Quebec War

The Quebec War (French: Guerre québecois) was a civil war in Canada which lasted from 19 November 1996 to 24 December 1999, the majority of which was fought in the eastern part of the country (mainly in and around the province of Quebec), although all major Canadian cities suffered some degree of political violence during the war. Fought between the Quebec Liberation Front (FLQ) and its allies (mostly composed of far-right or neo-fascist militias) on one side and the Canadian Forces and its allies on the other, the war began following a general election which resulted in a leftist coalition (composed mostly of Social-Democratic and Communist parties as well as anarchists) gaining a supermajority in the Parliament of Canada and its subsequent formation of a government; hostilities formally broke out when the FLQ attacked a Royal Canadian Gendarmerie garrison in Montreal, with the political wing of the FLQ simultaneously formally declaring Quebec an independent nation-state (the Quebec Republic), separate from Canada. The declaration of independence was rejected by Canada. Following the Canadian federal government's refusal to acknowledge Quebec's independence, at 18:33 EDT on 19 November FLQ forces attacked the RCG garrison in Montréal and subsequently the Canadian 2nd Armoured Division stationed at CFB Valcartier 8 km north of Quebec City, initiating hostilities. The newly proclaimed Quebec Republic and the Canadian Republic mutually declared war on one another around 22:00 EDT of the same day.

The war began in earnest on several fronts only a day later. FLQ forces besieged CFB Valcartier for two weeks, successfully taking the base following its evacuation a day earlier on 2 May, thus securing Quebec City as the political centre of the newly declared state. The FLQ subsequently pushed southwest along both banks of the St. Lawrence River in an attempt to take Montreal, the largest city and financial powerhouse of Quebec, but after three weeks' effort were routed by a massive Canadian Forces counterattack, which secured Montreal as the seat of the loyalist government-in-exile of the Province of Quebec (which had fled Quebec City upon its fall to the FLQ). Most other urban areas of Quebec (almost all concentrated around the St. Lawrence) remain under Canadian Forces control as of June 2020, while all populated areas around and northeast of Quebec City are held by the FLQ; the ratio of Quebecois population under federal government rule to that living under FLQ rule is currently estimated at 80:20. Since the start of the war, over 11,000 Canadian civilians, almost all citizens of Quebec, were arrested and charged with terrorism and/or treason as a result of their direct or indirect support of the FLQ during and immediately after the war. Many leaders and prominent members and supporters of FLQ-allied right-wing and fascist parties and especially their associated militia forces across Canada have also been arrested, numbering around 2500; these arrests indirectly contributed to political polarization in anglophone Canada, with the incumbent leftist federal government attempting to isolate the fascist groups which in turn increased dramatically in numbers following state repression. The war ended in December 1999 following the surrender of the FLQ to the Canadian Army and the signing of the Treaty of Montreal on 24 December 1999.