The Great South Shore crack house disaster of 1989

   A 41-year-old single mother's split-second decision to grab for a gun on July 21, 1989 has reverberated through history.
    Colette Pétel's effort to get cocaine dealers out of her home left two dead, another disabled. She and another man ended up serving long prison sentences, with her case bouncing all the way up to the Supreme Court.
   Colette Pétel was living with her daughter Josée  Desjardins at 1545 Godin in St. Hubert when the 19-year-old fell for a cocaine dealer named Alain Raymond, 33. The two also had a 19-month-old daughter.
   Mom allowed Raymond to move in but started souring on him after he failed to repay her $5,000 that she lent him. He also started selling copious amounts of cocaine from her home and got her daughter hooked on cocaine.
   So one day Colette expressed her displeasure. The two quarreled and Raymond left.
   He left and returned with Josée and their daughter and his friend Serge Edsell, 26.
   They had a bag full of cocaine, a scale to measure the drugs and a gun, which they wanted her to hide.
   Pétel noticed the gun in the bag and figured that it might be used to shoot her, so she furtively removed it.
   She then shot and hit Edsell and then fired four shots at Raymond, killing him.
   Edsell was badly injured and is believed to have been left handicapped.
   Pétel was arrested and charged with second degree murder for killing her daughter's boyfriend Alain Raymond.
   Desjardins, who watched her mom shoot her boyfriend, told reporters that she was deeply upset by the murder and she also told the court what she witnessed.
   A few days later Desjardin's dead body was found by cyclists on an island in Boucherville. She had been strangled and hit on the head.
  Yves Saint Germain was later sentenced to a minimum of 10 years in prison for killing Desjardins on Aug 7, 1989.  He killed her because she apparently knew too much about the drug network he was involved in.
   Pétel's own trial was ongoing when her daughter was murdered.
   Her defence lawyers produced witness France Gagnon who painted a negative picture of the dead man Raymond, allegedly stating that "if she hadn't killed him, I might have."
  Gagnon said that in the two years living with Raymond she suffered 11 miscarriages and gave birth to two others, one of whom had to be given away to adoption. She said Raymond beat her so badly that she was unable to have any more children.
   Pétel was found guilty of second degree murder. She was later also charged with attempted murder for shooting Edsell.
   She was granted a new trial in 1994.  Her case went to the Supreme Court and has become a case study for the right of self defence in Canada. It's unclear how long she actually spend behind bars or if she's still alive. She would be aged about 68 now.