Paul Porter (born 1963) is a Canadian outlaw biker and gangster. A founding member of the Rock Machine Motorcycle Club, Porter played a major role in the Quebec Biker War (1994–2002). During this period, he expanded the club into Ontario, becoming the president of the Rock Machine's Kingston chapter. Disillusioned with the Rock Machine's decision to merge with the Bandidos, Porter led a mass defection to the Hells Angels in late 2000.
Rock Machine
Porter was born in Montreal, Quebec in 1963 to an Anglo family. He acquired a criminal record beginning in 1985, with charges including serious drugs and weapons offences; a parole board later said he had "ingrained criminal values". He was given the nickname "Sasquatch" due to his six-foot-seven frame that once weighted close to 425 lbs. Porter joined the SS Motorcycle Club, also known as the SS Merciless Riders, a white supremacist and anti-immigration motorcycle gang based in Pointe-aux-Trembles, and he became closely associated with fellow SS members Salvatore and Giovanni Cazzetta, Gilles Lambert and Johnny Plescio, with whom he would go on to be a founding member of the Rock Machine Motorcycle Club in 1986. He also befriended Maurice "Mom" Boucher, who joined the Hells Angels after parting ways with the SS. From 1990 to 1994, Porter was known as le boss de la Main, working as a pimp who controlled numerous brothels along Boulevard St-Laurent. Detective Benoit Roberge of the Montreal police stated: "He didn't do business with a lot of people. He was afraid; he didn't take chances; he preferred to sell fewer drugs and make less money if that meant staying out of prison". Porter maintained a high rank in the Rock Machine as well as a large amount of respect from its members and associates, and played a key role in co-leading the Rock Machine against the Hells Angels during the Quebec Biker War, which started in 1994.
On 7 December 1995, police arrested Yves "Flag" Gagné, a prominent member of the Hells Angels' Trois-Rivières chapter, and Guy Majeau, a member of the Rowdy Crew in Lanaudiere, a Hells Angels support club. Authorities also arrested Normand Lortie, an associate of the Angels and owner of a Laval strip club. All three were charged with conspiring to murder prominent members of the Rock Machine and the affiliated Dark Circle; the targets of the plot were founding members of the Rock Machine, including Porter and Richard "Bam Bam" Lagace, and Dark Circle member Louis-Jacques Deschenes. On 31 May 1997, Porter was driving down a rural highway near the town of L'Épiphanie, when a car driven by a Hell Angel sped by and he was shot in the left arm. Porter stated: "It wasn't my time to die". In March 1998, Porter was again shot when driving down Highway 25 near Lachenaie. In April 1998, Porter attended a biker "Show and Shine" in Georgetown. During the show, a bomb was found wrapped in a Toronto Sun newspaper. The bomb was a remote-controlled device of 2.2 kilograms of C-4 explosive filled with thousands of nails. These events caused him and some other members to go into hiding in Ontario in 1999.
Porter and other Rock Machine members secured a safe house near Ottawa, from where he would use his influence in the club to convince members of the Outlaws and other Ontario-based clubs to join the Rock Machine. While he was in Ontario, the Hells Angels and their support clubs took over Porter's personal territory in downtown Montreal. Porter founded the first Rock Machine chapter in Ontario in Kingston in June 2000. He served as president of the Kingston chapter, which was made up of Rock Machine members that had come with him from Quebec as well as former members of other local clubs. Porter was also in the process of forming a fourth chapter in Ottawa.