On this date, October 22, 1978, Montreal Police raid the Truxx, a gay bar, and arrest 146 men and force them to submit to a venereal disease test after being held for up to 15 hours on morals charges.

According to historic reports, “More than fifty uniformed and plainclothes police from the divisional morality, mobile and technical squads carried off the raid” in the early morning hours of Oct 22.

“The heavily armed members of the technical squad entered with bullet-proof vests and at least two machine guns.”

The 146 men arrested were held for up to 15 hours at police headquarters “while ‘compulsory’ VD tests were administered.” Similar tests were ordered on 22 men charged as found-ins at Montreal’s Dominion Square Tavern.

This raid was considered the largest mass arrest since War Measures Act. The War Measures Act had been imposed during the October Crisis of 1970 to deal with what the government called an “apprehended insurrection,” after the kidnapping of a British diplomat and a Quebec cabinet minister, and the latter’s subsequent murder, by the Front de libération du Québec (FLQ). The Act suspended the right of habeus corpus; 465 people had been arrested and held without charge.

Raided simultaneously was Le Mystique, another bar on Stanley Street, according to Issue 39 of The Body Politic that was released Nov. 21, 1978.