BIKER GANGS IN CANADA - OVERVIEW

In the 1960s, the American Motorcyclist Association said only one per cent of motorcycles riders were hard-partying, non-mainstream people. (Jim Tiller/Daytona Beach News-Journal/Associated Press)

abiding, according to an oft-cited quote by the American Motorcyclist Association. It's only one per cent that are hard-partying, non-mainstream people, the organization said in the 1960s.

The description gave birth to the moniker "one percenter," with some bikers donning patches proclaiming their "1%" status.

But according to the Outlaws Motorcycle Club, law-enforcement officials changed the meaning of "one percenter" in the 1980s so that the term referred to members of criminal gangs. It no longer referred only to those who refused to live by the rules of society.

The Outlaws, however, still proudly wear their one percenter patches and say they are a law-abiding organization whose members share a commitment to biking and brotherhood. The U.S., however, has classified them as a criminal group.

Hells Angels
As of April 2009, it was estimated that the Hells Angels had 34 chapters across Canada and about 460 full-fledged members. Here's a breakdown of the Hells Angels chapters by province: Ontario 15 British Columbia 8 Quebec 5 Alberta 3 Saskatchewan 2 Manitoba 1
(Source: Criminal Intelligence Service Canada )

Characteristics of a biker gang

Despite the large law-abiding portion of the biker community, outlaw gangs do exist across the country.

According to police, biker gangs share several characteristics:

• They show off their colours in public.
• Biker gangs use force and violence to survive and grow. Intimidation, arms and explosives are their weapons of choice.
• The organizations have a hierarchical structure. Committing crimes is left to new recruits while those higher up reap the rewards.
• The hierarchical structure allows the leaders to operate with impunity while flaunting their image of power to attract recruits and draw them into crime.
• It is difficult for law-enforcement agencies to infiltrate these organizations because becoming a member involves committing crimes. North American clubs also tend to require their members to own American-made bikes, often Harley-Davidsons.

The largest outlaw motorcycle gang in Canada is the infamous Hells Angels, though the organization denies it's anything more than a motorcycle club.

Founded in 1948 in California, the Hells Angels has grown over the decades to more than 2,000 members across the U.S. and 26 other countries, the U.S. National Gang Intelligence Center says.

In Canada, the Angels are believed to have 460 full-fledged members and 34 chapters, according to 2009 estimates by the Criminal Intelligence Service Canada.

Turf war

The largest and most-feared chapter of the Hells Angels was formed in Montreal. It opened in Quebec in 1977 when a biker gang called the Popeyes joined the Angels.

After the Rock Machine emerged in 1986 and quickly became the biggest rival of the Hells Angels, a turf war between the two erupted in the late 1990s. Over the years it claimed more than 150 lives, including two prison guards and 11-year-old Daniel Desrochers, who died when a car bomb exploded outside a biker hangout.

His death and the outrage that followed prompted Bill C-95, legislation passed in 1997 that stiffened penalties for convicted offenders who are shown to be members of established criminal organizations.

In early 2009, Gérald Gallant, who confessed to contract killing during the bloody biker wars, helped police arrest 11 people who allegedly ordered or carried out killings during the course of the turf battle. He also pleaded guilty to slaying 27 people over three decades, making him one of Canada's most prolific killers.

Here's a brief look at the major biker organizations that have operated in Canada.

Hells Angels

Criminal Intelligence Service Canada describes the Hells Angels as the largest "outlaw motorcycle gang" in the country, with active chapters concentrated mostly in Quebec, Ontario and British Columbia.

In its 2004 report, CISC said the Angels derives "significant financial income" from criminal activities such as prostitution, fraud and extortion but primarily relied on drug trafficking for income.

The gang moved into Ontario in 2000. Before that, its only presence in the province was with a chapter of the Nomads, the club's elite branch. The Nomads doesn't tie itself to geographical locations and doesn't have formal clubhouses, like other chapters.

Within a year, the Angels had absorbed members of the Para Dice Riders, Satan's Choice and Last Chance, giving them at least 100 members in the Toronto area — the highest concentration of Hells Angels in the world.

In mid-April 2009, police targeted more than 150 people linked with the Hells Angels in early-morning raids mostly in Quebec, but also in New Brunswick, France and the Dominican Republic. They also seized four suspected Hells Angels bunkers.

Bandidos

It's considered world's second-most powerful criminal biker gang, with more than 2,000 members in 14 countries, according to NGIC's 2009 report, which describes the Bandidos as a "growing criminal threat."

The Bandidos was founded in the 1960s in Texas. The club's old guard was said to be against its absorption of the Rock Machine's Ontario branches for fear of igniting the same kind of war with the Hells Angels that gripped Quebec for much of the 1990s and left at least 150 people dead.

In April 2006, eight people — all Bandidos members or associates — were found dead in a farmer's field near the small town of Shedden, Ont., about 30 kilometres southwest of London. Police said the killings virtually wiped out the Toronto chapter of the Bandidos.

Outlaws

First established in the United States in 1935, the gang came to Canada in 1978 when several chapters of Satan's Choice in Montreal changed allegiance and set up shop as the Outlaws Motorcycle Club of Canada. The group is known to detest members of the Hells Angels.

Rock Machine

Second only to Hells Angels in Quebec. A long-running turf war with the Angels left more than 150 people dead as the two fought over the lucrative trade in illegal drugs. The war also led to the passage of anti-gang legislation by the federal government.

As the Hells Angels expanded into Ontario, so did the Rock Machine. The organization established three chapters. In 2001, it aligned itself with the Bandidos.

Satan's Choice

Once one of Ontario's strongest motorcycle gangs, Satan's Choice became part of the Hells Angels' 2000-2001 expansion into Ontario. Satan's Choice had branches in Keswick, Kitchener, Oshawa, Sudbury, Simcoe County, Thunder Bay and Toronto — but nothing outside the province.

Para Dice Riders

Another group that was once among Ontario's strongest biker gangs. Its membership was limited to the Toronto area. The group was absorbed by the Hells Angels in 2001, when the Angels moved into Ontario.

Last Chance

Another small Ontario-based biker gang that agreed to switch over to the Hells Angels when the world's most power biker gang moved into the province.

Lobos

Originally concentrated in the Windsor, Ont., area, the Lobos motorcycle gang decided to take up the Hells Angels on its offer of merger in 2001.

Loners

The Loners Motorcycle Club was founded in Ontario in 1979 with a handful of chapters, including a now-defunct one in southwestern Ontario that was headed by Wayne Kellestine. As part of its Ontario expansion drive, the Hells Angels tried to persuade the St. Thomas Loners chapter to join the Angels. Kellestine — who was injured in an assassination attempt in 1999 — resisted.

The club has expanded to the United States and Europe, but in Ontario, its highest profile in recent years was a legal fight by a Toronto chapter to keep its mascot on its property north of the city, in 2001. The neutered, declawed lion named Woody was moved to an animal sanctuary.

Vagabonds

Another Ontario-based motorcycle gang that was more or less absorbed by the Hells Angels when it expanded into Ontario in 2000-2001.

The Red Devils

Said to be the oldest motorcycle gang in Canada, the group is made up of a couple of dozen members concentrated in the Hamilton, Ont., area.

IN SEARCH OF THE AMERICAN HOBO

Hobohemia: Riding The Rails One of the first 'tramps' to write hobo life into history was Josiah Flynt. In the early 1890s, Flynt published articles describing tramp life abroad, at home, and on the rails. As an expert on tramp customs and habits, he later worked for the railroad companies as an informant. To-day it is the boast of the hoboes that they can travel in every State of the Union for a mill per mile, while in a number of States they pay nothing at all. On lines where brakemen demand money of them, ten cents is usually sufficient to settle for a journey of a hundred miles, and twenty cents often secures a night's ride. They have different methods of riding, among which the favorite is to steal into an empty box-car on a freight-train. At night this is comparatively easy to do; on many roads it is possible to travel this way, undisturbed, till morning. If the train has no "empties," they must ride on top of the car, between the "bumpers," on one of the car ladders, or on the rods. On passenger-trains they ride on top, on the "blind baggage," and on the trucks. Taking this country by and large, it is no exaggeration to say that every night in the year ten thousand free passengers of the tramp genus travel on the different railroads in the ways mentioned, and that ten thousand more are waiting at watering-tanks and in railroad yards for opportunities to get on the trains. I estimate the professional tramp population at about sixty thousand, a third of whom are generally on the move.1 Full Text To "beat a train" was a challenge and a thrill. Where the hobo ended up riding depended on the type of train and the obstacles on it, like railroad bulls or other riders already in position. Where To Ride 'Riding the blinds' meant to ride the front platform of the baggage car on a passenger train. Because baggage was piled up inside, thus blocking the door between cars, it was a relatively secure place to sit. However, if detected, the rider was an easy target "for water hoses or showers of coal or hot ash from the more sadistic firemen."2 An empty - or even a loaded - boxcar was also popular. Hobos were often blamed for damage they did to merchandise or to the boxcar itself. In a freezing cold car, they might light a fire, even ripping up wood from the floor. Riding a loaded car was also dangerous because the merchandise might shift and crush a man to death. Likewise, one never sat with his legs out the side of the car: if the door suddenly slammed shut, legs could be severed from the body. In the photo to the left, Jack London demonstrates how to "deck" a passenger train. Riding on top of the cars was dangerous. Not only were you at the mercy of foul weather, but a sharp curve could fling you off if you weren't properly positioned. One shouldn't ride with his back to the approaching tracks: you might be suprised by a shift in direction. Reefers were refrigerator cars. The danger there was getting locked in. Hostile bulls were heard to lock the reefer doors from the outside, trapping trespassers inside to freeze to death. Experienced riders might carry a piece of wood to keep the door from locking shut. Some also rode the pilot or front grid. Riding the rods was by far the most dangerous occupation and as such, was a rite of passage for a true hobo. But to "ride the rods" requires nerve, and skill, and daring. And, by the way, there is but one rod, and it occurs on passenger coaches. Idiomatically, it becomes "rods," just as idiomatically we speak of "riding trains." .... A four-wheel truck is oblong in shape and is divided into halves by a cross-partition. What is true of one-half is true of the other half. Between this cross-partition and the axle is a small lateral rod, three to four feet in length, running parallel with both the partition and the axle. This is the rod. There is more often than not another rod, running longitudinally, the air-brake rod. These rods cross each other; but woe to the tyro who takes his seat on the brake-rod! It is not the rod, and the chance is large that the tyro's remains will worry and puzzle the county coroner.3  Jack London link to Jack London Rods to catch a train davies Clearly, beating the trains was a very dangerous occupation. Thousands were injured and killed riding the rails. Thousands of wandering wage-earners in search of work are killed on American railroads, because society as a whole, and the railroad as a public carrier in particular, are ignorantly uninterested in the welfare of the less fortunate members of society. The number of so-called "trespassers" killed annually on American railroads exceeds the combined total of passengers and trainmen killed annually. From 1901 to 1903, inclusive, 25,000 "trespassers" were killed, and an equal number were maimed, crippled, and injured. From one-half to three-quarters of the "trespassers" according to the compilers of the figures were "vagrants," wandering, homeless wage-earners in search of work to make their existence possible.4 "A No. 1, The Famous Tramp" was the moniker of a tramp whose claim to fame was to have traveled 500,000 miles for $7.61. While Nels Anderson notes that his books were more or less sensational and that many tramps thought the incidents he related were overdrawn, "A-No. 1" nevertheless laid out some slang terms for those who had been injured while beating trains.5 Sticks: Train rider who lost a leg. Peg: Train rider who lost a foot. Fingy or Fingers: Train rider who lost one or more fingers. Blinky: Train rider who lost one or both eyes. Wingy: Train rider who lost one or both arms. Mitts: Train rider who lost one or both hands. Righty: Train rider who lost right arm and leg. Lefty: Train rider who lost left arm and leg. Halfy: Train rider who lost both legs below knee. Straight Crip: Actually crippled or otherwise afflicted. Phoney Crip: Self-mutilated or simulating a deformity. Outsmarting the bulls and crew was another matter altogether. While some crewmen accepted money or goods as exchange for a ride, there was a strong tradition of violence against the trespassers. They might be beaten senseless by the shacks or forced to jump from the moving train. The especially brutal bull might then shoot at the hobo as he was running away, that is, if he landed running. One might also be left out in the middle of a literal nowhere, in the dark, in the cold, with nothing. At best, the tramp may just face arrest - and the work farm. When Spring reached Chicago, it lost me. I planned a trip to Omaha with a lad of my own age. We left the Northwestern station one night just after dark. Bill had beaten his way on mail trains before. We waited a few hundred feet from the station, until the train was well on its way. The engine came thundering down the track at a fast rate of speed, and rolled by our hiding place with a great blowing of steam and shrieking of whistle. The engine and first coach were enveloped in white and dark clouds of smoke and steam. We felt our way through the clouds and were soon aboard the train. My heart beat fast with the thrill of adventure. We reached De Kalb without mishap, and ran for a dark place to hide while the train stopped at the depot. When the engine steamed away, we were aboard the first blind. Another man was there ahead of us. Great clouds of steam and smoke fell all around us. A faded yellow moon would now and then shine through the vapour. The train ran a few miles until it came to a siding. It stopped for a signal, and was slowly starting up again when the third person spoke. "You guys hold up your hands," he said, as he pointed a long, dark revolver at us. We did as we were told, and the man hastily handcuffed our wrists together. "We'll ride nice and easy on into Clinton, 'Boes, and I'll see that you get the rock pile for a couple o' months."6 Part III: The World of Tomorrow

The World of Tomorrow: Introduction

The New York World's Fair of 1939 provides the last great backdrop against which one might look at the history of the hobo. Built upon the marshy grasslands of Flushing Meadows, the fair was a spectacle of futuristic design promoting a vision of yet another promised land, this one to be achieved via technology and the purchase of industry's products. If the Centennial Exposition of 1876 introduced America to the Machine, by 1939 its incorporation into American life was so complete that the design of the Fair itself and the products it promoted spoke the "language" of the machine. Huge corporations like GE and Ford exhibited visions of an ideal future - streamlined cars and clean, clear highways - for those who 'bought' in, who believed. Product consumption makes good citizens, the spectacle seemed to say, consumption will equalize and uplift citizens into this utopian tomorrow. 

All World Fairs present the best picture of the present - and in this case especially - the future. But while the hope of the Machine Age was underscored by unemployment and labor unrest, and while the dream of high culture and purity embodied in The White City was mirrored across town in the development of a subculture of impoverished, homeless men, what did The World of Tomorrow hold for the hobo? By 1939, it definitely did not hold hope. 

Already in the early 1920s, the market demand for hobo labor was diminishing. The increased mechanization of industries such farming, ice harvesting, and logging made men increasingly less necessary. Farmers had combines and other machines and needed fewer and fewer workers to help harvest their crops. The wheat belt, and much of the rest of the West, also now had a large enough permanent population or "home guard" from which to draw their labor supply. As the Great Depression would make all too clear, migrant workers known as "rubber tramps" now traveled in motor vehicles. The vision of the future built on highways and corporate farming promulgated at the Fair in New York finally spoke some truth to the hobo, not that he didn't exist, but that he was no longer necessary. 

The Changing Face of Labor