From Nowhere: Utopian and Dystopian Visions of our - Chris J. Young

North of the 49th Parallel
Every night when I go to bed I think, in the morning I will wake
up in my own house and things will be back the way they were. It
hasn’t happened this morning, either.
Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale
in October 1970, Anglo-Franco tensions in Canada and the issue of Québec separatism came to a head
with the kidnappings of the British Trade Commissioner, James Cross, and the Québec Minister of
Labour and immigration, Pierre Laporte, in Montréal by the Front de Libération du Quebéc (FLQ) in
what became known as the October Crisis. On 15 October 1970 the Québec Government requested the
Canadian Armed Forces to assist the local police in finding the kidnapped commissioner and minister,
and on the following day the Federal Government proclaimed the existence of a state of ‘apprehended
insurrection’ under the War Measures Act. in accordance with these emergency regulations, the FLQ was
outlawed, normal liberties were suspended, and arrests and detentions without charge were authorized.
To many observers, Canada, appeared to be falling into a dystopian state of totalitarianism. On 17
October 1970, Pierre Laporte was found dead in a car trunk near St. Hubert Airport. it would not be until
30 April 1971, with the passage of the Temporary Measures Act, that the more stringent War Measures
Act would be suspended. While these events lasted only a short period in Canadian history, their roots
could be found in centuries of mistrust between Anglophone and Francophone Canadians.
There were several dystopias that explore events leading up to the October Crisis of 1970, and reflect on
the dark possibilities that might have developed as a result of the War Measures Act. One of Canada’s most
notable authors, Margaret Atwood, has explored the religious and scientific future based on her perception
of the contemporary world. Finally, we will make a stop here in Toronto to look at how, even under
circumstances in which some can imagine only a dark and dystopian future in literature, there are still those
who envision a better tomorrow, a better Toronto, to be shared with Canada and the rest of the world.
From Nowhere: Utopian and Dystopian Visions of our Past, Present, and Future 75