A crime reporter was targeted by a convicted hit man who tried to have him killed to end his coverage for a Canadian news outlet.
Montreal-based La Presse said this week that investigative journalist Daniel Renaud was the subject of a $100,000 contract that convicted killer Frederick Silva issued in 2021.
Silva was convicted of three murders but is believed to have been involved in upwards of 65 murder contracts, and is understood by Canadian authorities to have been deep in the criminal underworld for decades.
During his 2021 trial for several murders and an attempted murder, Renaud found himself in Silva’s sights due to his reporting on the case.
La Presse said Friday that Silva offered a $100,000 contract to have Renaud killed, which was uncovered after the outlet read Silva’s confessions after he became a police informant.
Although the hit was never carried out, the revelation sent shockwaves through Canada’s political and journalistic scenes, reports The Globe and Mail.
Quebec Premier Francois Legault told the outlet in response: ‘It doesn’t make sense that in Quebec – we are not in a movie – that in Quebec there’s a contract that was placed on a journalist’s head because he did his job.’
Renaud was defiant following the revelations of a plot against his life, telling La Presse: ‘We must continue to cover organized crime in Quebec, to shine a light on this clandestine part of society.’
Canadian journalist Daniel Renaud was revealed this week to have been the target of a $100,000 contract on his life issued by a convicted hitman
Convicted hitman-turned-police informant Frederick Silva confessed to placing the hit on Renaud’s head, one of over 65 murder contracts Canadian authorities suspect him of being involved in
Canadian authorities reportedly attempted to get Silva to become an informant the day after he was convicted of murder due to his close ties to organized crime, however the gangster refused.
He then changed his mind weeks later, and by February 2024 he police were looking into up to 65 murder contracts he was allegedly a part of, according to La Journal De Montreal.
As an informant, Silva agreed to delve into his criminal past for detectives, and La Presse said Friday that it discovered the contract against Renaud after trawling through the evidence Silva gave to cops.
His plot was allegedly to have a killer lure Renaud to a secluded area under the guise of giving him information about a gang shooting, where he would be gunned down.
The outlet said Silva kept the contract on Renaud’s life open for two months, but closed the $100,000 offer to move onto ‘more important issues.’
Silva, seen in surveillance footage shown at his murder trial, became a police informant after he was convicted, leading to the revelation of the hit he took out against Renaud
Eric-Pierre Champagne, president of Quebec’s professional journalists association, said the case shocked him and reminded him of a notably 2000 case where a reporter was shot under similar circumstances.
The reporter, Michel Auger, was shot in the back several times in the parking lot of the Journal de Montreal, and although he survived, the attempted assassination rocked the Canadian journalistic world.
Champagne said in response to the latest allegations against Silva: ‘We believed – perhaps wrongly – that it was over. But finally we see that maybe it isn’t the case.’
Some leading Canadians likened the case to that of journalist Michel Auger (pictured), who was shot in the back several times in the parking lot of the Journal de Montreal in 2000 in an assassination attempt
A number of leading Canadian politicians spoke out in response, with Quebec Premier Francois Legault saying: ‘It doesn’t make sense that in Quebec… there’s a contract that was placed on a journalist’s head because he did his job’
A number of leading Canadian journalists and politicians have spoken out in response to the plot, with Liberal MP Marwah Rizqy, who was the target of death threats in the past, condemning it as a terrifying development.
‘Imagine when you and your family don’t feel safe to do your own work, when your work is not only relevant, it’s necessary for a healthy democracy,’ she said.
‘If there are no more checks and balances, if there’s no one left to ask questions, then we can turn off the lights.’
Canadian Education Minister Bernard Drainville recalled that Renaud had been a guest on his show when he previously worked in radio.
‘If this journalist, who is very rigorous, had his life threatened you can’t help but think of other journalists who investigate crime.
‘I find this very concerning for our democracy,’ he added as he questioned whether there should be better standards of public protection for journalists.