Louise Lanctôt

Who is Louise Lanctôt?

Louise Lanctôt, born March 24, 1947, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, is a convicted kidnapper and writer.

A political activist for the cause of Quebec independence from Canada, Louise Lanctôt was an active member of the Rassemblement pour l'indépendance nationale political party that later merged with the Parti Québécois. She was also a member of the Front de libération du Québec and is the sister of convicted kidnapper Jacques Lanctôt, and was married to Jacques Cossette-Trudel who joined the FLQ with her.

During what became known as the October Crisis, as a member of the Liberation Cell, on October 5, 1970, Louise Lanctôt along with her brother Jacques Lanctôt, Yves Langlois, Nigel Hamer, and Marc Carbonneau put their plans into action. They carried out an armed abduction of James Cross, the British Trade Commissioner to Canada, from his Montreal home as part of their violent attempt to overthrow the elected government and to establish a socialist Quebec state independent of Canada.

On October 10, Chenier Cell leader Paul Rose and his brother, Jacques Rose along with Bernard Lortie and Francis Simard, kidnapped and then murdered Quebec Vice Premier and Cabinet Minister, Pierre Laporte. Believing many others would follow in an uprising, the goal of the FLQ was to create an independent state based on the ideals of Fidel Castro's Cuba.