38 Facts About Donny Petersen

Robert Donald "Donny" Petersen was a Canadian outlaw biker, writer, and alleged gangster.

The author of 21 books, Petersen won the International Book Award in 2012,2013 and 2014, and served as the national secretary and principal spokesman for the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club in Canada.

Donny Petersen attended York University where he studied Urban Planning, but did not graduate.

Donny Petersen began his career as a social worker in downtown Toronto.

Accordingly, to the biography posted on his website, Donny Petersen "then began working with drug induced problems in the early seventies hippie era".

Donny Petersen was notably vague on whose "drug induced problems" he resolved or how.

In 1973, Donny Petersen opened Heavy Duty Cycles, which became one of the most successful motorcycle shops in Toronto.

Donny Petersen was a successful columnist on motorcycle-related topics with his writings appearing in both Canada and abroad in various magazines.

Donny Petersen rose up became the vice president of the Para-Dice Riders.

Donny Petersen had no criminal record and in 1996 sued the Ontario Provincial Police for their roadside stop policy for outlaw bikers, claiming that this was harassment.

Donny Petersen was a successful and wealthy businessman whose many friends in Toronto's corporate elite included Gareth Seltzer, a well known Bay Street investor.

Seltzer invited Donny Petersen to speak at the Empire Club on the subject of being both a successful businessman and outlaw biker.

In February 2000, Deanne Cunningham, the Ontario Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities, appointed Donny Petersen to be the chief of a government committee assessing apprenticeship training for mechanics.

Donny Petersen was appointed to head the committee because of his "expertise and experience", with his membership of the Para-Dice Riders not being a handicap.

Donny Petersen personified the embourgeoisement of the Canadian outlaw bikers, going from having long hair and a shaggy appearance as an young man to becoming a businessman with trimmed hair and a 'respectable' appearance in his middle-age.

At a ceremony at the clubhouse of the Hells Angels' "mother chapter" in Sorel-Tracy, Donny Petersen burned his Para-Dice Rider colours and put on a Hells Angel jacket.

Donny Petersen became the national secretary of the Hells Angels and their principal spokesman, a role for which was selected for by Stadnick.

Donny Petersen used the Lastman incident to argue to the media that the Hells Angels were not a criminal organization.

At that the point, the media discovered that Donny Petersen was still in charge of the Ontario government's apprenticeship program.

Amid a blaze of publicity, Donny Petersen sued the Ontario government, claiming his right to free association has just been violated.

Donny Petersen wrote in his lawsuit: "My membership in a motorcycle club has always been and continues to be an important part of my personal belief system in individual freedoms and defiance of arbitrary and unlawful authority".

In December 2002, Donny Petersen lost his case with the Superior Court of Ontario ruling that the government was justified in firing him.

Donny Petersen, described as the unofficial leader of the Hells Angels in Ontario, was known for his "brash" style.

Donny Petersen pioneered Hells Angels stores that sold Angel-related merchandise and clothing, through notably none of the items on sale bore the Hells Angels winged death head logo or their name, instead saying 81.

The embourgeoisement associated with Donny Petersen was very typical of the Hells Angels by the early 21st century.

Donny Petersen remained the principal spokesman for the Hells Angels, although he proved to be loath taking unscripted questions from journalists as time went on.

Donny Petersen refused a request for an interview from the journalists Julian Sher and William Marsden, saying in an email: "No matter what I say, it always gets mixed up with dead babies".

In 2002, Donny Petersen went to the Hells Angels' Canada Run hosted by Gerald Ward and was confronted in a hotel lobby in Niagara Falls by Sher and Marsden.

On 8 April 2006, Donny Petersen was asked by Peter Edwards, the crime correspondent of The Toronto Star, if the Hells Angels had anything to do with the Shedden massacre.

Donny Petersen stood out in the Hells Angels in never having a criminal record.

Atwell stated that Donny Petersen had an encyclopedic knowledge of motorcycles, writing that he knew more about motorcycles than anyone else he had ever met.

In 2006, Donny Petersen was charged as a result of Project Tandem due to the information provided by the informer Steven Gault, but the charges were dismissed.

Donny Petersen just remade himself and revised his personal history.

Donny Petersen claimed that the Ontario Hells Angels had no connection to the Quebec Hells Angels, but Sher and Marsden wrote that he was lying as a number of trials and convictions showed that the Ontario chapters purchased their drugs from the Quebec chapters.

Donny Petersen continued to write articles and books on motorcycles and to appear in television documentaries, but gradually ceased his spokesman duties.

Many journalists were disappointed that Donny Petersen ceased to be the Hells Angels spokesman as he always provided a good news stories with his media appearances.

Donny Petersen became the president of the downtown Toronto Hells Angel chapter and was described in his obituary as the "boss" of all the Hells Angels in the greater Toronto area.

Donny Petersen died at his home in Oshawa while writing on his computer on 12 December 2021, aged 74.