Ex-hitman Real Simard says no one should worry about his presence among Quebec politicians. The former hired killer said he was paid for organizational work done in the early 1990s for Bloc Quebecois and PQ members.

"If I have the knowledge and capacity to do a political organizer's work, I don't see why I shouldn't," Simard, 49, said in a telephone interview Wednesday.

The convicted killer outlines his post-crime career and attempts to rebuild his life in a new volume of autobiography. Simard said he worked under a false name as a chauffeur in 1993 for Richard Holden, a Parti Quebecois legislature member, and later was Holden's political adviser.

He said he then became a political organizer for Kim Beaudoin, the Bloc's unsuccessful candidate in Verdun-St-Paul riding in the Oct. 25, 1993, federal election.

The campaign work for Beaudoin was the result of a mutual help arrangement between the PQ and the Bloc. Simard said that as a result, he got cheques for five or six months from the Quebec legislature.

Simard, a lieutenant to Montreal mobster Frank Cotroni and subsequent police informer, said his alias -- Michel Roselli -- quickly fell apart. The end came when Montreal police chief Jacques Duchesneau phoned an aide to then-PQ premier Jacques Parizeau and revealed Simard's background.

Simard said police urged him to quit two weeks before the election. When he refused, his employer was told he was "a killer who's sought by the Mafia." (Canadian Press)