Hitman offered $100,000 to kill Montreal crime reporter covering his trial – CP24

MONTREAL — Political leaders and press freedom groups were shocked Friday after Montreal news outlet La Presse revealed that a hit man had offered $100,000 to have one of his crime reporters killed.

Convicted murderer Frédérick Silva, who became a police informant in 2022, had confessed to issuing the murder contract against investigative journalist Daniel Renaud. according to La Presse.

The news source said Silva, known for committing multiple murders over the years for organized crime groups, ordered the attack on Renaud in 2021, when the reporter was covering Silva’s trial on three murders and one attempted murder.

And although Renaud’s murder was never carried out, Friday’s revelations resonated across Quebec’s political and journalistic classes, raising questions about whether reporters investigating criminals are adequately protected.

Quebec Premier François Legault denounced the plot against Renaud, saying: “It makes no sense that in Quebec – we are not in a movie – that in Quebec a contract is placed on the head of a journalist because he did his job.”

Education Minister Bernard Drainville, who worked in radio in 2021, said Renaud was a guest on his show. “When this journalist, who is very rigorous, is threatened with his life… you can’t help but think of other journalists who investigate crime,” he said.

Drainville also asked whether journalists investigating criminals should be given police protection. “I find this very concerning for our democracy,” he said.

As an informant, Silva agreed to meet with police to help them with multiple murder investigations, and was forced to reveal his criminal activities. La Presse said it became aware of the contract against Renaud after reviewing confessions the killer made to police.

Silva had suggested luring the reporter to a location with the false promise of giving him information about gang shootings and then killing him, the news outlet revealed. La Presse said the bounty was active for two months before Silva, who is serving a life sentence, canceled the hit to focus on “more important issues.”

Éric-Pierre Champagne, president of Quebec’s professional journalists’ association, said he was “shocked and surprised” by the revelations. He recalled the attempted murder of journalist Michel Auger, who was shot several times in the back in the parking lot of the Journal de Montréal in 2000 – putting enormous pressure on organized crime.

“We believed – perhaps wrongly – that it was over,” he told reporters about the violence. “But ultimately we see that this may not be the case.”

Other political leaders denounced the hit ordered against Renaud, with Liberal legislative member Marwah Rizqy, who was the subject of death threats and briefly placed under police protection, struggling through heavy silence when asked to respond.

“Imagine if you and your family don’t feel safe doing your own work, that your work is not only relevant but necessary for a healthy democracy. “When there are no more checks and balances, when there is no one left to ask questions, then we can turn off the lights,” she told reporters at the Quebec legislature.

Vincent Marissal, a member of Quebec’s Solidarity Parliament, said he was “shocked” and called for solidarity with Renaud and other journalists.

Speaking to La Presse, Renaud said the threat to his life will not stop his work. “We must continue to monitor organized crime in Quebec, to shine a light on this clandestine part of society.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 29, 2024.

— With files from Pierre Saint-Arnaud in Montreal.

Joe Bongiorno, The Canadian Press