Michel Auger - The Biker Who Shot Me: Recollections of a Crime Reporter

ALSO BY MICHEL AUGER

The Heroin Triangle (1978)

Original French-language edition 2001
ditions trait dunion and Michel Auger
English translation 2002 McClelland & Stewart Ltd. and Jean-Paul Murray

Cloth edition published 2002
Trade paperback edition published 2003

All rights reserved. The use of any part of this publication reproduced, transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, or stored in a retrieval system, without the prior written consent of the publisher or, in case of photocopying or other reprographic copying, a licence from the Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency is an infringement of the copyright law.

National Library of Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Auger, Michel, 1944
The biker who shot me: recollections of a crime reporter / Michel Auger; translated by Jean-Paul Murray. Trade pbk. ed.

Traduction de: Lattentat.
eISBN: 978-1-55199-695-0

1. Auger, Michel, 1944- 2. Organized crime investigationQuebec (Province) 3. Organized crime. 4. Victims of crimesQuebec (Province)MontralBiography. 5. JournalistsQuebec (Province)MontralBiography. I. Murray, Jean-Paul, 1960- II. Title.

HV6439.C32Q814 2003 362.88092 C2003-901485-1

We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Book Publishing Industry Development Program and that of the Government of Ontario through the Ontario Media Development Corporations Ontario Book Initiative. We further acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council for our publishing program.

The translation of this book was assisted by a grant from the Government of Qubec ( SODEC ).

Published simultaneously in the United States of America by McClelland & Stewart Ltd., P.O. Box 1030, Plattsburgh, New York 12901

Library of Congress Control Number: 2002104568

McClelland & Stewart Ltd.
The Canadian Publishers
481 University Avenue Toronto, Ontario
M5G 2E9
www.mcclelland.com

v3.1

To my daughter, Guylaine,
to my grandson, Nicolas,
and to my granddaughter, Amlie

T he great Quebec journalist and statesman Ren Lvesque often said that there is no real freedom without information.

Informing the public adequately to help it understand, choose, and act is therefore an important task. It requires a near-obsessive curiosity, a special passion for knowledge and for gathering facts, as well as unequivocal commitment to truth and accuracy.

In this book, Michel Auger tells us how and why he became a journalist a very good one, in my view and, especially, how and why he gradually became the Quebec publics best source of information on the activities of our societys petty and major crooks.

This book isnt an exercise in self-gratification. Its the thrilling account of a career and of the events that allowed it to flourish to the point where Auger became, outside the underworld and the legal apparatus, an individual that mob barons fear and despise.

Uncovering the activities of professional criminals, and of the various organizations grouping them, isnt easy, for the plain and simple reason that theyre illegal and clandestine.

To get a good grasp of the underworld and, particularly, to know precisely what goes on in it, journalists have few options. Associating with the police goes hand in hand with doing their jobs correctly and efficiently. This angers criminals, who foolishly want journalists to remain impartial and, moreover, to say nothing about them or, at the very least, nothing offensive. What arrogance!

They kill or have others killed; they rob or have others rob; they threaten and intimidate directly or get goons to do so; they abuse, exploit, corrupt our friends, parents, children, and, to top it all off, would prefer we remain quiet and leave them alone or portray them as heroes and good guys.

Michel Auger has always refused to play along with mob bosses. He has sided with the publics right to know and understand. Accordingly, he has chosen to keep company with police officers, those who, paid with our taxes, are responsible for knowing what goes on in the underworld. Theyre the ones who prevent gangs from appropriating too much power in a society that sometimes takes the protection of rights to a ridiculous extent.

Naturally, Auger has chosen his camp by favouring police sources over criminal ones; however, this hasnt prevented him from maintaining his independence or integrity.

In the hours following the attempt on his life, some, including journalists, claimed that Auger was at fault since he didnt stick to reporting facts. He dared to establish links! Yet hed only done his job, which requires to be done adequately that citizens understand the extent of certain hidden realities.

As a citizen and elected representative, Im delighted by Michel Augers work. His aggressive and dedicated investigative journalism has helped us avoid being lulled by reassuring statistics on crime. He reminds us regularly of the magnitude of underworld activity.

As a friend, Im proud of him, proud that he taught me the profession of journalism. Thanks to him, I feel I did good work in the six years I practised the same type of journalism he does.

Moreover, Im filled with admiration and tip my hat to him when I think hes been doing this job with efficiency and passion for thirty-seven years.

Jean-Pierre Charbonneau
journalist and representative
Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs, Quebec

I n life, some days are so beautiful they make you feel as though you hover over everything and nothing can bother you. For me, September 13, 2000, was such a day. The sun was shining in Montreal. I was returning from a delightful holiday and expecting a stress-free work week. I was even thinking about the upcoming weekend Id spend in the country with family and friends.

In the last few weeks, I had decided to get really serious about planning for my retirement in four or five years. I felt I should play a more low-key role. I would stop doing interviews with my radio and television colleagues who solicited me whenever events linked to organized crime disturbed the peace. I was hoping my face would be forgotten and that I could go about the town unrecognized.

Over the years, I had become a specialist of the underworld. The mob no longer had any secrets for me. I have a good memory and was able to provide background information whenever an attempted murder or an eruption of gang violence occurred. I had been familiar with the Canadian, American, and Italian Mafias for a long time. But since 1995, the Hells Angels were what kept me the busiest. The motorcycle gang, created in the late 1940s in California by disenchanted Second World War veterans, had considerably evolved, and was now part of organized crime. They werent only bikers, but also wealthy and ultra-sophisticated criminals at the leading edge of technology.

This was the stuff of my daily work. I liked the challenge. My professional satisfaction came from finding and revealing the activities of these people who live on the fringes of society. I was happy when I could show how these criminals, who felt they were above the law and smarter than honest workers, went about exploiting the public.