Another kidnapping shocks Quebec

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32425, 12 October 1970, Page 1

Another kidnapping shocks Quebec

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) MONTREAL,- October 11. Two men armed with machine-guns last night kidnapped a Quebec Cabinet Minister from his suburban home minutes after the Government rejected a prisoner exchange as ransom for the life of a British diplomat held hostage by separatist terrorists, United Press International reported.

The Minister of Labour and Immigration (Mr Pierre Laport), aged 49, was abducted from outside his home while he and his 10-year-old son were playing football.

Mr Laporte was grabbed only 15 minutes after the Quebec provincial Minister of Justice (Mr Jerome Choquette) finished reading the Government’s last - minute counter-proposal to the kidnappers of the British diplomat, Mr James Cross. He offered the kidnappers safe conduct to a foreign country if they would release Mr Cross unharmed. Mr Cross has been held hostage since Monday by the Front de Liberation du Quebec (F.L.Q.), an underground terror group seeking independence for the Frenchspeaking Quebec province. The F.L.Q. said they would execute Mr Cross unless the government agreed to release 23 gaoled separatists and fly them to sanctuary in Cuba or Algeria.Mr Choquette, speaking for

the Federal and provincial governments, only 20 minutes before the deadline expired, refused the demand. “No society can accept blackmail and murder,” he said. Counter-offer But he made a counteroffer, giving the kidnappers a chance to save themselves. Speaking to the kidnappers, in the statement broadcast by radio and television in French and English, Mr Choquette said: “As an ultimate concession, to save the life of Mr Cross, the Federal Government has instructed me to say it is disposed to offer you safe conduct to a foreign country.” In Ottawa, the Department of External Affairs said at least one country had agreed to accept the kidnappers. Government sources indicated it was either Cuba or Algeria. Mr Choquette also offered the kidnappers “any clemency the courts can grant” if they ever come to trial,

if they would make “the humanitarian gesture to avoid the death of Mr Cross.”

A.A.P.-Reuter reported that Mr Laporte, a lawyer and senior Minister in the Quebec Cabinet, was grabbed by two masked men with machine-guns, who forced him into a blue car and sped off.

His wife, who witnessed her husband’s abduction, reported the kidnappers' car licence number to the police. The French language newscast of the Canadian Broadcasting Company, later said an anonymous telephone caller told the C.B.C. that Mr Laporte was in the hands of the F.L.Q, The caller said Mr Laporte was kidnapped because the Government did not yield to the F.L.Q. ransom demands for Mr Cross.

The provincial police called back all off-duty officers, and fielded a force of more than 3500 men in the hunt for the kidnappers and the protection of other officials.

The Director of Police (Mr Maurice St Pierre) ordered guards placed on “all members of the Federal and provincial Parliaments in the region, as well as anyone else we feel is a likely prospect for such kidnapping.”