NEWS broke out of Gucbec fast week that eight members of the infamous Rock Machine outlaw motorcycle gang have crossed the floor, so to speak, and joined their sworn enemies, the Hells Angels. The defections cap cff a three-month period which began with the attempted assassination of Montreal crime reporter Michel Auger. Following the outraged screams frorn across this nation, the leadership of the " Rock Machine and the ’ Angels met in early October in what was a clearly choreo- graphed peace parley. ; Then, as the fall pro- gressed into a federal elec- tion, the Bloc Quebecois tried to make the issue of organized crime an election _ cornerstone. - ~-.. Nota bad idea, except '< for the way they failed — and miserably, I might add — to get the Liberals to pay any attention to it.- Ia December we began - to learn some of the details into the investigation of the “Auger shooting. It became apparent ari employee of the govern- ment’s auto insurance board Societe de l’Assurance ~ Automobile du Quebec -(SAAQ) was able to access private personal.information, including home addresses and phone numbers. . This information was . then brokered to the Hells Peiedaniany a crime and punishment Details were later revealed that there were at least three employees involved in similar breaches and that information may have been provided to the Angels on cleven members of the Rock Machine. I should add that three of those 11 have since shuffled off this mortal coil and four others survived attempts on their lives, One of the three was playing the other side of the fence and was providin information to the Roc Machine on the Hells Angels. Wall, turnabout is fair play, I suppose. On the ‘heels of this, came news that the Rock Machine were being patched over by the second largest bike gang in the world, the ‘Texas based Bandidos.. The RM were so excited they planned to wear their new colours at their Christmas functions this month bearing the bottom rocker “CANADA.” It’s something designed to tick off their cross-town rivals who consider them- selves the only “national” club-in Canada. Last Thursday, CBC: breathlessly announced that he Hells: Angels were expanding rapidly into Ontario to counter the new threat. Mostly, I’m a little puz- aled by all this. The sudden awakening of the media, 1 mean. None of this is new. Oh, sure, the details and the plavers are new relative to the news story of the day. Burt thar’s abeur it. The Angels have been trying desperately to get a toe-hold in Ontario for years. Several of their Quebec members live in the Golden Horseshoe on a full-time basis to coordinate their business in thac lucrative part of Southwestern Ontario. They have had allegiances with gangs such as the Para- Dice Riders for ages. The biggest stumbling block to the Angeis getting a chapter in Ontario has been the presence of the Outlaws, ancther of the so- _ called Big Four outlaw motorcycle gangs and, with whom, the Hells Angels have had a shooting war across North America for most of the past two decades, interspersed with occasional ‘moments of peace. Nor should it be news that the bikers use females to infiltrate various agencies . for the information they can provide. This is a tried-and-true method. In fact, that was the whole issue in the case of Vancouver Police Constable Marie Brown, who was fired by the department after par- PANASONIC Wednesday, December 27, 2000 - North Shore News ~ 7 (uebec biker war tying at the East End Chapter clubhouse, then sashaying away with a mem- ber of the Evil Ones, a Hells Angels puppet yang in Quebec. VPD felt she became a security risk after that inci- dent and terminated her. And properly, in my opin- ion. The Labour Board saw things differently and forced her reinstatement for reasons unfathomable to anyone who has ever had anything to do with investigating bik- ers — as the Auger investi- gation illustrates. The Bandidos flirtation with the Rock Machine has also been going on for sev- eral years. I first wrote about it over a year and a half ago. The bottom line is events in the outlaw world of biker gangs have reached a fever pite In Quebec alone there have been 157 deaths direct- ly attributable to the war for control of the drug trade between the Rock Machine and the Hells Angels since 1995. The news media at large has been slow to catch on to the ramifications of all of this. Even slower has been the federal government which continues to throw nickels at a multi-billion-dollar prob- lem without even a vague idea of a concerted plan. The Auger shooting has had some positive effect in that the mainstream media has finally noticed, as has the various opposition par- ties and provincial govern- AM/FM CASSETTE & 8 DISC CD CHANGER ; HI-POWER ments, cacept of course for our own, who just don’t seem to get anything. As a final note — has anyone noticed that the Quebec tongue troopers, Le Conseil de ta langue Francais, while scurrying around measuring the size of English letrering to ensure it is half the size of French iet- tering on signs and other visual displays, have not said a solitary word to the Hells Angels. They clearly wear their patches on the back of their club colours and not a word Be arent ‘approved of French is to be found. Surely that. must be offensive to fe pur laine. Could it be they are get- ting special treatment? Or do the tongue troopers not have the courage of their convictions when push comes to shove, so to speak. 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