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Rock Machine boss one of two facing weapons charges after arrest in Casselman

Rock Machine motorcycle gang boss Jean-François Émard is one of two men facing weapons charges after Ontario Provincial Police officers responded to a report of two men in an altercation at a Casselman bar on Friday night.

Émard, 39, of Casselman faces charges of possession of loaded prohibited or restricted handgun; carrying a concealed weapon; obstruction of a peace officer; failure to comply with a probation order; and knowledge of unauthorized possession of a firearm.

Pascal Carrier, 47, of Saint-Jean-Sur-Richelieu, Que., is charged with possession of loaded prohibited or restricted handgun; obstruction of a peace officer; and unauthorized possession of a prohibited or restricted firearm.

They are to appear in a L’Orignal court on Monday.

During the summer of 2014, Émard and others, in interviews with the French language station TVA and La Presse, showed off their gang patches, confirming that the Rock Machine, a gang that had disappeared in 2000, was back in Quebec. Émard told TVA he was the vice-president of the gang’s worldwide membership. The gang’s name alone evokes memories of a violent conflict the gang was involved in against the Hells Angels from 1994 that resulted in the deaths of more than 160 people, including several innocent victims. But in September of 2014, Émard told La Presse the resurrected version of the Rock Machine was not an enemy of the Hells Angels.

In October 2014, Émard was charged with possession with intent to traffic in methamphetamines, possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose, possession of $300 suspected of being the proceeds of crime and simple possession of marijuana after a car he was in was pulled over in Valleyfield, Que.

In December 2013, he completed a two-year sentence he received after having pleaded guilty to to three counts of drug trafficking as well as the production of an illegal narcotic.