Oct 05/10 - Pt 1: October Crisis - James Cross

PART ONE

It's Tuesday October 5th.

The Department of Foreign Affairs is urging Canadians to be vigilant if travelling to Europe.

Currently, there's a prize if you can find the seven "Canada Action Plan" posters hidden throughout the continent.

This is The Current.

October Crisis - James Cross

We started this segment with a clip from 40 years ago today, October 5th, 1970. And those 48 hours passed, with no word about British diplomat James Cross. In the end, James Cross was held hostage for 59 days, by the Front de Liberation du Quebec.

A few days after he was abducted, Quebec's Labour Minister, Pierre Laporte was also taken hostage, and later murdered. Those events sparked the October Crisis. Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau invoked the War Measures Act, and armed soldiers patrolled the streets of a Canadian city.

All the while, James Cross was following the news from an apartment in Montreal where he was being held. He agreed to speak to us this morning about his ordeal. James Cross was in Seaford, England.