Who is Christopher LaVoie? Man behind ‘4 Days’ reality shows has history of run-ins with police, dubious business ventures
Christopher LaVoie, the actor best known for playing a biker gang leader on the popular reality TV show “4 Days Out,” has been sued in his hometown of Ottawa, where his first TV appearance was not welcomed by local residents.
LaVoie, who was born in Montreal but was raised in Ottawa and grew up in Toronto with his Canadian mother, has had a long and sometimes turbulent history with municipal and provincial law enforcement agencies, with at least three of the 12 cases going to trial.
LaVoie is still involved in two of the cases, including a recent one in Ottawa that he settled in 2016 for $5,000.
The stories are not uncommon for men who have spent much of their lives in Canada. The cases of LaVoie — who has a U.S. passport and lived in Ottawa for more than two decades — illustrate a persistent phenomenon in Canadian show business: a fascination with the criminal underbelly, and, in some cases, a distrust of police.
“Every single day, there are at least two or three people who are killed by police … and it’s in every single major city in the country,” said John Gogarty, a Toronto criminal lawyer who has been involved in at least three of LaVoie’s cases.
LaVoie’s run-ins with police included a 2014 arrest in suburban London, Ont., and a brief stint in jail in Toronto, according to court records obtained by the Globe and Mail.
LaVoie was booked on two counts of breaking and entering. After he and two friends visited the home of one of the alleged victims, police said they found “large amounts of stolen goods” inside the house.
But as LaVoie’s defence lawyer, Robert King, recalled years later, police said they hadn’t actually broken and entered the home.
“They were in plain clothes, they’re responding to a report that there was