{{Infobox criminal organization , name = Rockers MC , native_name = , native_name_lang = , image = File:Rockersmc.jpg , image_size = , image_alt = , caption = , founded = March 26, 1992 , founder =

Maurice Boucher Maurice Boucher (21 June 1953 – 10 July 2022) was a Canadian gangster, convicted murderer, reputed drug trafficker, and outlaw biker. He was once president of the Quebec Nomad (motorcycle club membership), Nomads chapter of the Hells Angels M ...

{{cite web , url=https://globalnews.ca/news/8979734/hells-angels-boss-maurice-mom-boucher-dies/ , title=Maurice 'Mom' Boucher, former Hells Angels boss, dies in prison from cancer , website= Globalnews.ca, date=July 10, 2022 , named_after = , founding_location =

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

, years_active = 1992–2001 , territory = Practically exclusive to

with some reported activity in North British Columbia , ethnicity = Mostly Quebeckers and

Francophone Canadians Francophone Canadians or French-speaking Canadians are citizens of Canada who speak French, and sometimes refers only to those who speak it as their first language. In 2021, 10,669,575 people in Canada or 29.2% of the total population spoke Fren ...

, membership = , leaders = * Pierre Provencher (President){{cite web , url= https://www.oocities.org/wiseguywally/} *Jean-Guy Bourgouin (Vice President) , activities =

Drug trafficking A drug is any chemical substance other than a nutrient or an essential dietary ingredient, which, when administered to a living organism, produces a biological effect. Consumption of drugs can be via inhalation, injection, smoking, ingestion, ...

assault In the terminology of law, an assault is the act of causing physical harm or consent, unwanted physical contact to another person, or, in some legal definitions, the threat or attempt to do so. It is both a crime and a tort and, therefore, may ...

intimidation Intimidation is a behaviour and legal wrong which usually involves deterring or coercing an individual by threat of violence. It is in various jurisdictions a crime and a civil wrong (tort). Intimidation is similar to menacing, coercion, terro ...

, protection and

murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse committed with the necessary Intention (criminal law), intention as defined by the law in a specific jurisd ...

, allies = *

Hells Angels MC The Hells Angels Motorcycle Club (HAMC) is an international outlaw motorcycle club founded in California whose members typically ride Harley-Davidson motorcycles. In the United States and Canada, the Hells Angels are incorporated as the Hells ...

** Death Riders MC{{Cite web, url=https://www.americanmafia.com/Feature_Articles_114.html, title=Death Riders: The Grim Reapers of Laval, website=AmericanMafia.com ** Evil Ones MC *

The Syndicate ''The Syndicate'' is a British television drama series. It was written by Kay Mellor and is broadcast on BBC One. It sees five members of a betting syndicate win the lottery. Each series follows a different syndicate. The first series is se ...

* Redliners{{cite web, url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/biker-war-vigilance-urged-by-winnipeg-police-1.1100015, title=Biker war vigilance urged by Winnipeg police, website=CBC News, date=Jul 15, 2011 * Crack Down Posse , rivals = * Rock Machine MC ** Palmers MC ** SS Elite MC *

Dark Circle The Dark Circle is a criminal organization appearing in media published by DC Comics, primarily as an enemy of the Legion of Super-Heroes. They first appeared in 1968, created by Jim Shooter as a criminal organization founded by five members and ...

* Bandidos MC (2001) , notable_members = *

Aimé Simard Aimé Simard (1968 – 18 July 2003) was a Canadian outlaw biker and hitman. He was a member of the Montreal-based Rockers Motor Club, a support club for the Hells Angels. He operated on the side as a contract killer, working for the Hells Ange ...

{{cite news , url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/bisexual-biker-hit-men-helped-bust-the-hells-angels/article1031714/ , title=Bisexual biker hit men helped bust the Hells Angels , newspaper=The Globe and Mail , date=26 May 2001 *

Dany Kane Dany "Dany Boy" Kane (19697 August 2000) was a Canadian criminal who was a compliant police informant at the same time. Kane worked for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) as an informant inside the Hells Angels for many years, and provided ...

Stéphane Gagné Stéphane Gagné (born 12 December 1969) is a Canadian former gangster, outlaw biker and contract killer who was a hitman for the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club during the Quebec Biker War. Charged with two counts of first-degree murder, Gagné tur ...

Francis Boucher François Xavier Boucher (October 7, 1901 – December 12, 1977) was a Canadian professional ice hockey player and executive. Boucher played the forward position for the Ottawa Senators and New York Rangers in the National Hockey League (NHL) ...

* Paul Fontaine{{Cite web, url=https://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/mom-bouchers-boys-where-are-the-nomads-now, title='Mom' Boucher's boys: Where are the Nomads now? , website= Montreal Gazette, date=Dec 28, 2014 , last=Cherry, first=Paul *

Robert Johnson Robert Leroy Johnson (May 8, 1911August 16, 1938) was an American blues musician and songwriter. His singing, guitar playing and songwriting on his landmark 1936 and 1937 recordings have influenced later generations of musicians. Although his r ...

Sébastien Beauchamp Sébastien is a common French given name. It is a French form of the Latin name ''Sebastianus'' meaning "from Sebaste". Sebaste was a common placename in classical Antiquity, derived from the Greek word ''σεβαστος'', or ''sebastos'', mea ...

{{Cite web, url=https://montrealgazette.com/news/slain-bikers-life-had-a-rough-start-violent-ending-in-st-leonard, title=Slain biker's life had a rough start, violent ending in St-Léonard, website= Montreal Gazette, date=Dec 21, 2018 , last=Cherry, first=Paul * Stéphane Sirois * René Charlebois , religion = The Rockers Motor Club, often abbreviated as the Rockers MC, was a

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

outlaw biker An outlaw motorcycle club, known colloquially as a biker club or club (in Australia), is a motorcycle subculture generally centered on the use of cruiser motorcycles, particularly Harley-Davidsons and choppers, and a set of ideals that purpo ...

gang A gang is a social group, group or secret society, society of associates, friends, or members of a family with a defined leadership and internal organization that identifies with or claims control over Wiktionary:territory#Noun, territory in a ...

and support club for the larger

Hells Angels Motorcycle Club The Hells Angels Motorcycle Club (HAMC) is an international outlaw motorcycle club founded in California whose members typically ride Harley-Davidson motorcycles. In the United States and Canada, the Hells Angels are incorporated as the Hells ...

.{{cite web , date=26 May 2020 , title=Man who is alleged to be a middleman between Montreal Mafia and Hells Angels denied parole , url=https://biker-news.com/2020/05/26/man-who-is-alleged-to-be-a-middleman-between-montreal-mafia-and-hells-angels-denied-parole.html , website=Biker News Lasting from 1992 until 2001, the group played a significant role in the ill-famed

Quebec Biker War The Quebec Biker War () was a turf war in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, lasting from 1994 to 2002, between the Quebec branch of the Hells Angels and the Rock Machine. The war left 162 people dead, including civilians. There were also 84 bombings and ...

. Acting not only as a recruitment tool to test the competence of bikers wanting to become Hells Angels, the Rockers Motor Club was also utilized to carry out numerous unlawful objectives of the Angels which included

violent Violence is characterized as the use of physical force by humans to cause harm to other living beings, or property, such as pain, injury, disablement, death, damage and destruction. The World Health Organization (WHO) defines violence a ...

s, and

assassination Assassination is the willful killing, by a sudden, secret, or planned attack, of a personespecially if prominent or important. It may be prompted by political, ideological, religious, financial, or military motives. Assassinations are orde ...

s of their rivals in an effort to help the ladder obtain total control over the nation's

illegal drug trade The illegal drug trade, drug trafficking, or narcotrafficking is a global black market dedicated to the cultivation, manufacture, distribution and sale of drug prohibition, prohibited drugs. Most jurisdictions prohibitionism, prohibit trade, exce ...

. Prior to the formation of the Angels-affiliated Rockers Motor Club in the early 1990s, another biker gang had coincidentally existed in the same area known as the Montreal Rockers Motorcycle Club, also nicknamed "the Rockers". This particular group emerged as a supporter club for the Montreal chapter of the

Outlaws MC The Outlaws Motorcycle Club, incorporated as the American Outlaws Association or its acronym, A.O.A., is an international outlaw motorcycle club. Founded in McCook, Illinois in 1935, the Outlaws MC is the oldest outlaw biker club in the world. ...

before eventually working its way up to become their second chapter within the city in 1978.

History

The Rockers MC was first set up in March 26 of 1992 by then-President of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club (HAMC) Montreal charter, Maurice "Mom" Boucher. It was during this time in

that several

organized crime Organized crime is a category of transnational organized crime, transnational, national, or local group of centralized enterprises run to engage in illegal activity, most commonly for profit. While organized crime is generally thought of as a f ...

entities were competing for drug turf across the

French-speaking French ( or ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. Like all other Romance languages, it descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire. French evolved from Northern Old Gallo-Romance, a descendant of the Latin spoken in ...

province. The Hells Angels MC, being among one of such prominent players in the criminal underworld, were challenged by a rivaling outlaw motorcycle gang,

Rock Machine The Rock Machine Motorcycle Club (RMMC) or Rock Machine is an international outlaw motorcycle club founded in Montreal, Quebec, Canada in 1986. It has eighteen Canadian chapters spread across seven provinces. It also has nine chapters in the Un ...

. Territory of the Hells Angels and Rock Machine began to overlap with one another which incited much conflict between the two before a large-scale gang war broke in 1994. The Rockers were officially established a couple years before the Quebec Biker War began by high-ranking Hells Angels crime boss Mom Boucher. The aim of the club's creation was to provide more manpower and follower who were willing to commit crimes in order to become Hells Angels. In addition, the club was also setup as a means to distance the Hells Angels from unwanted police attention that would especially come from "street-level" crimes, and - thus, were often called upon to carry out HAMC's so-called "dirty work".{{Cite web , last=Solyom , first=Catherine , date=Sep 12, 2003 , title=Montreal Hells Angels Guilty , url=https://www.primetimecrime.com/Recent/Organized%20Crime/Hells%20Angels%20guilty%20Sept%202003.htm , website=Montreal Gazette , via=Prime Time Crime Several other Hells Angels supporter motorcycle clubs were established for this same purpose around and after this time including the Damners MC, Demon Keepers MC, Evil Ones MC, Jackels MC, Jokers MC, Mercenaries MC and the Rowdy Crew MC. The Rockers were different from any other of the said HAMC puppet clubs, however, as they acted exclusively as the group's enforcement arm. When settings up the Rockers, Maurice Boucher hand-picked his ambitious

Haitian-Canadian Haitian Canadians () are Canadians of Haitian descent or Haiti-born people who reside in Canada. As of 2016, more than 86% of Haitian Canadians reside in Quebec. Haitian migration to Canada Immigration 1960–1980 Immigration from Haiti to ...

protégé Gregory "Picasso" Woolley to shepherd the outlaw biker club. Woolley, an up-and-coming

crime boss A crime boss, also known as a crime lord, mafia don, mob boss, kingpin, or godfather is the leader of a criminal organization. Description A crime boss has absolute or nearly absolute control over the other members of the organization and is ...

who got his start as an early member of the small-time Crack Down Posse street gang, had already worked alongside the Hells Angels as Maurice Boucher's

bodyguard A bodyguard (or close protection officer/operative) is a type of security guard, government law enforcement officer, or servicemember who protects an very important person, important person or group of people, such as high-ranking public offic ...

and earned his reputation after successfully forging an alliance between HAMC and the influential

Italian-Canadian Italian Canadians or Italo-Canadians (; ) are Canadian-born citizens who are fully or partially of Italian descent, whose ancestors were Italians who migrated to Canada as part of the Italian diaspora, or Italian-born people in Canada. Accordi ...

Rizzuto crime family The Rizzuto crime family () is an Italian Canadian crime family based in Montreal, Quebec, whose organized crime activity covers most of southern Quebec and Ontario. The United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) considers the family a ...

(as well as several of the area's local street gangs) to manage

Greater Montreal Greater Montreal (, ) is the most populous metropolitan area in Quebec and the second most populous in Canada after Greater Toronto. In 2015, Statistics Canada identified Montreal's Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) as with a population of 4,02 ...

's illicit drug market.{{cite web , date=28 May 2022 , title=Kingpin Gregory Woolley must be on his guard , url=https://thecanadian.news/kingpin-gregory-woolley-must-be-on-his-guard/ , website=The Canadian News Woolley would shortly go on to form The Syndicate in 1998, another criminal organization to collaborate jointly with the Angels. As a support club (synonymously referred to by police as "puppet clubs"), the Rockers MC operated under the discretion of the Hells Angels, most notably its Quebec Nomads chapter which consisted of Canada's most reputable and high-ranking members. In the context of law enforcement, "supporter" motorcycle gangs like the Rockers Motor Club act as auxiliary organizations to their dominant affiliated gang and, like in the case of the Rockers, may be used to help them facilitate various criminal activities. During the year of 1995, Anglo-Canadian Hells Angels MC leader and Nomad chapter member Walter "Nurget" Stadnick instructed the Rockers Motor Club to found an auxiliary outlaw motorcycle club of their own which would be based out of out west in

Winnipeg, Manitoba Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Manitoba. It is centred on the confluence of the Red River of the North, Red and Assiniboine River, Assiniboine rivers. , Winnipeg h ...

. The resulting one-percenter supporter club that came about was the Redliners, which Stadnick plan ned to oppose two of Western Canada's dominant biker gangs: the Los Brovos and the Spartans MC. One of the most notable members of the Rockers was

, a criminal from

Montérégie Montérégie () is an administrative region in the southwest part of Quebec. It includes the cities of Boucherville, Brossard, Châteauguay, Longueuil, Saint-Hyacinthe, Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Salaberry-de-Valleyfield and Vaudreuil-Dorion. ...

who would later become a police informant for the

Royal Canadian Mounted Police The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP; , GRC) is the Law enforcement in Canada, national police service of Canada. The RCMP is an agency of the Government of Canada; it also provides police services under contract to 11 Provinces and terri ...

and the

Sûreté du Québec The (SQ; , ) is the State police, provincial police service for the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Quebec. There is no official English name, though the agency's name is sometimes translated as Quebec Provincial Police ...

.{{cite news , url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/the-mark-of-kane/article735664/ , title=The mark of Kane , newspaper=The Globe and Mail , date=9 April 2005 While a member of the Rockers, Dany Kane would later come into contact with a small-time crook named Aimé "Ace" Simard via a

gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late ...

online dating service Online dating, also known as internet dating, virtual dating, or mobile app dating, is a method used by people with a goal of searching for and interacting with potential romantic or sexual partners, via the internet. An online dating service ...

. Unbeknownst to friends or acquaintances of either two, they engaged in a bisexual relationship with one other. Kane would eventually sponsor Simard into the ranks of Rockers MC. As a newly initiated member, Simard committed his first serious crime for them in early February 1997 after he shot and seriously wounded a drug dealer who had owed money to the club along with his girlfriend who was also present at the scene of the attack. Not long after, Aime Simard and Dany Kane traveled to Halifax, Nova Scotia on orders of high-ranking Hells Angels street lieutenant David "Wolf" Carroll to eliminate a drug dealing businessman named Robert "Bob" MacFarlane who had owed a financial debt to the Hells Angels. When the pair made their way into the province on February 27, 1997, Kane and Simard tracked down and confronted MacFarlane at an Industrial Park, who attempted to flee when they approached him. Before long, MacFarlane was gunned down by Aime Simard - marking the very first murder he had carried out for the club. To reward his success, the Rockers Motor Club granted Simard a spot on their crew of assassins (comedically referred to as their "football team"). In amidst of the war with Rock Machine, Rockers MC biker Paul "Fon Fon" Fontaine, along with an accomplice, murdered provincial prison guard Pierre Rondeau and nearly killed Rondeau's colleague, Robert Corriveau on Sept. 8, 1997. The attack was ordered by Maurice Boucher in an attempt to destabilize the Quebec justice system and frighten police informants who were either members or associates of HAMC. Fontaine was successfully awarded with membership into the Hells Angels MC Quebec Nomads chapter for this act. In response to the targeted murder of senior Hells Angel

Normand Hamel Normand Hamel (16 March 1956 – 17 April 2000), better known as "Biff", was a Canadian outlaw biker and gangster. A senior member of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club in Montreal, Hamel was the right-hand man of Hells Angels leader Maurice "Mom" ...

on April 17, 2000, by Rock Machine MC members, a longstanding HAMC-affiliated outlaw motorcycle club based in

Laval, Quebec Laval is a city in Quebec, Canada. It is in the southwest of the province, north of Montreal. It is the largest suburb of Montreal, the third-largest city in the province after Montreal and Quebec City, and the thirteenth largest city in Can ...

known as the Death Riders MC assimilated into a new chapter of the Rockers Motor Club which became known as Rockers MC North. Acting on behalf of the Hells Angels, this newly-formed support charter oversaw the drug trade in Laval as well as the lower Laurentides region in Southwestern Quebec.

Dissolution and legacy

There is wide speculation amongst journalists and law enforcement alike that much of the gang-related homicides that occurred during the notorious Quebec Biker War were committed by bikers who belonged to the Rockers Motor Club. It is alleged that nearly all of such individuals had been driven by the desire to "prove their worth" to the Hells Angels MC - hoping to be admitted as "full-patch" members. The majority of Rockers MC members were arrested by the Quebec authorities in 2001 following a massive law enforcement crackdown involving the RCMP, Sûreté du Québec,

Ontario Provincial Police The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) is the State police, provincial police service of Ontario, Canada. The OPP patrols Provincial highways in Ontario, provincial highways and waterways; protects Government of Ontario, provincial government buil ...

and the

Service de police de la Ville de Montréal The Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (, "Montreal Police Service", abbr. SPVM) is the municipal police agency for the city of Montreal, Quebec, Canada, and the neighbouring communities in the urban agglomeration of Montreal. With over 4 ...

known as "Operation Springtime".{{citation needed, date=January 2024 This, in turn, caused the gang to disband for good.{{citation needed, date=January 2024 In 1998, gang hitman Aime Simard testified against five Rockers MC bikers before he was

sentenced to life Life imprisonment is any sentence of imprisonment under which the convicted individual is to remain incarcerated for the rest of their natural life (or until pardoned or commuted to a fixed term). Crimes that result in life imprisonment are co ...

imprisonment on three counts of

second-degree murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification or valid excuse committed with the necessary intention as defined by the law in a specific jurisdiction. ("The killing of another person without justification or excus ...

along with other criminal offenses. Several years later, he was founded stabbed to death in his

prison cell A prison cell (also known as a jail cell) is a small room in a prison or police station where a prisoner is held. Cells greatly vary by their furnishings, hygienic services, and cleanliness, both across countries and based on the level of punishm ...

on July 18, 2003, while incarcerated at Saskatchewan Penitentiary in

Prince Albert Prince Albert most commonly refers to: *Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (1819–1861), consort of Queen Victoria *Albert II, Prince of Monaco (born 1958), present head of state of Monaco Prince Albert may also refer to: Royalty * Alb ...

. Rockers member Dany Kane committed suicide in his garage though the use of carbon monoxide gasses from his car's exhaust system in August 2000.

List of Rockers MC members

* Gregory "Picasso" Woolley * Jean-Guy Bourgouin * Dany "Dany Boy" Kane * Aimé "Ace" Simard * Stéphane "Godasse" Gagné * Francis Boucher * Sébastien "Bass" Beauchamp — Joined up with the Rockers in 1997 and became a full-patch member in 2000. Received a seven-year prison sentence following Operation Springtime. Fatally shot in December 2018 by freelance contract killer Frédérick Silva. * Robert Johnson * Stéphane Sirois * René "Balloune" Charlebois * Serge "Pacha" Boutin * Normand "Norm" Robitaille * Kenny Bedard * Daniel Lanthier * Guillaume "Mimo" Serra * Pierre "Pépé" Provencher * Sylvain Laplante{{cite web , last=Myles , first=Brian , date=6 June 2002 , title=Les Rockers - les Nomads ne faisaient plus confiance à la bande d'indisciplinés , url=https://www.ledevoir.com/societe/2560/les-rockers-les-nomads-ne-faisaient-plus-confiance-a-la-bande-d-indisciplines , website=Le Devoir , language=fr * Normand "Pluche" Bélanger * Paul "Schtrompf" Brisebois * Pierre "Peanut" Laurin * Stephen Falls * Bruno Lefebvre — Sentenced to 11 years in prison for conspiracy to commit murder, drug trafficking and gangsterism following Operation Springtime. Assassinated in 2013.https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/former-gang-member-shot-inside-outremont-business-1.1321367

References

{{reflist {{Hells Angels Motorcycle Club {{OutlawMotorcycleGroups {{Organized crime groups in Canada Outlaw motorcycle clubs Hells Angels 1992 establishments in Quebec 2003 disestablishments in Quebec Motorcycle clubs in Canada French-Canadian organized crime Gangs in Montreal Gangs in Quebec