Ferret on Parliament Hill during the October Crisis - pic ID
 

Folks

This image was shared by a friend of mine. Its resolution is as good as it gets. It reputedly shows Canadian Ferrets deployed to Parliament Hill during the 1970 October Crisis. Serious response to high drama in Canada. The registration number starts 54 and seems to end 89. If this CFR can be identified, whoever owns this one now has a genuine historically significant provenance.

Are there any better images? More than the photo shoot?

After a bit of Google Image Searching
 

CANADA - OCTOBER 14: Ready for guard duty after being called on by Quebec Premier Robert Bourassa to provide protection for people and public buildings from terrorists; two armed forces corporals at Camp Bouchard; near Ste. Therese; check the gear on a ferret scout car. Troops on manoeuvres at the camp were flown by helicopters to Montreal; 30 miles away after premier's call. Others moved in from Valcartier. (Photo by Graham Bezant/Toronto Star via Getty Images)

DETAILS
Restrictions:
Contact your local office for all commercial or promotional uses.TORONTO PAPERS OUT
Credit:
Graham Bezant / Contributor
Editorial #:
502838531
Collection:
Toronto Star
Date created:
15 October, 1970
Licence type:
Rights-managed
Release info:
Not released. More information
Source:
Toronto Star
Object name:
tspa_0120330f

Hello everyone.....if that is a photo of 589...yes she is alive and well in my garage....thank you for the photo....love to find out more...

How is it suggestive of the Ferret being at Parliament Hill?

Do the buildings, 3/4 tons, and M113A1 in the background suggest otherwise?
Could it be the deployment to Camp Bouchard in response to protect 34 CFAD? Or a component of Op ‘ESSAY’ ?

October Crisis Ferrets
 

There is a good chance that the Ferret in the Camp Bouchard photograph is indeed 54-82589 (36BA60) as it was disposed of out of BFC Valcartier in 1982. The other likely candidate 54-82539 (35BA94) was also in Valcartier and was disposed of at the same time as 82589. Another possibility, 54-82509 (35BA68), was disposed of out of CFB Petawawa in 1980.

The background and actual byline correct the misrepresented caption. Evidently these vehicles were not in Ottawa. Apparently they were someone's version of a QRF. I know some 12eRBC moved into the Sherbrooke Hussars armoury on William St - for the duration. What they did in there is anyone's guess. I was only 10 at the time.

Camp Bouchard was a significant installation in Ste Therese. Parts of it are still visible, but have been turned back to the city. IIRC, it falls over 3 or 4 map sheets. It was an Ordnance Corps camp, and I remember my father telling stories about getting 28-gauge blackpowder blanks made there for the unit's Centennial Platoon for 1967. They used a chamber insert in rented Snider Enfields and performed 1870s drill in all the little towns around the Eastern Townships that summer.

I knew I could trust your feature extractor's eyeballs.

David

Glad to help!

You can spend C$xx and buy a good quality copy by clicking on a couple of the sites showing that image. Do a right click Google Image Search and poke around the information on the photos. It was originally in the Toronto Star (per my other post).

Some extra work may need to happen getting anything practical out of the paper's archives. It isn't nicknamed the Red Star for nothing, and the editorial boards for the past couple decades have been doing their best to deny anything of any value ever happened in the Department of National Defence.

Ferret CFRs
 

Terry, actually terrain analysist's eyeballs, as I predate feature extraction.

Cast your terrain gaze over this... old eagle eye(s) :)

Ferret CFRs
 

Looks like 54-82543 to me.

Looks like it to me also.

It is interesting to see the front and rear light tower for side and turn signals still in place in the original picture and the large black and white convoy marking applied in the enlarged picture

After looking at the photo a good bit...i see two points that tell me this is not 589.....first in the photo the ferret has the british tower style side lights....second the socket for the m. g. Mount is an original unmodified mount....i have photos of my 589 as it came out of canada and she had u.s. m series side lights and the m.g.socket was a modified mount from her service in cyprus....these things tell me the photo is not 589........539 maybe???

Also thank you Terry for the photo....i had my hopes up as i have no photos of 589 in service....she may be in some but seeing the numbers is imposible in most photos....maybe someday one will surface.....best to you...

Can't say we weren't excited for a few moments!

Oh yes i really thought and was hoping that was a photo of ferret 589.....but im sure it is not....i have collected all the photos i can of Canadian ferrets....there were only 124 of them....im sure 589 is in some of the photos but cannot be positively identified....she did service in Egypt and Cyprus...that i know for sure...i have copies of paperwork to show that...but a positive photo has not been found yet.....still looking...

Ferret 54-82589
 

So I take it 82589 was in Cyprus prior to 1970?

Hello Ed.....yes 589 was in Cyprus...i refer you back to my posts in the armour section...page 2