sovereign French-speaking state in Canada, and their actions would culminate in the kidnapping of British trade commissioner James Cross and the kidnapping and subsequent murder, in October 1970, of Quebec cabinet minister Pierre Laporte. The events, which became known as the October Crisis, led then prime minister Pierre Trudeau to deploy the Canadian Armed Forces and invoke the War Measures Act at the request of Montreal mayor Jean Drapeau and Quebec premier Robert Bourassa. Basic civil rights and liberties were suspended, with hundreds of people arrested and imprisoned without trial.
