The new documentary series Poirier, the willwhich retraces the journey of star journalist Claude Poirier, will begin this Friday on TÉMOIN with the presentation of its first episode.
Offering a rare foray into the personal and professional life of this character as unique as he is significant for Quebec radio and television, the series will unfold through the confidences of the ace-reporter, but also those of key witnesses, friends who rubbed shoulders with him and archive images, some of which had remained unpublished until then.
“People will relive moments with Claude, moments when he was an actor in the short story, but with a more personal touch. They will delve into many news stories that have marked Quebec, notably the Marion affair, Richard Blast or the hostage-taking in Saint-Jérôme, through Claude’s experience. Some will remember, while others will discover things,” the host and interviewer Paul Arcand, who collected, in complete privacy, Claude Poirier’s confidences for the series, told the QMI Agency.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY WITNESS
“I have always found that Claude was a journalist like no other, and none like we will see again either. He is one of the only ones who could have contact with the police, but also with people from organized crime,” he added, specifying that he had known him when he was starting his career on the radio. and that he had, since then, always considered him as a mentor.
On the ground with the real negotiator
Over the course of his 65-year career, Claude Poirier was called upon to intervene in 55 hostage situations and kidnapping cases as a negotiator. He also covered – sometimes on a voluntary basis – numerous international events, such as the funeral of Martin Luther King, the assassination of John F. Kennedy and the riots in Baltimore, Atlanta, Detroit and Los Angeles.
He started in the profession after witnessing, in August 1960, an armed robbery at the credit union where he was going to pay a fine.
After winning, with this story, the competition for the best news of the radio station CJMS, the journalist was quickly brought to cover the judicial news and the various events of the metropolis, strolling the rue Saint-Laurent at the exit of the bars , looking for a good story and contacts.
Photo Agence QMI, JOËL LEMAY
“The best scoops are the public who gave them to me,” said Claude Poirier during an interview he gave to the QMI Agency, stressing that he would have liked the series to go into more depth certain files on which he worked and which are still close to his heart.
“During my career, I have had the opportunity to interact with organized crime, defense attorneys and the police… [qui] gives you what she wants to give you,” he added.
“I have never been identified as a journalist who eats out of the hand of the police. I ate shit from the police. […] At one point, I decided to go and knock on doors to get the other version, because there are two sides to a coin,” continued the 85-year-old journalist, recalling that on one side his one head had been put on the market and on the other he had been placed under electronic surveillance for years.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY WITNESS
In addition to returning to the scene of certain significant events that he covered, Claude Poirier will return, during the series, to his first hostage taking, the suicide before his eyes of the criminal Robert Brown and the first time that he realized that the police had used it. He will also discuss the impact that his profession had on his family and personal life.
Available in eight episodes, the documentary series Poirier, the will will begin this Friday, 9 p.m., on TÉMOIN.
