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MONTREAL. – A hitman offered US$71,400 for the assassination of a crime reporter at Montreal newspaper La Presse, the outlet has reported.
Convicted killer Frédérick Silva confessed to La Presse that he had offered the contract to anyone willing to carry out the hit on Daniel Renaud, who was covering his trial for three murders and an attempted murder in 2021.
Silva was convicted in 2022 and became a police informant.
Quebec Premier François Legault condemned the plot. “It makes no sense that in Quebec – we are not in a movie – there is a contract placed on the head of a journalist because he does his job,” he said.
“This is not the Quebec we want,” he said, adding that the province’s police must continue to target organised crime.
In order to become an informant for the authorities, Silva had to confess his entire criminal history, La Presse reported.
The outlet said it had learned of the plot against Mr Renaud after reviewing the confession Silva had made to police.
Silva admitted to contacting two influential organised crime figures about assassinating Mr Renaud while being held on trial in 2021.
According to Silva, the figures were hesitant, saying it was a bad idea to target a journalist.
The “contract” was in place for roughly two months, but was never carried out, La Presse reported. Silva eventually cancelled the order, he said, because he had “more important issues to deal with”.
Silva is now serving a life sentence in prison.
Mr Renaud told La Presse he was “shaken” by the revelations.
“I don’t censor myself, but I always exercise restraint so I don’t reveal details about the private lives of criminals and avoid putting lives in danger. So I never thought that I could have ended up the subject of a contract like this,” he said.
Vincent Marissal, a former colleague of Mr Renaud’s who is now an elected provincial politician with the left-wing Québec Solidaire, called the journalist a “very rigorous person – not the type of guy who makes a lot of noise in the newsroom but apparently he can cause a lot of bother.
“That means he’s doing his job, but that’s certainly no reason to see a price put on his head.” – BBC
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