Mitchell Bronfman: Montreal man of unlikely intrigue and mystery

 

 Man of mystery: Mitchell Bronfman.
  The title might not seem a natural fit for Bronfman, who died two years ago at age 80, as he had the sex appeal of a head of wilted Romaine lettuce (and about as much hair - Chimples)
   Though he might not come off as a man of action or intrigue, Bronfman, remarkably, had one degree of separation, from Italian mobsters, Jewish Mafia, the airline industry, pump and dump stock market fraudsters, airport drug crooks, corrupt RCMP and FLQ terrorists.
   His name came up in just about every scandal, even though he looked incapable of villainy of any sort.
   His legacy has never been clearly resolved.
   French media cited RCMP reports suggesting that he might have been in on a big ring of drug importers at the airport.

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   Other media, including a book by Richard French and a long article in the Vancouver Sun, portray him as an innocent lamb.
    Bronfman was born on the outside of the serious coin associated with his family.

Willie Obront

   Psychologists could tell you that it's more psychologically healthy to be raised poor among the poor than be raised merely comfortable in an environment of people who are much richer than yourself.
    So unlike many other Bronfmans, Mitchell had to hustle. To his credit he started businesses here in Montreal and employed people and so forth.
   He reportedly owned a restaurant downtown and started an airport service for luxury seeking passengers. He also started a company called Securex which helped do security at the airport.
   Bronfman's main troubles stemmed from doing business with Willie Obront, who was a butcher but also the mastermind behind legitimatizing, reinvesting and laundering Mafia cash.
   The RCMP noted that Mitchell Bronfman was very close to Obront.
   Bronfman borrowed great sums of cash from Obront at a crazy high interest rate to subsidize his unprofitable luxury air travel business.
   Bronfman claimed that he was not close to Obront, who may or may not be still alive nowadays in Florida, he'd be in his 90s.

Donald McLeery

   The unusual chain went something like this: Italian Mafia (Frank Cotroni)- Jewish Mafia (money launderer Willie Obront) - Mitchell Bronfman - RCMP anti terrorism squad (McLeery) - FLQ.
    Bronfman was called to testify at the crime commission and answered questions about how his cash managed to get put into fraudulent pump and dump penny oil stock New Gateway Oils and Ministers Ltd. traded by his brokers Grant Johnston between 1965 and 1968.
  He said that his brokers were acting on their own and he was oblivious to the scam and that his only instructions to them were to sell the Seagrams shares he inherited at the best possible price.

Paul Michelin

   Mitchell Bronfman told the CECO crime commission in the mid-1970s that the affair made him lose faith in broker Paul Michelin, Harry Workman and Willie Obront.
   However in 1971 Bronfman wrote a letter pretending that Obront owed him $350,000. He said his lawyer said it would be okay to do it. His lawyer had since died.
   Bronfman borrowed big money from Obront at 100 percent interest even though he earned $2.2 million between 1969 and 1969 by selling 5,000 Seagrams shares.

Airport security  

   Bronfman claimed to be such a fan of police that he started his own security force at the airport.
   This did not end well.
   The RCMP advised against allowing Bronfman's Securex company to do airport security, citing his links to Obront.
 

Mitchell Bronfman. 1975

Annapolis MP Patrick Nolan told Parliament that former Solicitor General (a post invented to take some files away from the Justice Minister) Francis Fox intervened to allow Bronfman to get the gig in 1972.
   At the time about 60 Dorval Airport employees were said to be involved in a gang that brought drugs into the country. Bronfman's Securex lost its contract in the spring of 1975.
    Bronfman was close to Donald McLeery, who was born within a few months of him and died within a few months of him as well.
    McLeery was an RCMP figure who was fired from his top post as an RCMP counter-espionage boss in 1973 for being associated with Bronfman.
   Bronfman later gave him a job and protested his innocence, noting that he was so much on the side of police that he'd frequently offer unsolicited tips to cops.  
   McLeery's dismissal received much attention, as he was considered a victim of unfairness. At least one book and one lengthy newspaper article protested his firing.
. Nonetheless McLeery had burned a barn in Ste. Anne de la Rochelle in the Eastern Townships on 8 May 1972, to prevent the FLQ from meeting the Black Panthers.

3459 St. Hubert

   McLeery had also stolen TNT from St. Gregoire in April 1972 in a way to infiltrate the FLQ.
   McLeery's partner Gilles Brunet was also considered a victim as he was fired a the same time.
   Only after his death in 1984 did the RCMP learn that Brunet had been selling secrets to the Soviets, so the argument for McLeery's victimhood seems a little more tenuous in light of the laterrevelation that his partner was a mole.
   McLeery's barn burning only came to light after a crooked RCMP agent named Samson spilled the beans on a bunch of affairs after being caught trying to bomb Steinberg's grocery store executive Melvin Dobrin's house in TMR on July 26, 1974, an effort that cost him fingers and part of an ear.
   The RCMP were also embarrassed when Brunet shed light on a break in they executed at  3459 St. Hubert Street, aimed at getting the membership lists of two obscure separatist-sympathizing groups that were already on their way to extinction with the rise of the more legit Parti Quebecois. The groups were called the MDPPQ and the APLQ.
   Little was heard of Bronfman after February 1985 when Revenue Quebec claimed he owed them $1.1 million in unapid taxes. He had a job at Seagram's at the time.
   He died in Florida in 2014, leaving three daughters behind.