Hundreds of Hells Angels have descended on the small riverside community of Saint-Charles-sur-Richelieu southeast of Montreal this weekend for the biker gang’s annual meeting — the Canada Run.
The gathering is held every year in a different province and is mandatory for full-patch members.
The national meeting is taking place under heavy police presence to ensure everything runs smoothly.
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READ MORE: Hells Angels arrive in St-Charles-sur-Richelieu for annual gathering
The Sûreté du Québec (SQ), Montreal police, Ontario Provincial Police, Quebec City police and RCMP are just some of the forces watching closely and taking photos — gathering intelligence on the biker gang.
As of Saturday at 5 p.m., the Sûreté du Québec (SQ) had already issued over 300 tickets and made one arrest.
“We’ve made one arrest for one Ontario Hells Angel who threatened a female officer at one of the control points yesterday,” said SQ spokesperson Guy Lapointe.
He went on to explain that most of the tickets were issued for infractions of Quebec’s highway code following a traffic accident Friday, on Highway 10.
“There was a bit of a traffic jam given the accident on Highway 10 and the operation that we were conducting. A lot of them decided to drive on the shoulder of the road to pass the traffic, so a lot of them were issued tickets regarding that,” Lapointe said.
Other infractions included noisy mufflers and illegal modifications on the motorcycles.
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Lapointe said he expected more tickets would be handed out, but added he was pleased with how things have gone to date.
“With regards to their behaviour, I have to say that things are going well,” he said. “The great majority of them have co-operated, identified themselves at the control points so that’s been going well.”
Marc Lavigne, the mayor of Saint-Charles-sur-Richelieu agreed.
“It looks worse than it is. It’s going very well.”
— With files from Global’s Dan Spector
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