From a portion of a Canadian article:
Montreal's first black street gang, Master B, was created in the 1980s by Beauvoir Jean, aka Maître Beauvoir (Master B), as a reaction against racist skinhead and neo-Nazi gangs, which were fairly prevalent at the time:
"At the beginning, I didn't create a gang. When I first came to Montreal in 1980, it was very racist. We, the blacks, were a minority. We really couldn't move around and do what we wanted because the whites would rough us up. When we went to school, they would hit us. The Master B, we were like a group of defensive knights. " (Elkouri)
This gang, mostly composed of Haitian Canadians, quickly turned into a criminal street gang involved in prostitution, drug trade, extortion and robbery. It spread throughout Montreal North, St-Leonard and Rivière-des-Prairies. Basically, the eastern point of the island, including Anjou, Pointe-Aux-Trembles and Tétreauville (Larouche 2006). Things happened much faster than in the Los Angeles in the fifties and the sixties, although on a much smaller scale. However, according to Gerald Ducheine, who grew up in Montreal-North, the perception in the community, to this day, that the Master-B's have always remained protective towards the members of their own community, and never caused them any harm. They also gave Montreal-North its "gangsta" reputation, which may have had some benefits, in terms of safety, and in terms of criminal prosperity, but also has had its negative side effects, for example, scaring away the public as well as business owners: economic conditions have constantly deteriorated in Montreal-North since the 1980s (Toussaint). After an important trial involving members of the Master-B gang in 1992, ex-members stopped using the name, to avoid unwanted attention from the police.
The Bo-Gars, a street gang, which is still very much active today (Cherry), also originated from Montreal-North. But originally the Bo-Gars were not gangsters; they were just kids fighting in the chool yard. Gerald Ducheine was one of these kids:
"Bo-Gars was the name of a game we invented in the school yard. It was basically a fight club, in which team members rotated. One day someone was in your gang, the next day he was your enemy, and if you didn't watch yourself, you might just get punched really hard in the back, or something of the sorts. But it wasn't a criminal gang of any sort, just kids play fighting. The name Bo-Gars basically meant the guys were part of the fight club were the good looking guys in school. So basically, most of the young bucks of Montreal-North were Bo-Gars of sorts. But at some point, a small pocket of the kids grew up, and started committing robberies, identifying themselves as Bo-Gars. Needless to say, the game stopped. This was in the early nineties. Chénier Dupuys was the first person to assume leadership of this gang."
The Master-Bs remained very active during the early nineties, and the budding Bo-Gars acted as their soldiers. They were the younger generation. Throughout the nineties, internal conflicts between Master-Bs and Bo-Gars frequently erupted. It was the classic case of the pupil trying to overtake the master, in this case, Master-B. During this period, the gangs of Montreal-North and Rivière-des-Prairie began to reap palpable benefits from their notoriety, extending their influence to areas of Laval and the South Shore.
The neighbourhoods west of Montreal-North, St-Michel and Pie-IX, also contained a fairly large Haitian community, that, for the most part, lived in difficult economic conditions. They also contained gangs which were smaller, less organized and didn't enjoy the notoriety of the Bo-Gars and Master-B, the best known being CDP (Crack Down Posse). During the mid nineties, in an effort to rival the Bo-Gars and Master-B, the gangs of St-Michel, Pie-IX, Rosemont and Ahuntsic formed an alliance called "les Bleus", inspiring themselves from the Crips, and also referring to the subway line that ends at St-Michel, the Blue line. It is only at this point that Montreal gangs began to resemble those ofL.A.The "Blues", also made themselves known through particularly vicious initiation rituals, like random drive-by shootouts.
Another fact that deserves attention is that these gangs were not only black street gangs, but also included Latino gangs such MS-13 (Mara Salvatrucha). At first, the affiliation with the Blue colour was only symbolic, once again, as part of an effort to rival the reputation of the Bo-Gars, who in turn adopted the Red colour, much like the Bloods who refused to become part of the Crip alliance. Latino also gangs also became part of this alliance.
It was only in the late nineties that actual affiliations with the Bloods and Crips became real. It is also during this period that the Hells Angels began supplying the Blue alliance with drugs, a very significant alliance, which obviously did not favour the Bo-Gars. The factors that lead to this are complex and somewhat mysterious: jail affiliations, family ties in other cities like Toronto and New-York, criminal ties through other criminal organizations like the Hells Angels. For example, it is a fairly accepted that American Bloods and Crips that get deported out of the United-States have always been accepted by their Canadian cousins. Yet according to Gerald Ducheine, it is also fairly common, and accepted, for deported American Crips to be greeted by family that lives in a Red area, such as Montreal-North, and for them to change sides, and vice-versa.
Since the mid nineties, the two sides have been competing for territory, the Blue alliance having easier access to the lucrative downtown area, and traditionally having closer ties to the Hells Angels. The Bloods traditionally had ties with the Rock Machines, the Hells sworn enemy. When the Hells Angels won their war against the Rock Machines, it was a hard blow to the Red alliance. But the Bloods maintained their territory and their activities.
Boyz II Men
In the late nineties, veterans from the Blue side formed a new gang very closely affiliated with the Hells Angels and took over the entire downtown area. Strangely, their leader, Gregory Wooley, was a former Bo-Gars. Wooley was also the first black person In Canada to become a fully patched member of the Hells Angels. He was a member of the Nomads, a Hells Angels chapter, before becoming the leader of this new gang.
The shady Syndicate dealt with gangs on both sides of Pie-IX and did the Hells Angels' dirty work, facilitating distribution of drugs all over the island, and overseeing prostitution rings. They were basically an intermediate that allowed the Hells Angels to control the divided Blue and Red alliances. In return The Hells offered them Police protection, drugs and exclusive control of the bars in the downtown area.
The Syndicate's unspoken goal was to supersede the bikers and the Mafia. The struggle had become more complex, it was now Red, Blue, and White.
While the downtown area remains Blue to this day, the Bloods lived on, reinforcing their influence all over the Laval area. Over time the downtown area became the playground of rich gangsters who began acquiring legitimate businesses all over the downtown area, particularly strip bars. Profitability progressively became more important than clan loyalty, at least for the downtown area.
Nowadays, while younger gang members are willing to risk their life to defend their colours, veteran members of the Blue and Red alliances, also known as OGs (Original Gangsters), are often seen mingling and doing business together in bars all over the city: "One thing is for sure, lately, we see more and more members of both alliances together, they seem to be chatting and to get along just fine. It is bringing us to think there is an evolution, says Sgt detective James Paixao, a street gang expert" (Larouche 2010). One example of this is the Temptation strip bar on Ste-Catherine street, where members of both alliances were often seen discussing with mobsters and bikers (Larouche 2010). The bar is officially owned by Joseph Vallera, whom the police believed to be acting as a straw man for Richard Goodridge, who is in conflict with Ducarme Joseph for the leadership of the 67's, an important gang in the Blue alliance. Ever since Goodridge's men tried to assassinate Ducarme Joseph in 2010, and killed two of his bodyguards in the process, the Police have feared retaliation, and decided to shut down the Temptation. Particularly since Joseph tried to have Goodridge killed earlier that same year. Since, pressured by the police, Vallera has agreed to cease his activities and shut down the bar.
Ducarme Joseph owns 1.3 million dollar house in the west end, as well as 5 cars, including a Lamborghini, a Bentley, a Mercedes and a Land Rover.
This goes to show the volatility of the current picture, and how allegiances can be fleeting in this context. Nowadays, it seems the Red and Blue banners are mostly used as a recruiting device for the young (Larouche 2010). Veterans are concerned with profits and power.
In the new millennium, with a high number of Mafioso's and Hells Angels being jailed, such as Mom Boucher and Vito Rizutto, and a good number of them simply getting old, the balance of power in the Canadian criminal world is shifting from the Mafia and the Hells Angels to affiliated black street gangs. On November 10th 2010, mafia godfather Nicolo Rizzuto was shot and killed in his own home. But no one really knows who did it.
http://www.montrealites.ca/justice/montreal-street-gangs-following-in-the-footsteps-of-la-gangs.html
