Thank you.
I'll make my presentation in French, because my English is pretty bad. I learned it in Shawinigan.
I began my career as a journalist in Shawinigan in 1964. So I've been a journalist for 45 years. I've worked at La Presse, Le Journal de Montréal and on the program The Fifth Estate for five years. Somewhat as Julian was saying earlier, my experience as a journalist has led me to associate with a lot of police officers and criminals.
I'm speaking to you this morning as a victim of organized crime. On September 13, 2000, nine years ago, I was attacked by a member of the Hells Angels organization. He put six bullets in my back. Fortunately, the doctors saved my life and I was able to go back to work. That experience enabled me to meet a lot of victims of organized crime and people who helped those victims.
I've observed that citizens in general have a simplistic idea of organized crime. They think that, through the law, we'll easily resolve all that and that it will be done quickly. Today, the Government of Quebec is announcing the creation of a special construction industry corruption squad, and people imagine that that will solve all the problems quickly.
As regards criminal bikers, Julian earlier referred to the 11-year-old boy who was killed in 1995. Quebec's minister of public security at the time, Mr. Ménard, ordered the establishment of the Carcajou squad. It combined the Sûreté du Québec, the Montreal Police Department and the RCMP to combat the criminals. That squad was soon able to make a major effort because there were a lot of informers and police officers had a lot of information. Rather than continue individually, they joined forces. In 2001, part of the problem was solved with the arrest of between 200 and 300 persons in Quebec, including about 20 dues-paying members of the Hells Angels.