Beauvoir Jean and Pierre Tremblay on newly-released Haitian gang leader's memoirs

 
This is Pierre Tremblay, left and Beauvoir Jean, on the right. Tremblay, a criminologist, has just penned the memoirs of 47 year old Jean, who was one of the leaders of The Master B, one of the city's first Haitian Street gangs. Jean's father left his home to live in Montreal when he was just a small child of five. Nine years later the father managed to get the rest of the family to come to Montreal and Jean, aged 15, saw a Montreal where he was constantly being derided for the colour of his skin. He learned kickboxing and was crowned by a childhood friend, the leader of the Belanger Gang, to be Master-B. That name stuck and became the name of a street gang in Montreal North.
   He tells of being taunted by a police officer who he then punched in the face and kicked again in the face, one of the many crimes he spent times in prison for. Many of those who were in the gangs are now dead, but a few got out with their money. For example one street gang personality had two guards, both of whom died, and another who ended up in a wheelchair. He himself now owns a trendy bar on the Main and a condo in Old Montreal and sometimes returns to his stomping grounds in Montreal North to watch soccer in cafes.
   Then there was a guy named Asmick who was quite methodical, he saved his money, didn’t drink or take drugs. One day he went to a motel on Laurentian boulevard in Laval, knocked on a door and robbed a guy of his debit card. He took the cash and a week later he tried it again at the same hotel, knocking on a different door this time. But the same people were still there, but in a different room. They looked thru the peephole and simply called 911. He got out of jail two years later and started the Pierrefonds RuffRidres around 1998 right in the heart of the biker war. Asmick started the gang by renting a downtown nightclub, he had open bar and asked local toughs for envelopes and left with $10,000 at the end of the night. He then set up shop terrorizing West Island crack dealers, kidnapping and beating them, getting them to change their allegiances. Asmick was also able to import cocaine from Haiti so he bought peace with the scary Hells Angels by hooking them up with his connection. Back then cocaine was $45,000 per kilo but he was getting it for $11,000. The Hells were grateful and ever since then they've been mainstays in the Dominican Republic, within easy access to the drug shipping centres of Haiti.
  Jean also tells his own story, of course, which involves having many wives and many jail sentences. Last year a rival gang member was sentence to prison for trying to kill him so some suspect that he is still involved in the life, although he counsels youth and tells them that crime does not pay. He lives in a basement apartment in Montreal North and says he has no wealth from his days as a gang leader.
  There is much about pimping, but as usual, I can't really fathom how this works or why any woman would be stupid enough to agree to such an absurd deal.
   The book is a who's who of local street gangsters and there's many addresses and business names referenced directly, so it's a useful resource.