Dangerously Unsavoury Proximity

"It is a concern to us. We feel that a lot of the illegal drugs that come into this country come in through our ports."
"[Hells Angels have a presence in Vancouver, Montreal and Halifax ports the past 30 years] So as far as the ports are concerned, it’s the whole success of the Hells Angels [allowing organized crime to revel in international drug smuggling]."
Det.-Staff Sgt. Len Isnor, OPP, top law enforcement expert on Hells Angels, Canada

"We’ve had successful prosecutions against the Hells Angels but that doesn’t seem to stop them. They just keep trying to get back into business."
"As long as they continue, we’re going to continue prosecuting them."
Insp. Rick Guyader, Winnipeg Police Service

"As the bikers involved in the slayings were rounded up in the months that followed, it would have been easy to assume the gang was finished in Quebec. But only five ended up with life sentences for first-degree murder; about a dozen others who helped dispose of the bodies or get rid of evidence received lighter sentences."
"Five members of the gang’s now defunct Laval chapter — Guy-Louis “Chop” Adam, Jean-Guy “Brutus” Geoffrion, Laurent “l’Anglais” Viau, Michel “Willie” Mayrand and Jean-Pierre Mathieu — were gunned down inside the bunker. At least two other members of the Laval chapter were supposed to be killed that day as well, but they failed to show up for the meeting. A sixth man linked to the Laval chapter, prospect Claude “Coco” Roy, was killed two weeks later."
Report, National Post, March 2015

Postmedia News/Files   Five of the Laval, Que., Hells Angels chapter were killed in what came to be known as the Lennoxville Purge of 1985. In the second row, wearing the cap, is Robert “Tiny” Richard, believed to be the national leader of the Hells Angels.

"He was here? I didn't know that. I knew his wife was here", said a bearded man standing outside a Toronto-area hotel. He was wearing a "Red Devils Ottawa" jacket. And he was referring in the first instance to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, and in the second to Laureen Harper, wife of the Prime Minister, both of whom were staying at the very same hotel that 30 members of the Hells Angels held reservations for.

The Prime Minister was there in Toronto in preparation to attend and participate in the first leaders' debate of the current general election campaign. His wife, Laureen, often accompanies him. And they were both in the hotel whose management seemed unaware that there might be security problems related to the presence of the Prime Minister and his wife, in the presence of a large number of individuals belonging to a criminal gang.

The hotel management seemed not to mind the presence of the Hells Angels members, one whit. They accepted the fact that they would be accommodating them, after all, and not for the first time, according to hotel staff. One employee spoke of the coincidence that the bikers were at the hotel the very same night as the Prime Minister, adding "As long as they don't bother anyone; they're quiet", said the employee, unfazed by their presence.

The Prime Minister's security team, on the other hand, did certainly take note of the presence of the bikers. On the other hand, their presence would have been difficult to overlook since they were wearing leather jackets sporting the "Hells Angels Ontario" logo. And their motorbikes were lined up on the street at the front entrance of the hotel. Somehow the propinquity of the Prime Minister of Canada and his wife, alongside members of the Hells Angels seems out of whack with intelligent caution.

The RCMP officers detached to the Prime Minister's security took extra security precautions. But they should not have had to. The hotel's disinterest in taking responsibility to see that if one group was to stay at the hotel the other group shouldn't have been in close proximity is amazing and disappointing. And that the RCMP team looking after security had no prior knowledge of the reservations at the hotel for the Hells Angels speaks to a dismal failure on their part.

THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul Chiasson    Members of various motorcycle clubs, including the Hells Angels, get their bikes ready outside a hotel Friday, August 7, 2015 in Toronto.