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Feb 15 1982 - The world's largest offshore oil-drilling rig goes down in Hibernia, Grand Banks, Newfoundland. None of the 84 members of the crew survived.

Front de liberation du Quebec
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The first two segments of this video provide a litany of some of the numerous bombings and robberies enacted by the Front beginning in the early Sixties, including the explosive maiming of Walter Leja, the funeral of Wilfred O'Neill, and the successful targeting of the Montreal Stock Exchange.

In the fall of 1970 the FLQ enacted two political kidnappings that quickly brought an end to its years of activity; British diplomat James Cross was taken from his Montreal home in early October, and Quebec politician Pierre Laporte less than a week after, following the broadcasting of the manifesto of the FLQ, which is also shown here.

By October 13th the federal government was deploying troops in Montreal and Ottawa and getting ready to invoke the War Measures Act; the forth segment in this video gives responses on the streets of Montreal to the unfolding political drama.

By October 17th the federal government had coordinated its emergency powers with the Quebec and Montreal authorities to flush out and jail the FLQ membership - a fifth and final segment provides some footage of those operations.

April 15th 1980 - coming to the end of its mandate to govern, Rene Levesque and the Parti Quebecois announce the date and details of their referendum to empower them to negotiate anew the relationship between the nation of Quebec and the rest of Canada. In the House of Commons in Ottawa, prime minister Trudeau declares that even with a win for the Levesque side, it would be a theoretical contradiction for the federal government to accept the legitimacy of such a basis for such negotiations; short of taking extra-legal measures, Quebec can only ever negotiate with the federal government as a province of Canada.

May 20th 1980 - the Oui side loses the referendum on assigning a mandate to the Quebec government to renegotiate the terms by which it associates with the federal government.

June 11th 1983

In 1976, Joe Clark replaced Robert Stanfield as leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada. Also contending then for the leadership for the first time with Clark was Brian Mulroney.

Unlike Stanfield, who tried and failed three times to unseat Pierre Trudeau and the Liberals, Clark was able to win the general election of 1979 with a minority government; but it was very short-lived, falling in the House of Commons on its proposed budget, and Trudeau and his people were soon voted back to power again.

Although Clark was on track to challenge the Liberals at least one more time, Mulroney never ceased agitating and organizing and planning to become party leader, and by 1983 Clark felt compelled to reaffirm his position, calling for a leadership convention in June that saw him defeated by Mulroney.

October 16th 1970

Prime Minister Trudeau explains to Canadians why the government is invoking emergency powers as a response to the kidnappings of James Cross and Pierre Laporte by the FLQ. Laporte's dead body would be found the next day.

February 1980 - Fabien Roy and the last stand of the Social Credit Party of Canada.

Toward the end of overcoming the increasingly interminable intransigence of provincial governments toward constitutional reform, the Prime Minister announces a plan to carry out the matter unilaterally. (June 1978)

Pierre Trudeau interviewed in January 1972