'You are at risk when you practise this kind of journalism'
La Presse crime reporter Daniel Renaud was the target of a $100,000 murder contract ordered by notorious hitman Frédérick Silva while Silva was incarcerated, according to a report from CBC.
The plot, revealed through Silva’s police confessions, occurred three years ago while Renaud was covering Silva’s trial for multiple murders.
Silva confessed to police that he had hired a team to kill Renaud, though the group expressed reluctance to target a journalist. The revelation came during Silva’s cooperation with authorities after he became a police informant.
"I was shaken," Renaud told La Presse, adding, "I am always careful about what I write. For me, the best guarantee for my protection is my writing," according to CBC.
Renaud, who has reported on crime for 36 years, stated he had never anticipated being the subject of a murder plot."I don't censor myself, but I always exercise restraint so as not to go into the details of the private lives of criminals and avoid putting lives in danger. So I never thought that I could have been the subject of such a contract," Renaud said in La Presse.
Silva was arrested in 2019 after months on the run. In 2021, he stood trial for the first-degree murders of three men and the attempted murder of another. Renaud was one of the few journalists covering the proceedings in full and was sometimes the only reporter present in the courtroom.
The following year, Silva agreed to cooperate with authorities after realizing the evidence against him was overwhelming, according to the report. During the process, he revealed the plot against Renaud and admitted to committing 13 murders and participating in discussions about "dozens" of others, noted CBC.
Dangers faced by journalists
The murder-for-hire plot against Renaud comes amid a broader trend of increased threats and harassment against journalists. According to Éric-Pierre Champagne, president of Quebec's journalism federation (FPJQ), organized crime figures have previously avoided targeting journalists to avoid unwanted attention.
The plot against Renaud is the third high-profile threat or attack on journalists in Quebec in the past 50 years. In 1973, investigative journalist Jean-Pierre Charbonneau was shot in the newsroom of Le Devoir, and in 2000, Auger was shot six times outside the offices of the Journal de Montréal. Both survived.
A survey conducted two years ago found that 56 per cent of journalists in Canada had experienced threats or harassment online, while 30 per cent faced harassment in person.
The hostility faced by journalists, said Larouche. "Threats and harassment, they've become very common. It's worrying," he told CBC.
Charbonneau, now member of the national assembly (MNA) for the Parti Québécois, described the dangers inherent in crime reporting.
"This field is very dangerous. People don't realize that. It's like war journalists; you are at risk when you practise this kind of journalism," he told CBC.
