About Serge

Today, Serge LeClerc [BA (Hon) Sociology/Social Work] is the elected MLA for Saskatoon Northwest, and a sought-after public speaker throughout North America.

But it wasn't always like this.

Born as a product of rape to a teenage girl in an abandoned building in northern New Brunswick, Serge's early years were characterized by extreme poverty in the crumbling Toronto Cabbage Town district.

At 8 years old, Serge was taken from his mother and placed in the notoriously brutal and abusive St. John's Training School. He began a pattern of running away and being recaptured, receiving further physical abuse when he was returned.

By the age of 12, Serge had developed numerous ties to the future heads of motorcycle gangs and crime organizations. He later became a feared gang leader and drug dealer, eventually becoming heavily addicted to crystal meth, heroin, crack and cocaine.

Between his years of crime and years of violence within Canada's most-brutal prisons, Serge became one of Canada's most-wanted and feared criminal king-pins. It culminated in a 40 million dollar meth lab in Quebec with ties throughout the world. He was sentenced to nine years in Saint-Vincent-de-Paul, Quebec's super-maximum security prison.

A chance encounter with a volunteer who was distributing magazines to prisoners changed his life.

"I couldn't figure out his angle," writes Serge. "He wasn't getting money and he wasn't getting prestige and nobody was patting him on the back. It fascinated me, but I also got angry at him because I couldn't figure out his angle. He was an anomaly to me."

"In a very short conversation of about three minutes, he challenged my premise that you're either an animal that walks on two legs and there is no meaning to your life and to the aftermath of your life, or that you're a creation and that you have a soul, and that makes you of great value. It can only be one or the other and if it is the latter, then your life is about choices and you have made mostly bad ones - for you and for so many around you."

Some months later, Serge watched helplessly as a 19-year-old inmate in the cell next to his ripped up his sheets and hung himself. It was devastating as he had gotten himself into prison for buying crystal meth that came from Serge's laboratories and for Serge this starkly underlined the words of that volunteer.

Serge considered suicide himself. But when finally faced with the choice of a road of despair or a way of hope.....he chose hope.

Overcoming a Grade 5 education, he began to take correspondence courses, eventually earning Certification in General Social Work from the Renison College while in prison. Upon release in 1988, he struggled to grow accustomed to society again, but persevered and thrived, and while attending the University of Waterloo, graduated with an Honours BA with a major in Sociology and a minor in Social Work. He then began his work as a motivational speaker (especially for Crime Stoppers), a consultant, addiction counselor and administrator. And in 2000, supported by Crime Stoppers Presidents, police chiefs and law enforcement personnel from across North America, he pursued and obtained an unexpected full National Pardon from the Government of Canada.

Serge went on to develop and assist many social organizations and ministries, most notably as the founder and Regional Director of Teen Challenge Saskatchewan. And in 2007, he won a seat in the Saskatchewan Provincial Parliament. Serge is currently sitting as an independent MLA representing the riding of Saskatoon Northwest.

In addition, in the summer of 2008, the University of Waterloo has selected Serge LeClerc as a recipient of the 2008 Arts in Academics Award - a prestigious recognition for academic and research excellence within the field of Sociology.

As his political career progresses, Serge is intent on making full use of this opportunity to ‘give back' for what has been allowed him-the blessing of a second chance in life. While the province may lead the nation in economic growth, Mr. LeClerc points out that the province has also led per capita in crime since 2000. Today, he said, Saskatchewan also has the highest rates of child poverty, child incarceration, youth gang recruitment, drug addiction, and child prostitution, with some victims as young as nine years old. It's a cycle he intends to change.

And if the stubborn streak that has characterized Serge from his days as a small boy right through his 21 years in prison is any indication, it's a very good bet that the story of Serge LeClerc is far from over....

Serge LeClerc's Resume