“Family of criminals”: ​​“I understood that I was burying myself alive,” says Annie-Soleil Proteau

Over the course of the six episodes which are now broadcast on the Vrai platform, she recounts having, during her adolescence in Hochelaga-Maisonneuve, in Montreal, frequented a drug trafficker, in addition to having, in her family, people linked to “high crime”. “I understood that I was burying myself alive,” says Annie-Soleil Proteau.“When I was very young, I decided to go into this area. My boyfriend and my friends were from the criminal world. At that time I did not see the extent of the suffering, I just saw freedom […]”, testified the cultural columnist of Salut Bonjour weekend, who mentions that She was then fueled by “adrenaline and excess.”

In the series, she says that her relationships at the time put a “bandage on a lot of pain” and satisfied her “need for 'excessive love.'

“One day, I was lucky, I understood that I was burying myself alive, completely, and I was able to leave that life . It was really rough, it was very difficult to do, but I did it,” she added during an interview with the QMI Agency.

Will to help

Several friends from that time “died tragically”, which is why Annie-Soleil Proteau wants to raise awareness among young people not to take the path of crime or to get out of it before it ends badly. She talks about her past not without fear of losing the affection of a part of the public, a love that she needs so much, but she accepts her choice.

• < strong>Listen to the interview with Annie-Soleil Proteau, co-producer of the “Family of Criminal” series and host on Sophie Durocher’s show via QUB radio:

“We never hear these people. We found it important to shine the spotlight on the suffering of criminal families. It comes with a lot of judgment. We wanted to demonstrate the extent to which these people are in no way guilty by association,” said Annie-Soleil Proteau, specifying that the introspection provoked by the filming stirred up many memories, even traumas, that she had hidden. .

The testimonies of the children of street gang member Jean Raymond Claude are heartbreaking. Rapper MikeZup and his sister Mélodie-Jade, who shone at La Voix, talk about their life in the house of the man nicknamed Jean Jean. The man disappeared in 2015.

Annie-Soleil also convinced her friend, Sabrina, to speak. The latter frequented trafficker Gaétan Sévigny until the latter was shot dead in front of their residence in Terrebonne, in 2019.

In the first two episodes of the series produced by Romeo, in collaboration with Quebecor Content, there emerges from the different stories a lot of resilience and courage.

To provide answers to families, Félix Séguin teams up with his colleague from the Quebecor Investigation Bureau, Éric Thibault. They were able to relieve Johanne Robinson, whose son, William, 23, was killed in Pointe-Fortune 10 years ago, a story told in the fifth episode.

“There are a lot of details on the death of these people who we did not know, said Félix Séguin. In every episode, we learn something new. These families have already communicated with me in the past to try to explain a little better what had happened with their loved one, what we were not telling them, etc. As they talk, they reclaim a lot of their crime-free lives. Before, they were the blonde of, the son of. »

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