The Bacchus Motorcycle Club (BMC) is an Outlaw motorcycle club in Canada. Founded during 1972 in Albert County, New Brunswick. Bacchus MC has since increased its influence, opening fifteen chapters in five Canadian provinces. It is currently the third largest Canadian established 1% motorcycle club.[1][3]
History
Founded in Albert County, New Brunswick, in late August 1972,[4][5] the Bacchus Motorcycle Club is one of the oldest[6] one-percenter motorcycle clubs in Canada. The name "Bacchus" is derived from the Roman counterpart of Dionysus, the Greek god of wine, women and song. The name of the club originates from the cult and city religions symbolism of Dionysus, who was regarded as the protector or guardian of those who do not belong to conventional society.[7]
The Bacchus gang had long been closely allied to the Para-Dice Riders of Toronto.[8] In 1997, the Para-Dice Riders became closely allied to the Hells Angels, which likewise pulled the Bacchus into the Hells Angels sphere of influence.[9] By 2001, the Bacchus were reduced down to being a Hells Angels puppet club.[9] In 2003, the Hells Angels Halifax chapter was shut down, and Bacchus was chosen as a replacement to maintain the Hells Angels presence in Atlantic Canada.[9]
On 26 November 2006, three members of the Bacchus Halifax chapter were arrested in Prince Edward Island on charges of trafficking cocaine, Ecstasy, marijuana and various prescription drugs into the province.[9] The three men were all found guilty at their trial in 2007.[9] Later that year, a police against the Hells Angels in Edmonton revealed that Bacchus were making methamphetamine in the rural areas of New Brunswick and smuggling it to Fort McMurray on behalf of the Hells Angels.[10] On 10 January 2010, six members of the East Coast Riders pulled up to the Bacchus clubhouse in Hillsborough, New Brunswick to perform a ceremony where they burned their old biker jackets and put on new biker jackets with the Bacchus patch.[10] Paul Fowler, the president of the Bacchus Halifax chapter told the media: "We are far from organized, and we're not a crime group either.".[10]
On 26 February 2010, in Barr Settlement, a Bacchus member, James "Rustie" Hall along with his wife Ellen, were found murdered in their house.[10] No one has ever been charged in the murders.[11] On 18 July 2010, 16 members of various Bacchus chapters from New Brunswick and Nova Scotia were arrested in Cape Spear, Newfoundland.[12] The purpose of the visit was to set up a Bacchus chapter in Newfoundland.[12] In January 2011, the Easton Crew based in Grand Falls "patched over" to become the first Bacchus chapter in Newfoundland.[12] The choice of Grands Falls was not an accident. St. John's and Corner Brook are policed by the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary made of native Newfoundlanders who served at same stations for the duration of their careers while Grand Falls is policed by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police detachment made up of officers from all over Canada who served only a few years in Grand Falls.[13] Outlaw bikers in Newfoundland regard the Mounties as the easiest police force to avoid as the Mounties in Grand Falls have little interest in Newfoundland unlike the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary.[13] The highways that link Grand Falls to St. John's and Corner Brook allowed Bacchus to have access to those cities while avoiding the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary.[13]
In early 2011, Bacchus set up a chapter in Fredericton.[14] On 18 April 2011, a Bacchus member was arrested in Amherst, Nova Scotia by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police after the police discovered marihuana and cocaine in his car.[15] In October 2011, the police raided the clubhouse of the Bacchus chapter in Saint John on suspicion of operating an illegal bar.[15] The police called the fire department, which condemned the building for its numerous violations of the fire code.[15] On 14 July 2012 at a farewell party to their old clubhouse, Michael Thomas Schimpf, approached the chapter president, Matthew Foley.[15] A video camera showed that Foley pulled out his hand gun and walked off-screen with Schimpf.[15] Foley returned alone while Schmpif's body was with a bullet though his heart was found later that day.[15] Foley admitted that he killed Schimpf, but stated it was in self-defense.[16] Foley made a plea bargain with the Crown where the charges of first-degree murder were dropped in exchange for him pledging guilty to manslaughter.[16] Schimpf was a convicted drug dealer who in the days before the murder had thrown bricks though the window of a tattoo shop owned by Foley.[16] On 29 September 2012, two Bacchus members were accused of beating to death Walter Wheeler at Fredericton's 20/Twenty Club.[17]
On 8 November 2014, Bacchus MC merged with its closest ally, the Original Red Devils Motorcycle Club, to create the first Ontario expansion of the club absorbing the Red Devils three Ontario chapters in Hamilton, Chatham-Kent and Sudbury.[18] Bacchus switched the bottom rocker on their jackets from "Ontario" to "Canada," likely to avoid conflict with the Hells Angels who claim the exclusive right to have a province written on their backs.[19] The club manages close relationships with other well-established Canadian motorcycle clubs like Para-dice Riders MC, Vagabonds MC, Highlanders MC, and the Charlottetown Harley Club.[20]
Insignia
The Bacchus Motorcycle Club wears a three-piece patch on their vest with the club's name on the top, the club logo in the centre and the province they represent on the bottom. The Bacchus club colors, black and gold, are reflected in their club motto: "Black and Gold will never fold". As of 2014, all Bacchus MC and Original Red Devils Motorcycle Club members also sport a brotherhood patch depicting the lasting 1% bond between the two clubs.
Membership and organization
Members of the Bacchus MC must own a Harley-Davidson motorcycle.[21] The club's membership is estimated at two hundred,[3] with fourteen chapters located in five provinces, making it as of 2022 the fifth largest motorcycle club in Canada. With the Hells Angels (44) in first followed by the Outlaws (21), Rock Machine (18) is third and the Loners (16) fourth.[2]
Bacchus member Derreck Dean Huggan was charged with possession of drugs and a restricted weapon after police seized approximately $85,000 worth of crack cocaine, marijuana and hashish, as well as $1,600 in cash and a loaded handgun during a raid on a home in Lunenburg County, Nova Scotia on 14 April 2000.[26]
Police again began surveillance on Huggan after a shop he owned and managed was raided in Charlottetown in May 2006. He was arrested in November 2006 as part of a police operation that involved arrests in Charlottetown and Halifax, Nova Scotia. He was convicted on several counts of conspiracy to traffic cocaine, hashish, ecstasy and hydromorphone, and was sentenced to six-and-a-half years in prison in July 2007.[23]
Bacchus member James Russell "Rustie" Hall and his wife Giovanna "Ellen" Hall were murdered in their Barr Settlement, Nova Scotia home on 26 February 2010.[27] The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) stated that the deaths may be linked to organized crime.[28]
Matthew Thomas Foley, president of Bacchus' Saint John, New Brunswick chapter, was convicted of manslaughter over the death of Michael Thomas Schimpf, who was shot and killed near the club's headquarters on 14 July 2012.[29] Foley was sentenced to ten years in prison and banned from owning firearms for life in August 2012.[30]
Bacchus members Patrick Michael James, Duayne Jamie Howe and David John Pearce were convicted of extortion and intimidation in July 2018, charged stemming from incidents in 2012 when a man attempted to start a chapter of a non-criminal motorcycle club in Nova Scotia. When Bacchus sergeant-at-arms James discovered the victim's plans to start the chapter, club members threatened him until he ceased the endeavor and he and his wife sold their motorcycles. In November 2018, James was sentenced to three years' imprisonment, Howe to two years' and Pearce to eighteen months'.[24] The case also led a Nova Scotia judge to designate the Bacchus Motorcycle Club a criminal organization under the Criminal Code, the first time the designation had been used in the province.[24]
In March 2013, Bacchus member David James Bishop was charged with a number of crimes, including trafficking cocaine and steroids, relating to a drug smuggling ring at Central Nova Scotia Correctional Facility.[31] He pleaded guilty in April 2013 and was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison.[32]
Bishop was one of four men charged in connection with the beating of a man who was left with permanent brain damage. Police allege the victim was assaulted inside a former motorcycle gang clubhouse in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia before he was driven on to Cape Breton Island and abandoned along the side of Highway 105 at Glendale, Nova Scotia on 6 or 7 June 2016.[32] The club is designated a criminal organization under the Criminal Code.[24]
Books
Langton, Jerry (2015). Cold War – How Organized Crime Works in Canada and Why It's About to Get More Violent. Toronto: HarperColllins. ISBN978-1-4434-3255-9.
