The price on Daniel Renaud’s head shakes Quebec politicians

“It doesn’t make sense”, “it’s extremely serious”: Quebec politicians showed themselves disturbed by the price on the head of the specialist journalist from The Presse Daniel Renaud, who according to them is the symptom of the recent disorganization of organized crime.

I was shocked by what I read this morningadmitted the Quebec Minister of Public Security, François Bonnardel when he entered the National Assembly on Friday. Daily life The Presse revealed that in 2021, hitman Frédérick Silva offered $100,000 for the head of his reporter, who was closely following his legal proceedings.

Mr. Silva was convicted of several murders, but is now acting as a police informer. Citing his testimony, The Presse reports that he had drawn up a plan of the prison to ambush the reporter.

At that time, Daniel Renaud was assiduously covering the hitman’s trial. It was the Sûreté du Québec who notified the reporter in 2022.

Recalling the violent death of a teenager near the den of a Hells Angels school club in September, Mr. Bonnardel did not rule out that this attack on a journalist was a demonstration of immensely important paradigm shift in the hierarchy of the criminalized world. It is a world today which is without faith or law, or almost.

We are not in a film, we are in Quebec Prime Minister François Legault said indignantly. This shows that we must continue to look with the police at what we can do against organized crime.

It worries meadmitted liberal MP Marwah Rizqy, visibly disturbed in the press scrum on Friday. It is important the role that everyone plays in a democracy, and the fourth power is that of journalistsshe added, emphasizing that their work is not only relevant, it is necessary in a democracy that is healthy.

Daniel Renaud felt good [que Frédérick Silva] didn’t like his presencebut he never would have imagined that organized crime could reach this point, explained the vice-president of information and deputy publisher of The PresseFrançois Cardinal, in interview at All one morningon ICI Première.

Mr. Renaud was the eyes and ears of the public in this trialadded Mr. Cardinal, specifying that Daniel was often the only journalist at the trial of Frédérick Silva.

We tried to silence a journalist because he plays his role as a witness.

The people mandated by Frédérick Silva were reluctant to attack the journalist, according to The Press, and the hitman would have finally changed his mind.

With 36 years of experience, reporter Daniel Renaud specializes in organized crime. He is notably the author of three books on this subject.

Other assassination attempts against journalists in the past

This is not the first time in contemporary Quebec history that organized crime has attempted to silence journalists.

On September 13, 2000, as he was taking his personal belongings from the trunk of his car, journalist specializing in covering organized crime Michel Auger was shot six times in the back in the parking lot of the Montreal Journal.

This operation, ordered by criminal bikers, sparked indignation in Quebec.

In the midst of the biker war, this tragedy notably pushed the Quebec government to request a strengthening of the federal anti-gang law. Michel Auger died in 2020.

In May 1973, Jean-Pierre Charbonneau was shot in the daily’s newsroom The Duty. In interview on the show Penelopein May 2023, on the airwaves of ICI Première, he recalled that what happened that day was still very specific in his memory.

At the time, his articles on corruption and mafia barons had disturbed the underworld. At some point, journalistic work scratches the egos of some people, to the point where people end up losing their shit.he explained Friday in an interview with RDI. We shine a light on people who, by definition, want to work in the shadows and who have progressed in the criminal world through intimidation and violence.

According to Mr. Charbonneau, the profession of journalist will always be risky, but when it happens we have to continue, we have to do our job.

This is what Daniel Renaud did, who signed a paper on Friday detailing the confessions made by the person who wanted him dead to the police.