Gerald Gallant, also written Gérald Gallant, was a contract killer who worked in Quebec for about a quarter of a century. In March 2009, aged 58, he stood in a Quebec City courtroom and pleaded guilty to 27 counts of first-degree murder and 12 counts of attempted murder, with several other charges. The offenses were dated between 1978 and 2003, and most fell between 1994 and 2002, the years of the war between the Hells Angels and the Rock Machine over the drug trade in the province. He was already serving a life sentence for a murder in Ste-Adele in 2001. The plea added no time to that sentence.
His targets were mainly members of criminal groups, but several people who had nothing to do with the feuds were among the dead. He was never a full member of any one gang and worked for several. His plea was part of an agreement under which he gave police information that produced ten arrests across Quebec in the week before he appeared in court.
Quebec's biker war began on July 13, 1994, and by most counts it ended in June 2002. The Hells Angels fought the Rock Machine, which was linked to a wider alliance of groups opposed to the Angels and in 1999 allied itself with the Bandidos. More than 160 people died in the conflict and over 200 were injured. A large police operation in March 2001 brought the arrest of hundreds of members of biker groups across Canada, among them the provincial leader of the Hells Angels.
Gallant's offenses begin well before this period: the dates in his plea reach back to 1978. Most of the murders were committed in the war years, when he took work from the Rock Machine, from the mafia, from the West End Gang and from smaller groups. Because he never held a full patch in any group, he was free to work for whoever hired him.
The offense that brought him down was committed in 2001 in Ste-Adele, in the Laurentians north of Montreal. Yvon Daigneault died there, and a second man was the target of an attempt on his life and survived. Police later connected Gallant to the case by evidence, and he became a suspect.
Gallant left Canada for Europe. In 2006 he was held in Switzerland on fraud-related charges, and the Quebec police sought his return. The request for his extradition stated that investigators believed he could be linked to as many as 20 murders and that he had acted as a hired killer during the biker war. He was returned to Quebec.
Gallant, then 57, appeared in the Quebec City courthouse without a lawyer. He waived his right to a trial and pleaded guilty to a single count that covered first-degree murder and attempted murder. He was sentenced to 25 years. The hearing took place in about 2008.
First-degree murder in Canada carries a life sentence, and under section 745 of the Criminal Code a person convicted of it cannot apply for parole until 25 years of the sentence have been served.
After the sentence Gallant admitted to at least 26 murders committed in Quebec over about 30 years, and he agreed to give police information about them and about the people who had ordered or helped with them. He later said he acted to repair the damage he had caused. The agreement leaves his sentence unchanged. It gives him $50 a month for purchases, protection while he serves the sentence, and a bar on writing a book or making a film about his crimes.
Under the agreement he undertook to testify against eleven people who were alleged to have ordered the killings or to have helped carry them out.
In the last week of March 2009 the Sûreté du Québec carried out a series of arrests under the name Operation Baladeur. Police had targeted eleven people, and ten were arrested in Quebec City, Donnacona, Warwick, Saint-Jérôme and Trois-Rivières. One of those arrested was already held in a federal institution in Quebec. The offenses under investigation were dated between 1978 and 2003, with most between 1994 and 2002, and the charges included murder and conspiracy. One of the accused was charged with 16 murders.
The eleventh person was arrested in New York on the night of the plea and was to be charged in Quebec City.
Gallant entered his pleas in Quebec City in the last days of March 2009. Victims' relatives and survivors were in the courtroom. He read a prepared statement: "I regret the hurt I have caused the victims and their families." He added that his crimes were difficult, if not impossible, to forgive. A spokesperson for the Quebec prosecutions office said the atmosphere was very emotional, and the prosecutor Martine Bérubé said the case would possibly go down in history.
The plea left his sentence unchanged. He received no further time and can apply for parole after 25 years. Yves Trudeau, a Hells Angels member who turned informant in 1985, had earlier pleaded guilty to 43 counts of manslaughter, a larger total than Gallant's.
Luc Bergeron died in 1999 in a case of mistaken identity: he was not the intended target. Robert Savard died in 2000, and a woman who was with him was injured and survived. Yvon Daigneault died in Ste-Adele in 2001. The other dead included gang members, men connected to organized crime and people who had no part in either.
Canadian law attaches to first-degree murder the heaviest penalty in the Criminal Code: life imprisonment with no parole eligibility until 25 years have been served, set out in section 745(a). Second-degree murder carries life with no parole for at least ten years.
The Quebec biker war lasted from 1994 to 2002 and left more than 160 dead. The Hells Angels and the Rock Machine fought for control of the drug trade, and bystanders were among the dead. Most of Gallant's offenses fall in those years.
Gallant's own guilt is settled by his pleas. The accusations against the eleven people arrested under Operation Baladeur rest on his information and were allegations when they were made.
1978: earliest offense in the dates of Gallant's 2009 pleas.
July 13, 1994: the Quebec biker war begins.
1994 to 2002: most of the murders in Gallant's pleas are committed.
1999: Luc Bergeron dies in a case of mistaken identity.
2000: Robert Savard dies.
March 2001: large police operation against biker groups across Canada.
2001: murder and attempted murder in Ste-Adele; Yvon Daigneault dies.
June 2002: the biker war ends by most counts.
2003: latest offense in the dates of the 2009 pleas.
2006: Gallant is held in Switzerland and returned to Quebec.
About 2008: Gallant pleads guilty to the Ste-Adele count and is sentenced to 25 years.
Last week of March 2009: Operation Baladeur, with ten arrests in Quebec and one in New York.
Late March 2009: Gallant pleads guilty in Quebec City to 27 counts of first-degree murder and 12 counts of attempted murder; no additional sentence.