Contract killer Frederick Silva offers $100,000 to have a news reporter covering his murder trial killed in a foiled assassination attempt

A crime reporter was attacked by a convicted killer who tried to have him killed to end his reporting for a Canadian news outlet.

Montreal-based La Presse said this week that investigative journalist Daniel Renaud was the subject of a $100,000 contract issued by convicted murderer Frederick Silva in 2021.

Silva was convicted of three murders but is believed to have been involved in more than 65 murder contracts and, according to Canadian authorities, has been operating deep in the criminal underworld for decades.

During his trial in 2021 for multiple murders and one attempted murder, Renaud came under Silva’s radar due to his reporting on the case.

La Presse said on Friday that Silva offered a $100,000 contract to have Renaud killed, which was revealed after the newspaper read Silva’s confessions after he became a police informant.

Although the attack was never carried out, the revelation sent shock waves across Canada’s political and journalistic communities, reports The Globe and Mail.

Quebec Prime Minister Francois Legault responded to the media: “It makes no sense that in Quebec – we are not in a movie – there is a contract that has been upended by a journalist for doing his job. “

Renaud expressed defiance after a plot against his life was uncovered, telling La Presse: “We must continue to report on organized crime in Quebec to shed light on this secret part of society.”

This week it was revealed that Canadian journalist Daniel Renaud was the target of a $100,000 life-threatening contract issued by a convicted killer

Convicted hitman and later police informant Frederick Silva confessed to carrying out the blow to Renaud’s head, one of more than 65 murder-for-hire plots in which Canadian authorities suspect him

The day after his murder conviction, Canadian authorities reportedly tried to recruit Silva as an informant because of his close ties to organized crime, but the gangster refused.

He then changed his mind weeks later and by February 2024, police were investigating up to 65 murder contracts in which he was allegedly involved, according to La Journal De Montreal.

As an informant, Silva agreed to open up about his criminal past for investigators, and La Presse said Friday it discovered the contract against Renaud after combing through evidence Silva gave to police officers.

His plan was allegedly to have a murderer lure Renaud to a remote area under the guise of giving him information about a gang shootout where he was to be shot.

The medium said Silva kept the contract on Renaud’s life open for two months but closed the $100,000 offer to move on to “more important issues.”

Silva, who appeared in surveillance footage from his murder trial, became a police informant after his conviction, which led to the revelation of the murder he committed against Renaud

Eric-Pierre Champagne, president of the Quebec Association of Professional Journalists, said the case shocked him and reminded him of a notable case in 2000 in which a reporter was shot in similar circumstances.

Reporter Michel Auger was shot multiple times in the back in the parking lot of the Journal de Montreal, and although he survived, the assassination shocked the Canadian journalism world.

Responding to the recent allegations against Silva, Champagne said: “We believed – perhaps wrongly – that it was over. But finally we see that may not be the case.”

Some leading Canadians compared the case to that of journalist Michel Auger (pictured), who was shot multiple times in the back in an assassination attempt in the Journal de Montreal parking lot in 2000

A number of Canadian leaders responded: Quebec Prime Minister Francois Legault said: “It makes no sense that there is a contract in Quebec that has been upended by a journalist for doing his job.”

A number of leading Canadian journalists and politicians commented on the conspiracy. Liberal MP Marwah Rizqy, who has been the target of death threats in the past, condemned it as a frightening development.

“Imagine you and your family not feeling safe doing your own work when your work is not only relevant but necessary to a healthy democracy,” she said.

“When there are no more checks and balances, when there is no one left to ask questions, then we can turn off the lights.”

Canadian Education Minister Bernard Drainville recalled that Renaud was a guest on his show when he previously worked in radio.

“If the life of this journalist, who is very rigorous, was threatened, you have to think about other journalists who investigate crimes.”

“I find this very worrying for our democracy,” he added, questioning whether there should be better standards for public protection of journalists.