André Dédé Desjardins, 69, was killed on April 27, 2000, in Saint-Léonard, Montreal. He was shot repeatedly in the parking lot behind Shawn’s restaurant after breakfast and died at the scene; published accounts said he was hit about 11 times. Police found a firearm fitted with a silencer and shell casings nearby and described the attack as a carefully prepared professional assassination. No useful fingerprints were recovered from vehicles examined at the scene.

Desjardins had been a former construction-union leader who in later years was linked by police and journalists to organized-crime figures and high-interest lending. He had breakfasted the day before with Maurice Mom Boucher, and investigators later questioned Boucher about a meeting expected the morning Desjardins was killed; Boucher declined to answer. Investigators traced the weapon supply to gunsmith Charles Michel Vézina, who was arrested in November 2000 and later pleaded guilty to weapons charges for illegally manufacturing and selling the modified Ruger .22 pistols with silencers tied to this killing and another attack. Vézina was not charged with shooting Desjardins, and no one has been convicted of actually killing him.