Trouvé mort (Found dead)

The following document, which we will closely examine in subsequent posts, provides rare insight into how the cover story for an assassination, like that of Mario Bachand, is constructed and disseminated. By necessity, the media are involved. Any government has a stable of paid partners in various media, from the more to the less important. Some of these are the editors and producers who determine what is printed or put on air, others are high-level executives who give the orders.

The journalist

The document is an RCMP report sent to Quebec’s Centre d’analyse et documentation (CAD) about information given by an important figure in the Bachand affair, a Journal de Montreal journalist. The journalist interviewed Mario Bachand , at the apartment at 46, rue Eugène-Lumeau, two days before his murder. At which time she arranged a further interview with Bachand, at 46, rue Eugène-Lumeau, two days later. Unfortunately for Mario Bachand, the arrangement ensured he would be there the day of his murder.

A portent

A very interesting statement by the interview subject, the “source”, the Journal de Montreal journalist in question, is found on page 3, point 7. She states that, in January 1971, shortly before leaving for Paris on a four-month sabbatical, she was informed as follows:

Avant de partir pour ce voyage (severed) a notre source que quelque chose de gros ce préparait et que Paris était le centre nerveux de cette opération.”

The document is found in the CAD fond of documents at Archives Nationale du Québec, University of Laval, Laval , Quebec.

Trouvé mort (Found dead)
Trouvé mort p. 1
Trouvé mort (Found dead)
Trouvé mort p. 2
Trouvé mort (Found dead)
Trouvé mort p. 3