The 2025 Quebec Homicide Victim List is available here

Emergency services were called to Petit-Cap Road at approximately 4:30 p.m, on December 30th, in Cap-Saint-Ignace, located about an hour east of Quebec City.

When police arrived, they found the man lying on the ground with an apparent injury. Police spokesperson Frédéric Deshaies said the victim was known to authorities and that investigators are treating the death as a homicide. The victim was shoveling snow at the time of the attack.

According to Le Journal de Québec, the victim has been identified as 59-year-old Yves Guillemette. Authorities believe his death may be connected to an ongoing power struggle between rival criminal organizations seeking control of the drug trade in the greater Quebec City region.

In April 2024, he told the Journal de Québec that he had been violently assaulted by seven individuals who allegedly held him captive in his garage for nearly two hours and beat him with rifle butts. Some of the attackers were reportedly masked, and he said he was also assaulted and robbed inside his home, suffering a concussion. At the time, he denied any links to organized crime.

Police later arrested two suspects, Kevin Desjardins-Boisvert, 40, of Trois-Rivières, and Sébastien Hurens St-Pierre, 32, of Mascouche, who were each sentenced to 90 days in jail. Guillemette had prior legal issues between 1985 and 1998 involving counterfeit documents and non-compliance, but no history of drug-related charges.