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“But at the same time, if you have a bylaw, you have to be willing and able to enforce it,” Blais said. “And when you’re talking about enforcing something against a biker gang who you know or believe to be at a high level of criminal activity, (it) really comes down to the police to do that.”

This, and the other responses from officials interviewed, were cold comfort for the residents of Ladouceur who came to this newspaper, with their right to quiet enjoyment and their ambitions for the neighbourhood disrupted by the bikers in their midst.

“It’s everybody passing the buck,” one said. “I have never seen any action. There seems to just be a hands-off approach.”

They could, of course, try to broach the subject directly with the noisy neighbours causing their frustration. Or, as Sher suggested, band together with neighbours to put up the kind of protest that’s hard for authorities to ignore. But these residents said putting the onus on them, and them alone, is unfair and – in the case of approaching the Outlaws directly – possibly unsafe.

As for the OPP officials’ request that they don’t give up on their biker investigators, and reach out to police to talk about their concerns in the meantime: “I just want to see some activity that backs up some of the words.”

“I’m tired of people saying, ‘We hear you.’ Now I want to see that they’ve heard and they’re going to try to change it.”

— With files from the Canadian Press, Vancouver Sun, Montreal Gazette

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