A hitman supplied C$100,000 ($71,400; £56,000) for the assassination of against the law reporter at Montreal newspaper La Presse, the outlet has reported.

Convicted killer Frédérick Silva confessed to La Presse that he had supplied the contract to anybody keen to hold out the hit on Daniel Renaud, who was overlaying his trial for 3 murders and an tried homicide in 2021.

Silva was convicted in 2022 and have become a police informant.

Quebec Premier François Legault condemned the plot. “It is unnecessary that in Quebec – we’re not in a film – there’s a contract positioned on the top of a journalist as a result of he does his job,” he stated.

“This isn’t the Quebec we would like,” he stated, including that the province’s police should proceed to focus on organised crime.

With a purpose to change into an informant for the authorities, Silva needed to confess his total legal historical past, La Presse reported. The outlet stated it had discovered of the plot towards Mr Renaud after reviewing the confession Silva had made to police.

Silva admitted to contacting two influential organised crime figures about assassinating Mr Renaud whereas being held on trial in 2021.

Based on Silva, the figures had been hesitant, saying it was a foul thought to focus on a journalist.

The “contract” was in place for roughly two months, however was by no means carried out, La Presse reported. Silva finally cancelled the order, he stated, as a result of he had “extra essential points to take care of”.

Silva is now serving a life sentence in jail.

Mr Renaud informed La Presse he was “shaken” by the revelations.

“I do not censor myself, however I all the time train restraint so I don’t reveal particulars in regards to the personal lives of criminals and keep away from placing lives in peril. So I by no means thought that I might have ended up the topic of a contract like this,” he stated.

Vincent Marissal, a former colleague of Mr Renaud’s who’s now an elected provincial politician with the left-wing Québec Solidaire, known as the journalist a “very rigorous particular person – not the kind of man who makes plenty of noise within the newsroom however apparently he may cause plenty of trouble.

“Which means he is doing his job, however that is definitely no purpose to see a value placed on his head.”