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The history of the October Crisis has often been analyzed through the lens of Quebec. This article wishes to broaden understanding of the repercussions of this crisis outside the borders of the francophone province by looking at the events that shook academic institutions in the Canadian Prairies and the reactions of the student youth that drove them. Based on analysis of student newspapers from Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta, it attests to the turmoil on university campuses in the months following the implementation of the War Measures Act, when demonstrations, petitions, teach-ins, and intellectual exchanges followed one another. This analysis sheds light on a certain dichotomy of opinions in the West. While Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau was strongly criticized for his official language policy and his economic centralism by the people and governments, a lull occurred with the October events, whose management by the federal government was welcomed. Student newspapers offered another perspective, that of an engaged youth sensitive to the issues of Quebec, trying to show the perverse effects of this War Measures Act, deemed liberticidal, hostile to radical discourse, and affecting the entire country. In revisiting this era, this article also explores the student journalistic style of the era-- a style that sought to be on the fringes of mainstream media, seen as biased in its treatment of Quebec and of separatist movements. In the eyes of certain students, the liberation of Quebec could lead only to the liberation of Canada. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]