Canadian Arrests Reduce Many Opposition Parties

When the government of Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau declared a state of martial law in Canada last Friday, it announced that the sole purpose of the emergency action was to crack down on the underground separatist Front de Liberation du Quebec (FLQ).

But the overwhelming effect of the legislation thus far has been to decimate a large number of leftist opposition parties and organizations that are connected only peripherally with the methods or activities of the FLQ.

As the number of arrests mounted above 200 yesterday, the fourth day of the War Measures Act, it became increasingly evident that the only opposition group which government forces have failed to move against is the FLQ itself, which operates in closely knit, highly disciplined and completely autonomous cells of four to six members.

The government outlawed the FLQ after the group had made two political kidnappings. Membership in the FLQ or support for its tactics or goals now carries a five-year prison term. Following the announcement of the law, the FLQ killed one of the hostages, Quebec Labor Minister Pierre Laporte.

The Canadian federal parliament yesterday ratified the emergency act, which will remain in effect until at least April 30, 1971.

FLQ Hideout Found

Police discovered a bungalow hideout in a Montreal suburb yesterday where they believe the FLQ held Laporte before killing him. But the discovery of the alleged hideout yielded no new information concerning the three FLQ members now being sought in connection with the kidnappings or any others in the radical terrorist group.

Only a handful of publicly-known FLQ spokesmen have so far been arrested. The total number of FLQ members is estimated at 150.

Other groups, however, have been more drastically affected by the mass seizure of political activists. One such group is the Front d' Action Politique (FRAP), the major opposition to the administration of Montreal mayor Jean Drapeau in the municipal elections October 25.

Two candidates and several members of FRAP-which supports the FLQ'spolitical manifesto-were jailed by Montreal police almost immediately after the announcement of the war act, FRAP president Paul Cliche charged Friday that the arrests were prefabricated and that they will "seriously affect our campaign."

Many of the remaining prisoners are members of the following groups: the Parti Quebecoise, a separatist party which won 23 per cent of the popular vote in Quebec's parliamentary election last April; the Comites des Ouvriers, a collection of citizens' committees which have been organizing pro-separatist campaigns in voter districts around Montreal; and the American Draft Resisters' Committee.