Blood in the Water Read online

  ALSO BY SILVER DONALD CAMERON

  Faces of Leacock

  Conversations with Canadian Novelists

  Dragon Lady

  The Baitchopper

  The Education of Everett Richardson

  Seasons in the Rain

  Schooner: Bluenose and Bluenose II

  Outhouses of the West

  Wind, Whales and Whisky: A Cape Breton Voyage

  Lifetime: A Book of Uncommon Wisdoms (co-author)

  An Illustrated History of Marine Atlantic (co-author)

  Once Upon A Schooner: A Foreign Voyage in Bluenose II (rev. ed. of Schooner)

  Sniffing the Coast: An Acadian Voyage

  Sterling Silver: Rants, Raves and Revelations

  An Island Parish (co-author, with Moira Ross)

  The Living Beach: Life, Death and Politics Where the Land Meets the Sea

  Sailing Away from Winter: A Voyage from Nova Scotia to Florida and Beyond

  A Million Futures: The Remarkable Legacy of the Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation

  Warrior Lawyers: From Manila to Manhattan, Attorneys for the Earth

  VIKING

  an imprint of Penguin Canada, a division of Penguin Random House Canada Limited

  Canada • USA • UK • Ireland • Australia • New Zealand • India • South Africa • China

  First published 2020

  Copyright © 2020 by Paper Tiger Enterprises Ltd.

  All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

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  LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA CATALOGUING IN PUBLICATION

  Title: Blood in the water / Silver Donald Cameron.

  Names: Cameron, Silver Donald, 1937- author.

  Identifiers: Canadiana (print) 20190220430 | Canadiana (ebook) 20190220449 |

  ISBN 9780735238053 (softcover) | ISBN 9780735238060 (HTML)

  Subjects: LCSH: Boudreau, Phillip. | LCSH: Murder—Nova Scotia—Petit-de-Grat. | LCSH: Petit-de-Grat (N.S.)—Biography.

  Classification: LCC HV6535.C33 P483 2020 | DDC 364.152/307168—dc23

  Cover design: Terri Nimmo

  Cover image: Alessandro Saggio / EyeEm /Getty Images

  a_prh_5.5.0_c0_r0

  For the people of Isle Madame—

  and, once again, for Marjorie, who always believed

  CONTENTS

  Timeline

  Cast of Characters

  Prologue

  1 Her Majesty’s Story

  2 Courtroom 3: Application for Bail

  3 A Rustic Robin Hood

  4 Courtroom 3: Bail Granted

  5 The Administration of Justice

  6 Courtroom 3: Murder for Lobster

  7 A One-Man Crime Wave

  8 Courtroom 3: The Cockamamie Story

  9 Courtroom 3: James Landry’s Story

  10 Visiting Brigadoon

  11 Courtroom 3: Deliberations

  12 Midnight Slider

  13 Courtroom 3: Sentencing

  14 The Nature of the Law

  Acknowledgments

  TIMELINE

  JUNE 1, 2013

  Phillip Boudreau’s death

  JUNE 6, 2013

  Craig Landry arrested

  JUNE 7, 2013

  Dwayne and Carla Samson, and James Landry arrested

  JUNE 26, 2013

  Craig Landry provides the statement that becomes Her Majesty’s Story

  JULY 4, 2013

  Craig Landry and Carla Samson released on bail

  JULY 22, 2013

  Dwayne’s first bail hearing: held over for decision

  JULY 29, 2013

  Dwayne’s second bail hearing: bail denied

  AUG 13, 2013

  Dwayne’s third bail hearing: bail granted with stringent conditions

  OCT 16, 2013

  James denied bail

  NOV 26, 2013

  Dwayne’s preliminary hearing

  DEC 17, 2013

  James’s preliminary hearing

  NOV 10, 12, 2014

  James’s trial—jury selection

  NOV 13, 2014

  Trial proper begins—Stephen Drake’s opening statement

  NOV 17–18,

  24–28, 2014

  Trial continues

  NOV 29, 2014

  Verdict: guilty of manslaughter

  JAN 29, 2015

  James sentenced to fourteen years less time served

  MAY 18, 2015

  Dwayne pleads guilty to manslaughter

  JUNE 15, 2015

  Carla’s case dismissed, no prospect of conviction

  SEPT 11, 2015

  Craig sentenced to two years’ probation

  SEPT 22, 2015

  Dwayne sentenced to ten years less 103 days served

  JUNE 22, 2016

  James’s appeal against sentencing dismissed

  JUNE 12, 2018

  James released on parole to halfway house, resumes fishing

  JUNE 20, 2018

  Dwayne released on parole to halfway house, resumes fishing

  NOV 3, 2019

  James dies of cancer

  CAST OF CHARACTERS

  THE FISHING COMMUNITY

  Phillip Boudreau, the victim, a poacher and a thief; Midnight Slider was his boat

  James Landry, fisherman, former owner of the Twin Maggies’ lobster licence, deckhand

  Carla Samson, James’s daughter, who acquired the licence from her father

  Dwayne Samson, husband of Carla, captain of the Twin Maggies

  Craig Landry, hired deckhand on the Twin Maggies

  Margaret Rose Boudreau, Phillip’s sister

  Gerard Boudreau, Phillip’s brother, lobster fisherman and lobster dealer

  Linda Boudreau, Gerard’s wife, captain of Gerard’s boat

  Kenneth Boudreau, Phillip’s brother

  THE LEGAL COMMUNITY

  Mr. Justice Simon MacDonald, who presided over Dwayne Samson’s hearings

  Nash Brogan and T.J. McKeough, attorneys for Dwayne and Carla

  Dan MacRury and Diane McGrath, prosecutors in Dwayne’s case

  Joel Pink, attorney for Craig Landry

  Chief Justice Joseph Kennedy, who presided over James Landry’s trial

  Stephen Drake and Shane Russell, prosecutors in James’s case

  Luke Craggs, attorney for James Landry

  Kevin Patriquin, Nova Scotia Legal Aid Society

  Corporal Denzil George Fraser Firth, RCMP, chief investigat
or of Phillip Boudreau’s death

  OTHERS

  Stephen White, genealogist, Centre d’études acadiennes, Université de Moncton

  Raymond LeBlanc, paralegal assistant, returning officer, co-proprietor of Shamrock Store

  Pearl LeBlanc, Raymond’s wife and co-proprietor of Shamrock Store

  Ronnie LeBlanc, their son, who circulated the petition and is married to Dwayne’s sister Janet

  Edgar Samson, proprietor, Premium Seafoods

  Staff Sergeant Daniel Parent, RCMP (retired)

  Hubert David, contractor, Phillip’s neighbour

  Betty David, his wife

  Tony Veinot, crab-boat skipper, friend, and occasional employer of Phillip

  Thilmond Landry, Phillip’s neighbour

  PROLOGUE

  IT WAS IN 2013 that Phillip Boudreau was dropped—allegedly—to the bottom of the sea, but his neighbours would not be entirely surprised if he walked out of the ocean tomorrow, coated in seaweed and dripping with brine, smiling.

  After all, Phillip had often vanished for long periods during his forty-three years, and he always came back to where he’d grown up—Alderney Point, at the edge of the Acadian village of Petit de Grat on Isle Madame, Nova Scotia. Afterwards it would turn out that he had been in prison, or out West, or hiding in the woods. Perhaps the police had been looking for him and he’d have tucked himself away in other people’s boats or trailers, or curled up and gone to sleep in the bushes of the moorland near his family’s home, his face coated with droplets of fog. He and his dog often slept in a rickety shed outside his parents’ home, where the narrow dirt road ends at the rocky shore of Chedabucto Bay. He’d even been known to hollow out a snowbank and shelter himself from the bitter night in the cold white cavern he’d created.

  He was a small man, perhaps five-five, with a goatee and a ready smile. He usually dressed in jeans, sneakers, a windbreaker, a baseball cap. Whenever he was released from prison, word would go around Isle Madame: Phillip’s out. Lock the shed, the barn, the garage. Phillip’s out. If your boat’s missing, or your four-wheeler, talk to Phillip. Maybe you can buy it back from him. Phillip’s out. If you want a good deal on a marine GPS, an outboard motor, a dozen lobsters, check out the Corner Bridge Store and Bakery. Phillip likes to hang out there. He ties up his speedboat, Midnight Slider, at a little dock nearby.

  Some people loved Phillip. He could be funny, helpful, kind. He was generous to old people, good with animals, gentle with children. Other people hated and feared him, though they tended to conceal their feelings. If you crossed him he might threaten to sink your boat, shoot you, burn down your house. He could make you fearful for the safety of your daughter. Would he actually do anything violent? Hard to say.

  If you went to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police detachment in nearby Arichat, they would tell you they couldn’t do much until he actually committed an offence. Perhaps they’d tell you that you could get a peace bond, a court order directing Phillip to stay away from you and your family and your property. From time to time the Mounties would arrest Phillip for “uttering threats”—or for any of a dozen other offences—and send him back to prison. But he’d be out again soon enough, and if you’d helped put him inside, watch out.

  So most people quietly avoided Phillip, carefully steering around him the way a lobster boat navigates a rocky shoal.

  He did a tidy little business in hallucinogens and was available as a vandal for hire, particularly with respect to lobster traps. An Isle Madame lobster trap is a baited wooden cage weighted with rocks and lying on the sea floor. It’s tied by a long slender rope to a buoy that floats at the surface. The fisherman hooks the buoy, hauls up the trap, and removes his catch; then he rebaits the trap and drops it overboard again. The trap is worth about $100, but the value of the lobster it catches can be in the thousands of dollars.

  Nothing prevents a poacher from hauling someone else’s traps in the middle of the night and selling the lobsters as his own. And if the buoy rope is cut off, the owner can’t even find the trap. If I have a grudge against you, what better way to harm you than to slide out at midnight and cut a bunch of your traps? But if you catch me at it the outcome won’t be pretty. So if I don’t want to take a chance on doing it myself, I can always hire Phillip.

  Phillip Boudreau was by no means the only man who ever cut traps in Petit de Grat, but he was the dominant figure in that line of work. He would also take credit for things he hadn’t done, just to bolster his reputation as a crafty rascal operating by stealth and beyond the reach of the law. A Fisheries officer who confronted him had the tires of his car slashed. When he bought new tires, those were slashed too. Phillip? Try to prove it. If you confronted him, he’d just smile.

  Phillip could make your life a misery—but if he was your friend and thought you needed something he would provide it, whether or not he owned it. So you had to be careful about idly voicing your desires.

  And then, from time to time, he would disappear—for days, or weeks, or months. But he always cropped up again.

  There had been attempts to kill him—conspiracies, even. But on June 1, 2013, he was said to have been drowned—and not by thugs or druggies but by highly respected local fishermen. A lot of people thought the very idea was ridiculous. Phillip was wily and resilient and he swam like a seal. Trying to drown him would be like trying to drown a football. No doubt he was hiding out somewhere.

  But he was never seen again.

  1

  HER MAJESTY’S STORY

  JUNE 1, 2013, was a brilliant, sunny morning on the south coast of Isle Madame, just off the southeastern coast of Cape Breton Island. Lobster boats were slipping through the calm water all around the rocky shore off Petit de Grat and Arichat, diesel engines muttering as fishermen hauled up traps, removed lobsters, rebaited and reset the traps. The thirty-six-foot Twin Maggies, skippered by Dwayne Samson, was working in a dimple on the coast known as l’Anse aux Maquereaux, Mackerel Cove. The fishing licence had been given to Dwayne’s wife, Carla, by her father, James Landry, when he turned sixty. She also owned the boat. James, now sixty-five, was working that morning as an employee, a deckhand. The second deckhand was Craig Landry, forty, a third cousin to James.

  At about 7:00 a.m. Craig spotted a fourteen-foot speedboat, Midnight Slider, moving among their traps. The crew knew it well. It belonged to Phillip Boudreau, who had bedevilled and taunted the Twin Maggies for years. Midnight Slider’s speed made it easy for Phillip to elude slow, heavy fishing boats like the Twin Maggies.

  On that fateful June morning, however, shots were fired and Midnight Slider stalled. The two boats collided. Shortly afterwards another fisherman found Midnight Slider’s battered hull floating awash. Its outboard motor was gone. A gas can was floating nearby. Phillip Boudreau had vanished. Meanwhile, the Twin Maggies had continued to tend her traps, unloading her lobsters at the end of the morning at the Premium Seafoods wharf in Arichat.

  The next day, the three crew members were questioned closely by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Five days later, on June 6, the RCMP charged Craig Landry with second degree murder. The next day they arrested Dwayne Samson and James Landry and charged them with murder as well. Carla Samson was charged as accessory after the fact. The Twin Maggies was impounded. It was now an alleged murder weapon.

  The accused were interrogated separately and intensively. Dwayne and Craig said nothing, but after fifteen continuous hours of questioning James made a statement. He said that when the Twin Maggies found Phillip Boudreau cutting their traps that morning, he got Craig to bring him his rifle. Then he fired four shots. He thought one of the shots might have wounded Phillip and one might have stopped his speedboat by disabling its motor. James then seized the wheel of the fishing boat from Dwayne and rammed Midnight Slider. He was so mad he was “seeing black.” He swung around and rammed the smaller boat again, capsizing it. He wanted to destroy it. Aft
er that they didn’t see Phillip anymore, and they went on hauling their traps.

  It was a powerful story. But three weeks later, on June 26, Craig Landry told the Mounties a very different story, and later directed a videotaped re-enactment out on the water. On July 4 he was released on $50,000 bail, subject to stringent conditions about where he could live and who he could see. Carla Samson was also released on $25,000 bail. She had to surrender her passport and observe a curfew from midnight to 6:00 a.m.

  On July 22 her husband applied for bail. The prosecution was strongly opposed. Dwayne Samson was allegedly the perpetrator of a vicious murder, as Craig Landry’s testimony had revealed. Buttressed by additional information from the RCMP investigation, that testimony had become, in effect, Her Majesty’s Story, the core of the Crown’s official version of events.

  * * *

  —

  Her Majesty’s Story begins with a ringing telephone at Gerard Boudreau’s ramshackle house around 7:00 in the evening of May 31, 2013.

  Gerard Boudreau, Phillip’s oldest brother, lives at Alderney Point, not far from his parents’ home, at the very end of a twisting road that winds down the rocky eastern shore of Petit de Grat Harbour. Gerard owns a wharf, a lobster pound, and a lobster licence. His traps are set around the mouth of the harbour; some are in Mackerel Cove, directly across the harbour mouth, within sight of his home. Gerard doesn’t actually tend the traps himself anymore. He is a diabetic, spectacularly obese, at least three hundred pounds. His diabetes has caused the amputation of his left leg and his right thumb. In 2013, when Gerard’s brother was killed, his fishing boat was skippered by his wife, Linda.

  On that May evening, it was Linda who answered the phone. The caller was James Landry, a longtime friend of Gerard’s. She passed the phone to Gerard. James told Gerard that the Twin Maggies had lost about thirty lobster traps in the previous couple of weeks, and asked whether Gerard had seen Phillip around the harbour. Yes, said Gerard, Phillip had indeed been cruising around the harbour in Midnight Slider.