A Quebecer who wanted to distribute heroin voluntarily will go to prison in Ontario, even if the judge confirmed that he had only good intentions. Michel Lalancette, one of the founders of the Bloc pot, was sentenced to five years in prison for possession of heroin for the purpose of trafficking on March 30, nine years after his arrest.
Michel Lalancette wanted to set an example for the federal government. The situation was “serious”: more and more Canadians were overdosing as their drugs, including heroin, were contaminated with opioids, but Ottawa was doing nothing to help. The Quebecer wanted to supply drug addicts with pure and clean heroin in a “big building”, he said in court in 2019, and prove to the Conservative government of the time that such a supply would help heroin addicts stabilize their lives. previously chaotic.
His plan was ultimately never realized. In the summer of 2014, Peel Regional Police, north of Toronto, nabbed him and found 7kg of heroin in his car. If 1.4 kg belonged to him, the rest was intended for a member of organized crime for whom Michel Lalancette transported the substance. The Quebecer swore not to have been paid for the transport, an explanation accepted by the judge. The 66-year-old had volunteered to exercise a degree of control over the stock.
Michel Lalancette did not deny the facts during the proceedings. He instead adopted the defense of necessity, which was rejected by the judge. His decisions “were driven by a desire to prove to the government that his policies were ill-motivated,” the judge wrote in 2019. “He was trying to argue that he had no choice in acting because of the opioid crisis, which was beginning to become a national problem,” explains his lawyer, Franco-Ontarian Tania Bariteau.
End of a long saga
It’s the end of a soap opera for Michel Lalancette, who opened a cafe in Montreal where cannabis was served in the 1980s. Court documents describe him as a “long-time anti-prohibition activist “. Since his arrest in 2014, he had been released on bail, but according to his lawyer, he knew what awaited him, especially since the Crown was asking for a 16-year sentence. “He’s a very intelligent person,” said Mr.e Bariteau.
During this period, Michel Lalancette adopted an “exemplary” behavior, recognized the judge, which represented a mitigating circumstance during the determination of his sentence, just like the fact that he was not motivated by the greed and the quest for profit. He intended to transport the drugs to organized crime for free and planned to sell his share of the substance at cost price directly to drug addicts.
According to his lawyer, the co-founder of the Bloc pot linked himself to organized crime because he had been assured that the heroin was “pure”, but the judge noted that he was going to hand over 5.6 kg to organized crime and “that he had no control over how the drugs would be cut and distributed.” “He must have known that this amount of heroin would be handled by its owners in a way that maximized their financial gain, which could include cutting the drug with fentanyl,” she wrote, to which he opposed himself.
In 2022, the anti-prohibition activist raised constitutional issues in relation to subsection 5(2) of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, which he violated by being in possession of heroin for the purpose of trafficking. The Quebecer asked that the paragraph not apply, among others, to “good Samaritans” who participate in heroin trafficking in order to help heroin addicts. He wanted a stay of proceedings if this was recognized, which was not the case.
Me Tania Bariteau does not know where her former client is currently incarcerated, but she predicts that he will soon be transferred from a provincial institution to a federal prison. “He will apply for a transfer to Quebec when he has the opportunity,” says his lawyer. Mr. Lalancette has three children. According to the decision of March 30, he represents the “sole financial support” of two of them, who are 18 and 19 years old.
His long-time partner is currently in therapy for her drug addiction. In recent years, she relapsed after 13 years of sobriety, but Mr. Lalancette “never gave up on her,” according to the recent judgment. His daughter fears that her mother will lose all hope of recovering from her addiction and that she will be left completely alone due to her father’s grief.
This story is supported by the Local Journalism Initiative, funded by the Government of Canada.