Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada – Serge LeClerc had risen to become the co-leader of one of the largest drug crime families in Canada. But today he is working
to rescue drug addicts. Here is his story.
He was born in an abandoned building in eastern Canada, a product of rape, to
a single, thirteen-year-old Cree girl who had run away from home. They
eventually moved into the inner city, Regent Park, Toronto, where Serge literally
brought himself up.
At the age of eight, he played truant from school and ended up being admitted
to a residential training school, where he was abused. He became a runaway, living
in abandoned buildings and garages, eating out of garbage cans. The authorities
would catch him and take him back to the residential school, where the level of
violence and abuse escalated.
By the age of 15, Serge was leading one of the largest, toughest street gangs in
Toronto. He carried a gun, ran alcohol stills and extortion rackets. In 1967, he
became one of Canada’s earliest drug dealers. For 20 year he was a drug addict,
13 years an intravenous user and he smoked crack cocaine. He began to “do life
on the installment plan,” as he calls it, in and out of prison. All the while he rose
in the power hierarchy of Canada in the criminal underworld.
In 1984, he began a nine-year term for a $40 million drug bust. One day in prison
he encountered a volunteer who told him he had a choice. He could believe either
that he was an animal that walked on two legs, with no purpose or that he was a
creation and that there was a Creator, that he had a soul, was of great value and
had a purpose in life.
Seven months later, when he watched a 19 year-old man commit suicide in
the next cell – who had gotten himself there from using drugs from Serge’s own
lab and drug dealers – he thought about what the volunteer had said. He was
invited to go to the chapel service and there asked for a Bible. He received a
small New Testament published by The Gideons.
He was impressed by the story of Jesus and his disciples – the ‘gang leader’ and his ‘gang members.” He could understand why they hid when Jesus was
crucified, but not why they came out of hiding. He decided that they did so
because of truth. They allowed themselves to be persecuted and slaughtered
only because of truth.
So at 2:00 in the morning in 1985, on the cold cement floor of his cell, all by
himself, Serge LeClerc received Jesus Christ as his personal Lord and Savior.
He had been classified as one of the most violent men in the Canadian penitentiary
system, but now here he was following Jesus.
Since this time, Serge competed a university degree while in prison, graduating
with honors in sociology and social work from the University of Waterloo.
When he got out of prison in 1988, he continued to follow the Lord.
In 2000, he received a full government pardon, which required an act of Parliament.
He founded the first chapter of Prison Fellowship in Canada, and today works
with Teen Challenge in Saskatchewan as a regional director. The program he
supervises has a near 90% success rate. And the icing on the cake is that
he has been invited to run as a Member of the Saskatchewan Legislature.
As he says,
“Never before in the history of North America has someone gone
from lawbreaker to lawmaker.”
The former drug lord, his life radically changed by Jesus Christ, now rescues
other drug addicts in the name of Jesus.
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Would you like to know the Jesus that Serge knows? You can know him today by praying a simple prayer that recoginizes that he is our Savior and that you want to surrender the control of your life to him:
Lord Jesus, I want to know You personally. Thank You for dying on the cross for my sins. I open the door of my life and receive You as my Savior and Lord. Thank You for forgiving my sins and giving me eternal life. Take control of my life. Make me be the person You want me to be.
Is it the desire of your heart to make this prayer yours?
If yes, pray now and according to his promise, Jesus Christ will come into your life.
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Serge LeClerc’s testimony is available on DVD by request from 
