Merv Blaker
Murray Lloyd "Merv" Blaker is a Canadian outlaw biker, convicted in the Port Hope 8 case, turned social activist.
Satan's Choice
Blaker was born into an Ojibwe family in Baltimore. In 1942 Blaker's parents had renounced their status as "status Indians" under the Indian Act of 1876 as they wished to live off the Alderville Reservation in order to assist with the war effort by working in a factory manufacturing munitions. In 1942, the only way that it was legally possible for First Nations people to live off reservations was to declare themselves to be "non-status Indians", which required Blaker's father, Gordon Blaker, to sign a declaration that stated he no longer identified as Ojibwe and now viewed himself as white, which applied also to his wife, children and future children. Blaker's state as a "non-status Indian" left him feeling very like an outsider growing up as his appearance was Ojibwe while he was expected to identify as white.Blaker dropped of school in grade 8 and took up riding motorcycles as a teenager. A painfully shy man, his quiet nature was often misunderstood as stupidity. In 1967, he joined Satan's Choice Motorcycle Club. Joining Satan's Choice gave Blaker a sense of belonging as Satan's Choice was highly unusual among outlaw biker clubs in allowing non-white men to join their "brotherhood". At the same time, Satan's Choice did not impose the condition that he renounce his Ojibwe heritage. Blaker was famed as one of the best motorcycle riders in Satan's Choice along with being one of the best mechanics who was able to fix almost any broken motorcycles. At the time, Blaker joined Satan's Choice, the group was more of a genuine motorcycle club instead of being a criminal organization that masqueraded as a motorcycle club. Blaker was noted for his easy-going nature and an unwillingness to engage in violence, being more interested in riding motorcycles and being part of a "brotherhood" where his Ojibwe ethnicity was not an issue. Blaker was described as being "a non-violent outlaw biker". Peter Edwards, the crime correspondent of the Toronto Star wrote about Blaker's riding: "At times, he truly seemed at one with his motorcycle commanding it to do high-speed wheelies, veering to the left and right, or to inch forward at what seemed like an impossibly slow speed". Blaker was opposed to the alliance that Satan's Choice made with the Outlaws in 1975, which he predicated would lead to a disaster.
The fact that Blaker held a legitimate job as a repair man at the marine outlet instead of having no apparent source of legitimate income as was the case with many other Satan's Choice members has been used by the American journalist Mick Lowe to argue that Blaker was not engaged in organized crime. Blaker had one conviction for car theft along with several convictions for the possession of marijuana and for unpaid speeding tickets. Prior to the Port Hope 8 case, Blaker had done 30 days in prison for accumulated unpaid parking and speeding tickets. One Satan's Choice member, Lorne Edgar Campbell, recalled that the president of the Peterbourgh chapter, William Lavoie, once tried to teach a clearly uninterested Blaker how to fire a handgun and ended up shooting himself in the foot when he grew enraged at Blaker's inability to handle a gun properly.
The Matiyek murder
On the night of 18 October 1978, Blaker was called by Richard Sauvé to come with him for a possible confrontation with William "Heavy" Matiyek, the sergeant-at-arms of the rival Golden Hawk Riders, at the barroom of the Queen's Hotel. Blaker agreed to the request. Sauvé arrived at the Queen's Hotel together with Blaker. There was a feeling of tension in the air as everyone expected a confrontation to occur and several patrons left the Queen's Hotel. A waitress, Cathy Cotgrave, told Blaker and Sauvé that Satan's Choice members were banned from the Queen's Hotel and that they would not be served. Ignoring her, Blaker went up to the bar and ordered a drink from the bartender, Rick Galbraith, whom he knew well. When Matiyek was shot, Blaker abandoned his drink and fled via the John Street entrance to his parked car. Blaker drove first to Toronto, where he stayed at the Toronto clubhouse of Satan's Choice, and then to Kitchener, where he arrived at about 2 am at the house of David Hoffman, the treasurer of the Kitchener chapter, to treat Gary Comeau for his bullet wound.Arrest
On 5 December 1978, a warrant was issued for Blaker's arrest on charges of conspiracy to commit murder. Blaker was arrested at his Port Hope house on 7 December 1978 by Constable Colin Cousens and Sergeant Sam McReelis on charges of conspiracy to commit murder. Blaker heard the knocking on his door while lying in bed, looked out the window to see the policemen standing out front, and then back went to sleep. Blaker was arrested in bed and told his mother-in-law to tell his wife Karen that he would make bail and be home for Christmas. On 27 December 1978, a bail hearing was held for the three of the Port Hope 8 at Osgoode Hall in Toronto, where Blaker was represented by the lawyer Howard Kerbel. Blaker's wife, Karen Blaker, appeared at the hearing where she offered to post surety for her husband and promised the court that she would pressure her husband to resign from Satan's Choice if the judge was would grant her husband bail. Kerbel questioned McReelis on the stand, and asked him when Blaker became a suspect in the murder, and was informed almost soon as Matiyek was killed. Kerbel asked McReelis that if he regarded Blaker as a flight risk during the interval between Matiyek's murder on 18 October and Blaker's arrest on 7 December, and received the response that he did not. Justice Krever denied Blaker bail and he was sent to the Northumberland county jail in Cobourg. Blaker described the Cobourg county jail as a cold and uncomfortable place where he was not allowed to watch television until noon. Blaker hired as his lawyer, Terry O'Hara, an young lawyer from Kingston who had just graduated from Queen's University Law School who was to represent him in the courts for the next ten years. O'Hara, a good-natured, ribald corpulent figure with a gargantuan appetite for food, drink and sex became Blaker's best friend. On 15 January 1979, the Crown Attorney in charge of prosecuting the Port Hope Eight, Chris Meinhardt, increased the charges by indicting them all for first degree murder.On 19 February 1979, Blaker along with the rest of the Port Hope Eight were taken to the Port Hope courthouse for the preliminary hearing. At the preliminary hearing, Cotgrave testified that on the night of the murder, a group of about 20 men entered the Queen's Hotel and she recognized Blaker and Sauvé as amongst the group. During his cross-examination of Cotgrave, O'Hare asked her if she knew Blaker and received a positive answer as she testified that he had frequently drank in the Queen's Hotel's bar-room in the past. O'Hara then asked Cotgrave if she saw Blaker with Matiyek on the night of the murder and received a negative reply. Likewise, she testified that she was aware of no special animosity between Matiyek and Blaker, though she noted that Matiyek feared all members of Satan's Choice. O'Hara who a friendly and affable courtroom style was able to have Cotgrave admit that before she went to work at the Queen's Hotel on 18 October 1978 she had been smoking marijuana and drank some shots of Southern Comfort, through she insisted that did not affect her memory of the murder. On 23 February 1979, Blaker was asked if he wanted to say anything in his defense and he declined. The next witness called to the stand, a waitress at the Queen's Hotel, Julie Joncas, testified that she often taken rides in Matiyek's car and that Matiyek made a point of driving by the houses of Blaker and Sauvé to write down the license plates of any cars parked in front in case the automobiles belonged to visiting Satan's Choice members from other chapters. On 19 March 1979, Justice Scullion ruled that the Crown had presented enough evidence on the charges of first-degree murder for the case to go to trial. After the ruling, Blaker was moved to the jail in Lindsay, where he stayed until the trial began.
Blaker came to be very close to his lawyer O'Hara who visited his family to offer advice and moral support. O'Hara felt that most of his clients were guilty of the acts that they were accused of, but he believed Blaker to be an innocent man as he regarded Blaker as a painfully shy, but an honest man who unlike most of his clients did not lie to him or others. Blaker told O'Hara that the Crown's theory that Gary Comeau killed Matiyek with the rest of the Port Hope Eight serving to block the exits as a part of a conspiracy was a nonsensical theory. One of the Port Hope Eight, Armand Sanguigni, worked as a hitman for the Mafia and was the prime suspect in at least a dozen murders. By contrast, "Nutty" Comeau had a goofy reputation as a silly and irresponsible man. O'Hara concluded if there had been a conspiracy to kill Matiyek, the task would have been assigned to the coldly efficient professional contract killer Sangiugni, instead of the goofy and silly Comeau. Furthermore, O'Hara reasoned on the basis of his conversations with Blaker that even if Comeau had been assigned the task, Sangiugni would still not had been present at the Queen's Hotel as he would have known that Comeau would be arrested sooner or later on the account of his immaturity and himself as well. As such, O'Hara reached the conclusion there was no conspiracy to kill Matiyek and he was defending an innocent man whose only crime was being at the Queen's Hotel at the time of the murder.
On 5 July 1979, O'Hara met with the other lawyers for the Port Hope Eight at the North Toronto home of Howard Kerbel to discuss a common defense strategy. O'Hara believed that as an Ojibwa man the all-white jury would be predisposed to convict Blaker because of his race, and very much wanted him to testify in his defense. O'Hara believed that if Blaker were to testify, his sincerity, honesty and good nature would show his humanity to the jury and dispel their prejudices against him for being an Ojibwa. However, the other defense lawyers all objected to O'Hara's plans to have Blaker testify and felt it best for him to remain silent. Led by Bruce Affleck, the lawyer for Jeff McLeod, it was argued that the accused would follow the outlaw biker code on the stand and would refuse to incriminate another biker in a crime by not answering any questions about who killed Matiyek. The former Crown Attorney Affleck who worked with Meinhardt in the past predicated that Meinhardt during his cross-examination of Blaker would "destroy" him as a witness by asking him point-blank who had killed Matiyek and not receive any answer. Affleck argued that the jury would not understand the accused would follow the outlaw biker code and would see the refusal to name the killer as evidence of guilt. Finally, the other defense lawyers argued that if Blaker testified in his defense, it would make their clients look guilty when they chose to remain silent. O'Hara left the meeting deeply unhappy and remained convinced that Blaker should testify at the trial as he knew that juries tend to be very suspicious of defendants who do not testify in their defense.