A legendary building in Montreal

Those who can read French among my readers have probably noticed that I blogged about the police recently. With this post, one could think that this blog is turning into a kind of "police work" chronicle. I am a big crime fiction aficionado, and through it I developed a keen interest ont real crime history and real crime news. I also developed a deep admiration for real crime fighters and what they accomplish. And Québec in general and Montreal in particular has a fascinating crime history that could make great novels.

Anyway, I am a spoiled blogger: Jazz from Hapazardlife wrote a post just for me, with a picture of one of my favourite buildings in Montreal, the headquarters of the Sûreté du Québec. As I said in my comment on her post, I love this building not because it is particularly interesting for an architectural standpoint (although it might be), but because of what it represents, because of the history it has. This is where the strategies to put an end to the Québec Biker War were made, when outside little thugs thought that Montreal was their hunting grounds, this is where Maurice "Mom" Boucher was imprisoned, this is where the men who destroyed his empire worked, this is where the first strikes of so many battles against organised crime, many of them ongoing, were ordered. The Parthenais headquarter is our Scotland Yard, our J. Edgar Hoover Building. It should be better known. So I am glad Jazz gave it a bit of exposure.