Claude Poirier

Who is Claude Poirier?

Claude Poirier is a negotiator and crime reporter for the Quebec-based Canadian French-language television network TVA. He is best known for negotiating with suspects during hostage situations.

His 50-year career as a legal chronicler started in 1960 when he did the description of a bank robbery. He continued to do the job for several months without receiving a salary. Soon after, he covered the assassinations of U.S. former president John F. Kennedy and his brother Robert Kennedy as well as civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. during the 1960s. In Quebec, he covered the kidnapping and subsequent murder of former Quebec Liberal Minister of Labor Pierre Laporte, by the FLQ militant group in 1970. He is also well known for his badly spoken French which made him the central character of several funny anecdotes. Amongst such blunders he is remembered to have announced Kennedy's death by saying on air that the body of President Kennedy was totaled. He also has, perhaps unwillingly, rebaptised the RCMP la "Genmarderie Royale du Canada". Rumor has it that he does it on purpose because of a grudge he has against them.