“Similar to other areas of the province, the Hells Angels had a presence,” OPP Det. Insp. Scott Wade said. “They have been disrupted by police projects, investigations or simply alternative disruptions that affect their participation.” “Thunder Bay in particular has seen the ebb and flow of that membership and the membership has gone up and down,” he said. “The chapter has been closed and opened. And right now, to my knowledge and information…the Thunder Bay chapter is currently closed.” “But there are still members in the area who influence the Hells Angels in the area.” A major blow to the Canadian Hells Angels came in 2006, in an operation known as Project Husky. The OPP, along with Thunder Bay police, RCMP, Surete du Quebec and Calgary police, worked together in a two-year investigation that led to multiple arrests in Ontario, Quebec and Alberta. In Thunder Bay, police raided the Hells Angels clubhouse and arrested four Hells Angels members and some associates. In total, Project Husky also saw police seize more than $2.3 million in illegal drugs. More recently, the Hells Angels had established a club on Simpson Street. However, this building was destroyed by fire in 2020. Wade said while police continue their law enforcement efforts against outlaw biker gangs in Ontario, there has been “exponential growth” in what he called support clubs across the province. “Some clubs support the Hells Angels,” he said. “That means they attend their events, hang out with them.” “It’s a friendly club or an affiliate club or a supporter’s club, while some of the more prominent clubs like the Iron Dragons Motorcycle Club, the Red Devils, are support clubs directly linked to the Hells Angels and wear support 81 patches on their vest , meaning they support the Hells Angels in an official capacity.” Wade said these clubs act as a network that larger clubs, such as the Hells Angels, will use to “facilitate their criminal activities, to stay in the shadows, stay out of the eyes of the police and the eyes of public, and have others carry out their criminal activity’. Wade said a number of Hells Angels-affiliated clubs are located in Thunder Bay and the surrounding area. Kenneth Dowler, an associate professor at Wilfrid Laurier University – who teaches a course on biker gangs in the school’s criminology department – said outlaw biker gangs try to keep a low profile when it comes to criminal activities, including drugs, extortion and human trafficking. “When one entity controls the crime market, you’re going to see relative calm,” Dowler said. “If you look at where homicide rates come and go, a lot of times, it’s because of the market opening up. And all of a sudden people are like pushing to try to make money.” Generally, however, Dowler said, biker gangs do not want to draw too much attention to themselves and would not accept members who engage in random acts of violence. “At one point, back in the history of cyclists, they used to do a lot of tourism,” he said. “They go through town, get into bar fights and do all these things.” “Now they don’t want that attention,” Dowler said, adding that biker gangs will also participate in things like Toys for Tots, and rides that raise funds for cancer research. “They wanted to have this public image that they were good guys on bikes,” he said. “That’s because they don’t want anything negative interfering with their operation.” Thunder Bay has seen an influx of street gangs from southern Ontario in recent years, who have effectively taken over the drug trade in the city and region. Wade said outlaw bikers will work with these gangs as long as it’s profitable. “We’re fortunate enough through good policing, intelligence and law enforcement, and we don’t have any significant collisions, which is our number one priority, to make sure there’s no threat to public safety or officer safety from collisions between them of teams,” Wade said. “But they do arise from time to time.” Wade said that at this time, police do not believe there is a high risk of widespread violence due to conflict between the various criminal groups. Dowler said the conflict, however, has definitely happened in the past. “It happened in BC sometime, I think it was around 2000,” he said. “There was another criminal organization that wasn’t affiliated with bikers that wanted in.” “There was a little bit of violence that occurred, but my understanding is that that kind of struck a deal,” Dowler said. “It’s kind of like what happened in Montreal with the Irish mob, and the Italian mafia and the bikers worked together at one point to make sure they were still operating.” “So right now, there’s been no real challenge,” he said. “As long as these other organizations are either paying some money or basically carving up the area and not really trespassing, that’s what’s keeping the violence to a minimum right now.” Dowler said violence is erupting, but not at the level seen during the bikie wars in Quebec. “The biker war was between the Rock Machine and the Hells Angels,” Dowler said. “Rock Machine was basically a biker gang that really didn’t care at all about the biker club culture, they were just experienced drug dealers who wanted to take over the market.” “The whole war came down to the Rock Machine and the Hells Angels fighting for control of the drug market.” “This was one of the most violent episodes in Canadian history.” Wade said there are currently several hundred Hells Angels members in Ontario and investigating their activities requires a lot of resources. “The judicial process is protracted and resource-intensive, so our investigations must be done very efficiently,” he said. “One of the big ways we do that in the bike enforcement unit is with our partnerships.” “We have over 20 municipal partners involved in the bicycle enforcement unit with members across the province.” And while Thunder Bay doesn’t currently have an active Hells Angels chapter, Wade said he believes the gang still has influence in the city. “Really good enforcement activity by Thunder Bay police and the OPP and our partners has affected their ability to maintain a capital, but I think they will maintain their sphere of influence in this area,” he said. “We may see an increase in support groups because the capital is still here, but that kind of remains to be seen.” “Things are changing very quickly in the cycling world.”
