Cossette-Trudel was born on February 15, 1947. While a student at the
Université du Québec à Montréal, he became active in
left-wing politics with the
Groupe Marxiste Revolutionnaire, a Quebec-based part of
The Waffle, a radical wing of Canada's
New Democratic Party. In May 1968, he was deeply involved in Montreal in the organization of the student movement for the democratization of the education system. Soon after, Cossette-Trudel's views became more extreme and he joined the
Front de libération du Québec, whose members were responsible for a decade of radical manifestos, bombings and armed robberies in the Province of Quebec. While still a student, he met and married another leftist,
Louise Lanctôt. During what became known as the October Crisis, as the leader of the FLQ's
Liberation Cell, on October 5, 1970, Jacques Cossette-Trudel along with his wife Louise, her brother
Jacques Lanctôt,
Yves Langlois,
Nigel Hamer, and
Marc Carbonneau abducted
James Cross, the
British Trade Commissioner, from his Montreal home, demanding the release of 27 convicted FLQ militants and the publication of the group's political manifesto. The Government of Canada, at the invitation of the Quebec provincial government, responded with the adoption of the
War Measures Act. Under this law, 500 citizens were jailed and 10,000 Canadian soldiers were deployed on the streets of Montreal. Believing many of their fellow citizens would join an uprising, the goal of the FLQ was to create an independent socialist state based on the ideals of
Fidel Castro's Cuba and the Algerian revolution. Early in December 1970, police discovered the location of Cossette-Trudel's Liberation Cell hideout. The safe release of their hostage, Cross, was negotiated and on December 3, 1970, after Cossette-Trudel, his wife, and the other known members of his cell were granted safe passage to Cuba, with approval from Fidel Castro, Cross was released. ==Exile==