The October Crisis continued on this date in 1970 with the kidnapped Quebec Labour Minister, Pierre Laporte, writing a letter from captivity to his friend and Premier, Robert Bourassa. He had been kidnapped by FLQ terrorists the day before. You can read his letter below.
"My dear Robert, I feel like I am writing the most important letter I have ever written. For the time being, I am in perfect health, and I am treated well, even courteously. In short, the power to decide over my life is in your hands. If there was only that involved, and the sacrifice of my life would bring good results, one could accept it ...You know how my personal situation deserves to draw attention. I had two brothers; both are now dead. I remain alone as the head of a large family that comprises my mother, my sisters, my own wife and my children, and the children of Rolland of whom I am the guardian. My departure would create for them irreparable grief, and you know the ties that bind the members of my family ... You have the power of life and death over me, I depend on you and I thank you for it."
Sadly, Mr. Laporte would be murdered by the FLQ less than a week later.
Arthur Milnes is an accomplished public historian and award-winning journalist. He was research assistant on The Rt. Hon. Brian Mulroney’s best-selling Memoirs and also served as a speechwriter to then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper and as a Fellow of the Queen’s Centre for the Study of Democracy under the leadership of Tom Axworthy. A resident of Kingston, Ontario, Milnes serves as the in-house historian at the 175 year-old Frontenac Club Hotel.