Yesterday I saw a message that threw me (at first). The BBC gave us (at https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c7747l84xp1o) and we are given ‘Hitman offered $71,000 for Canadian reporter’s assassination’. As I see it, it doesn’t matter who or where, but anyone paying more than $25K for shortening the life-wire of the reporter in question is over-inflating the problem. We are given “Convicted killer Frédérick Silva confessed to La Presse that he had offered the contract to anyone willing to carry out the hit on Daniel Renaud, who was covering his trial for three murders and an attempted murder in 2021.” The first thought I had was how people could fall for this. A convicted killer handing out the job to anyone for $71K? As I personally see it who is Frédérick Silva trying to escape from? Then we get “The “contract” was in place for roughly two months, but was never carried out, La Presse reported. Silva eventually cancelled the order, he said, because he had “more important issues to deal with”.” As I see it, when a person sets up a contract, it tends to be ‘fulfilled’ within a few days. So I am weirded out by a $71K contract that stays open for about 2 months and then withdrawn? The setting does not fit as some would say. Consider the premise of anyone in the lower security tier. Day one, scope where he lives, or where he frequents. Set the stage and set up a sniping position on day two. Wait for day 3-5 for the mark to show up and end his career (with a 7.62mm prop). In case of ‘dubio’ you could set it up in week 2 as well. So all the effort in two weeks explained and a convicted killer can’t do it and no one wants a $71K job? America with its problems and everyone in that setting passes up on a $71K job? And no one sees this? I had all these doubts, so I decided to take a look at the Canadian side of things and the CBC (at https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/hit-man-wanted-to-kill-journalist-1.7397281) gave me ‘Notorious Quebec hit man wanted to have La Presse journalist killed for $100K’ with the byline “a threat recently made public revealed there could have been a third attempt three years ago, when a contract was put on the head of La Presse crime reporter Daniel Renaud. “I was shaken,” Renaud was quoted saying in La Presse. “I am always careful about what I write. For me, the best guarantee for my protection is my writing.”” I read two articles and the only thing dripping off the writing is ‘how considerate’ he pretended to be seen. You see, we get one additional thing. We are given “Quebec provincial police informed Renaud in the fall of 2022 that notorious hit man Frédérick Silva, whose trial Renaud covered the year before, had put out a $100,000 contract to have the journalist killed.” If that was true the journalist either had something no one has seen yet, or there is another personal setting. So when Radio Canada gives us “Frédérick Silva was arrested in 2019 after spending months in hiding. Three years later, he decided to become a police informant and was airlifted to a secure location from jail.” So he was in hiding for months? And decided to become a police informant? What a disgrace (to some). So consider that “notorious hit man” forks out a contract. I get it, that would be needed to create an alibi and if he was so notorious some would take the contract to gain favour and fame in certain circles. And it came with a $71K bonus? I have issues with this all and I am surprised that I might be the only one. It is not the person. I wonder if anyone outside of Canada knows Daniel Renaud? That is not an attack on Daniel Renaud, he might be very famous in Canada, perhaps even more famous in Quebec. But I (and many more) have never heard of him and that is fine in this world where there are more journalists than there are pools. If you add the self proclaimed journalists we get a pool of so many people that they can replace the population of a medium sized country. So when you realise these items in the equation. Consider what these articles were all about. About a failed attempt on a life where the slightly above average precision shooter could gain an easy $71K, or a reporter that has suddenly be pushed into the limelight.
As I see it there are way to many debatable issues here for comfort. I will let you make up your own mind.
Have a great day.
Lawrence van Rijn - Law Lord to be 