MONTREAL: What do Jack Ruby, former federal justice minister Guy Favreau, and Cuban military leader Fulgencio Batista have in common? They were all connected with Lucien Rivard, a Montreal-born drug smuggler with international crime connections whose life story is featured in the French-language political thriller Rivard, scheduled to wrap shooting in Montreal June 9.

‘He’s a fascinating guy. He was a cowboy. He’s like Quebec’s version of Jesse James,’ says producer Fabienne Larouche (Music Hall) of Aetios Productions. Larouche’s husband and coproducer Michel Trudeau discovered Rivard’s story after reading James Ellroy’s 1995 novel American Tabloid, which is about the John F. Kennedy assassination. One of the protagonists in the novel is a French-Canadian crook, Pete Bondurant.

‘We started to ask ourselves, why is this character a French-Canadian? We did some research into the period and we discovered Rivard,’ says Larouche.

The $6.5-million feature, funded principally by SODEC, stars Rémy Girard as Rivard and is directed by Charles Binamé (Séraphin, Maurice Richard). Colm Feore plays a CIA agent and Tony Calabretta plays Ruby.

Rivard, who was born in the Montreal suburb of Laval, lived in Cuba in the 1950s, where he ran a casino, trafficked in heroin, and had dealings with Ruby, who assassinated Lee Harvey Oswald.

The gangster returned to Quebec in 1958 and opened a beach resort in Laval that was a front for his drug-smuggling and arms-trafficking operations. In 1963, he was implicated in a $35-million heroin seizure by U.S. customs officials. Awaiting his extradition, he was jailed at Montreal’s Bordeaux prison, where he escaped with the aid of a garden hose used to flood the prison’s skating rink.

During his four months at large, charges of bribery connected with the escape resulted in a royal commission. Then-justice minister Favreau ultimately resigned over what became known as the ‘Rivard Affair.’

‘It’s incredible. He worked with Ruby and he knew Batista. He was a Quebecer involved with people connected to the assassination of John F. Kennedy,’ says Larouche, adding that the period in American history the film explores is still relevant today.

‘Americans kind of lost their innocence when JFK was shot. It’s the first event that made them feel insecure. That’s when their obsession with national security began.’

The film, distributed by Alliance Atlantis, will be released next year. *