Editing Pierre Laporte (section)

==Kidnapping and murder==
On 5 October 1970, [[James Cross]], the British trade commissioner in Montreal, was kidnapped by the FLQ.{{sfn|Edwards|1990|p=64}} Laporte called the Cross kidnapping "a wind of madness temporarily blowing across Canada".{{sfn|Edwards|1990|p=64}} On 10 October 1970, Laporte was kidnapped from his home on Robitaille Street<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.cyberpresse.ca/actualites/dossiers/crise-doctobre/201010/17/01-4333306-un-monument-a-la-memoire-de-pierre-laporte-inaugure-a-saint-lambert.php|title=Un monument à la mémoire de Pierre Laporte inauguré à Saint-Lambert|date=17 October 2010|work=[[La Presse (Canadian newspaper)|La Presse]]|language=fr}}</ref> in [[Saint-Lambert, Quebec]], by the [[Chénier Cell]] of the [[FLQ]].<ref name="truTV">{{cite web|url=http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/terrorists_spies/terrorists/flq/index.html|title=The FLQ and the Quebec October Crisis|last=Krajicek|first=David |publisher=truTV|access-date=16 July 2013}}</ref> The kidnappers – [[Paul Rose (political figure)|Paul]] and [[Jacques Rose]], [[Francis Simard]], and [[Bernard Lortie]]<ref name=Bauch>{{cite news|last1=Bauch|first1=Hubert|title=From the Archives of 1996: When to Forgive? For the Most Part FLQ Terrorists have become Model Citizens|agency=Montreal Gazette|date=November 30, 1996}}</ref> – approached Laporte while he was playing football with his nephew Claude on his front lawn and forced him into their vehicle at gunpoint.{{sfn|Edwards|1990|p=65}} 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.{{sfn|Edwards|1990|p=65}} 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.{{sfn|Edwards|1990|p=65}} 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.<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/october/10/newsid_2531000/2531261.stm "On This Day – 1970: Canadian minister seized by gunmen"]. BBC. Retrieved 16 July 2013.</ref>

It was the intention of the FLQ to have Laporte write out a "confession" detailing his links to the Cotroni family which the FLQ hoped would be the "[[Magna Carta]] of corruption" in Quebec.{{sfn|Edwards|1990|p=66}} Laporte was defiant, telling his captors: "It will all work out. I know it. Don't worry. It will all work out perfectly".{{sfn|Edwards|1990|p=66}} Laporte was held in a house at 5630 Armstrong (now Bachand) street in [[Longueuil]].{{sfn|Edwards|1990|p=66}} Prime Minister [[Pierre Trudeau]] invoked Canada's ''[[War Measures Act]]'' which allowed mass raids and arrests to take place in order to find the group who had kidnapped Laporte and Cross. Trudeau said:
{{blockquote|quote=Nothing that either the Government of Canada or the Government of Quebec has done or failed to do, now or in the future, could possibly excuse any injury to either of these two innocent men. The gun pointed at their heads have FLQ fingers on the trigger. Should any injury result, there is no explanation that could condone the act. Should there be harm done to these men, the Government promises unceasing pursuit of those responsible.<ref>[http://www.upi.com/Audio/Year_in_Review/Events-of-1970/Canadian-Kidnappings%2C-Vietnam-trials/12303235577467-10/ "1970 Year in Review: Canadian Kidnappings, Vietnam trials"]. UPI.com. Retrieved 16 July 2013.</ref>}}

Laporte was handcuffed, chained to the floor and blindfolded.{{sfn|Edwards|1990|p=65}} However, by feeling his way around his room and pressing his face across the wall, he was able to discover a window. On the afternoon of 16 October 1970, Laporte heard a police siren in the distance, and decided to escape by throwing himself through the window.{{sfn|Edwards|1990|p=65}} He broke through the window, but his leg chains left him dangling in the air.{{sfn|Edwards|1990|p=65}} The broken glass severed the arteries on his left wrist, right thumb and in his chest.{{sfn|Edwards|1990|p=65}} As he dangled in the air, Laporte screamed "''Aider! Aider! Quelqu'un s'il vous plaît aidez-moi!''" ("Help! Help! Somebody please help me!"), but nobody other than his captors heard his cries. His captors pulled him back in.{{sfn|Edwards|1990|p=65}} The police siren that Laporte heard was due to a report of a fire at a house further down Armstrong street.{{sfn|Edwards|1990|p=65}} Over the course of the night, Laporte was bleeding badly from his severed arteries and it was apparent that he would die soon if he did not receive prompt medical attention.{{sfn|Edwards|1990|p=65}} Simard described him as being like a "zombie", saying:<blockquote>He didn't move. No reaction, We took off his blindfold. He didn't even look at us. It was like Laporte was already dead. He was like somebody stripped of all life. He looked totally empty. You could feel that he'd already received the death blow.{{sfn|Edwards|1990|p=66}}</blockquote>As he was laid out on the floor, Laporte seemed resigned to his death as he grew weaker and he refused to speak.{{sfn|Edwards|1990|p=66}} On the morning of 17 October, his captors decided to strangle him to death rather than release him to a hospital.{{sfn|Edwards|1990|p=65}} Two men held him in place while a third wrapped the leg chain around his neck and after a few minutes, Laporte was dead.{{sfn|Edwards|1990|p=66}}

On 17 October, seven days after he went missing, Laporte's body was found in the trunk of a car at [[Montreal Saint-Hubert Longueuil Airport]]. On the same day, D'Asti and Di Iorio met with Gagnon with an offer of help as the duo stated that their boss, [[Vic Cotroni]], had given orders for the Cotroni family to find Laporte.{{sfn|Edwards|1990|p=66}} Gagnon later stated he was told by D'Asti and Di Iorio: "René, we can find him. We know where he is".{{sfn|Edwards|1990|p=66}} Just minutes after accepting the offer of help from the Cotroni family, Gagnon heard the news on the radio of Laporte's murder.{{sfn|Edwards|1990|p=67}} Laporte was buried in the [[Cimetière Notre-Dame-des-Neiges]] on 20 October 1970 in a funeral attended by the elites of both Ottawa and Quebec City in Montreal, Quebec.{{sfn|Tetley|2006|p=145}}

The Chénier cell were all arrested by the ''[[Sûreté du Québec]]'' on 28 December 1970 at a farmhouse south of Montreal.{{sfn|Anastakis|2015|p=215}} The members of the Chénier Cell served terms ranging from 20 years to life, though they were all released on parole much earlier.<ref>{{cite web |last=Bélanger |first=Claude |date=23 August 2000 |url=http://faculty.marianopolis.edu/c.belanger/quebechistory/chronos/october.htm |title=Chronology of the October Crisis, 1970, and its Aftermath |publisher=Quebec History — Marianopolis College}}</ref> On 4 January 1971, Simard while in police custody wrote up an unsigned statement that stated that he and the two Rose brothers were the three men who killed Laporte.{{sfn|Tetley|2006|p=143}}

In 1977, a book, ''L'exécution de Pierre Laporte'' by the Quebec separatist journalist [[Pierre Vallières]], was published.{{sfn|Tetley|2006|p=144}} In his book, Valliėres advanced an elaborate conspiracy theory that the [[Canadian Army]], the [[Royal Canadian Mounted Police]] and the Cotroni family had conspired to have Laporte murdered and then blamed the killing on the FLQ as part of a plot to discredit Quebec separatism.{{sfn|Tetley|2006|p=144}} Vallières's theory was decisively debunked in 1982 when a book co-written jointly by Simard, the two Rose brothers, and Lortie, ''Pour en finir avec octobre'', was published.{{sfn|Tetley|2006|p=144}} The four authors of ''Pour en finir avec octobre'' stated quite explicitly that they were all collectively responsible for Laporte's murder, though the authors refused to say who actually strangled Laporte to death with his leg chains.{{sfn|Tetley|2006|p=144}} The four co-authors stated in ''Pour en finir avec octobre'' that:<blockquote>Pierre Laporte was murdered. His death was not accidental. Without entering into the details, we have always taken responsibility for the death of Pierre Laporte. From our arrest and the trials that followed, we confirmed our complete responsibility, without limitation.{{sfn|Tetley|2006|p=144}}</blockquote>However, the four co-authors of ''Pour en finir avec octobre'' expressed no remorse for Laporte's murder and made no apologies to his family.{{sfn|Tetley|2006|p=144}} The members of the Chénier cell dismissed Vallières's book as they wrote:<blockquote>For amateurs of mystery novels, there are idiocies, downright dishonest of the kind found in ''L'exécution de Pierre Laporte'' by Pierre Vallières. It is the theory of infiltration, of the enemy coming from the inside.{{sfn|Tetley|2006|p=144}}</blockquote>A report into Laporte's murder by Justice Duchaine in 1980 concluded that at very least Jacques Rose and Francis Simard were both present when Laporte was killed, though the report did not name the man who strangled Laporte.{{sfn|Tetley|2006|p=144-145}}

In 2010, journalist Guy Gendron produced a documentary series for [[Canadian Broadcasting Corporation|Radio-Canada]], in which he asserted that the killing of Pierre Laporte was unintentional – "Il a été étouffé dans un moment de panique" ("He was choked in a moment of panic").<ref name=":0">Gendron, Guy. [http://www.radio-canada.ca/nouvelles/Politique/2010/09/23/006-flq-mort-laporte.shtml "Révélations sur la mort de Pierre Laporte"] {{in lang|fr}}. Radio-Canada.ca. Retrieved 16 July 2013.</ref><ref name="MacPherson">{{cite news |last=MacPherson |first=Don |url=https://montrealgazette.com/news/Extremist+makeover+edition/3588195/story.html |title=Extremist makeover – the FLQ edition |work=The Montreal Gazette |date=28 September 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101001203641/http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Extremist+makeover+edition/3588195/story.html |archive-date=1 October 2010}}</ref> The journalist Dan MacPherson of the ''[[Montreal Gazette]]'' described Gendron's documentary—which depicted Laporte's murder as more or less an accident—as part of a tendency by Quebec separatists to whitewash the FLQ.<ref name="MacPherson"/>