James Cross was the British trade commissioner in Montreal when he was kidnapped by the FLQ on Oct. 5, 1970. Cross was held hostage for 59 days by the Front de Libération du Québec. A few days after Cross's abduction, Quebec's then labour minister Pierre Laporte was also taken hostage and later murdered.

Those events sparked the October Crisis. Then prime minister Pierre Trudeau invoked the War Measures Act and soldiers patrolled the streets of Montreal. All the while, Cross was following the news from an apartment in Montreal where he was being held. He agreed to speak to CBC's The Current on the 40th anniversary of the October Crisis.

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AUDIO: CBC's The Current interviews James Cross about the October crisis.