Corruption- Montreal Style

Many months ago when the government put together a police task force to investigate corruption in the construction industry most commentators pooh-poohed the idea and called for a public inquiry to shed light on the entire stinking rotten mess.

While many believed that the police would be ineffective in rooting out the corruption and even less effective in bringing forth charges, I never doubted that in the end justice would be done.

Why?
Because the crooks aren't so bright and usually leave a trail a mile wide. They aren't that hard to catch.

Years back, while enjoying a barbecue on my back patio with friends, a then assistant directer of the Montreal police made a keen observation that always stuck with me.
He said that in the end the police catch almost all the crooks.

Whaaaat??? C'mon!........You could imagine my incredulity.

When I pointed out that the police solve less than fifteen percent of all crimes and less than 2% are solved due to police investigations, (most crimes are solved because of confessions, informers or victims pointing to the guilty party) his logic was unimpeachable.

Yes he said, we solve a low percentage of crime, but criminals do a large volume of criminal acts. Take a bank robber who has robbed fifteen banks but is caught on the sixteenth.
He ends up going to jail.

Hmm... I see the logic..

This last week the news was dominated by the student uprising, which took up most of the media's attention.  Too bad, because yesterday, the anti-corruption police made three arrests that will rock the foundations of Montreal City hall.

By the way, I am going to credit myself as the first blogger or mainstream media types to refer to the student unrest as a 'Student Uprising' because, quite frankly, that is what it has become.

But I digress and as they say in French, back to the knitting.

Corruption isn't particularly hard to spot in municipal affairs.
If a contract is obviously inflated, or a contractor is given preferential treatment or buys or sells a property at below or above market value, it all points to hanky-panky. It isn't brain surgery.
It's just a question of following the money.

"Montreal’s auditor-general reported in May 2010 that seven boroughs awarded most of their capital-works projects to a small number of firms. The most extreme cases were Anjou, where all five contracts, totalling $6 million, went to a company owned by Accurso.

In Verdun, all 21 contracts, worth $23 million, were awarded to a company owned by Catania. The auditor-general found this “perplexing.”

In seven Montreal boroughs, Catania topped the list of 21 construction firms awarded a “substantial” portion of city contracts during one three-year period.

Catania got $104 million in city business, followed by Accurso’s Construction Louisbourg with a little over $100 million in contracts.

”Notwithstanding that these contracts were awarded to the lowest compliant bidder,” wrote Bergeron, “I nevertheless remain puzzled by the fact that some boroughs award a large proportion of their contracts to the same contractors.”  Link

Now I'm going to preface the following with the standard disclaimers as to guilt or innocence of those arrested.
Nothing as of yet has been proven and everyone is innocent until proven guilty..blah...blah....blah... you know the drill.

The story starts in July 2008, when Frank Zampino, then the number two man in the Montreal municipal administration of Mayor Gerald Tremblay, resigned rather suddenly from his powerful position as Chairman of the Executive Committee after twenty-two years as an elected city official.

I remember watching his good-bye press conference where he cited personal reasons for leaving and noted that not one reporter questioned the rather unlikely excuse, especially since he stated that he had no job lined up.
Strange....
It's very, very, rare that someone at the height of power walks away from that type of  his position with nothing lined up, and I remarked at the time to my wife that his exit was extremely 'fishy.'

It didn't take long for allegations to surface that he had shown 'favoritism' in the awarding of a massive city contract for water meters to a company controlled by the infamous Tony Accurso, (who was arrested recently on another unrelated corruption case.)
It was reported that during the time that the city was considering the water meter contract, Mr. Zampino vacationed on Mr. Accurso's luxury yacht in the Caribbean.
And by the way Zampino did land a job rather quickly after his departure from city hall...  working for, you guessed it......Tony Accurso.
Because the water meter contract was ultimately cancelled, no corruption charges were laid.

Yesterday, Mr. Zampino along with Paolo Catania, a powerful construction magnate and Bernard Trépanier, a bag man for Mayor Tremblay's municipal party, the Union Montreal, and six others, were arrested. Link{Fr}  Link    Read the charges here
  


It's a simple and neat story of corruption, if true.

Mr. Catania is alleged to have received inside tendering information provided by Mr. Zampino, in relation to a successful bid for a $300 million plus redevelopment project. In return, Mr. Catania is alleged to have kicked back a commission to Mr. Trépanier, who allegedly collected the money on behalf of Mr. Zampino's political party.

Who is Bernard Trépanier?

"Trépanier, the third man known to have been arrested in UPAC's Thursday-morning sweep, was Union Montreal's director of fundraising from 2004 to 2006.

He was referred to by insiders as "Bernard Trépanier 3 per cent," according to Benoit Labonté, who had been mayor of the Ville Marie borough and had been a key member of the Tremblay team at Union Montreal before he bolted to join Vision Montreal.

Labonté pulled out of politics, in disgrace, just before the 2009 municipal vote, after records surfaced of phone contacts with Accurso which Labonté had earlier denied.

Labonté then told Radio-Canada, in an explosive late-October 2009 interview, that when he broached the "3-per-cent" subject with the mayor, Tremblay responded that in Montreal municipal politics, "that's all there is." Read the rest of the story

'Boss Tweed' alive and well in Montreal

If the allegations are true, it probably indicates that many, many other contracts and deals were dirty as well.
Remember the story above, of the bank robber caught on his sixteenth robbery?

At any rate if this one corruption charge sticks, it may indicate that Montreal is run on a Tammany Hall basis, with Mr. Trépanier Montreal's very own version of  'Boss Tweed'

READERS;

Here is a fearless prediction;

I listened to the press conference given by the police and the confidence that they displayed in describing the fraud and abuse of power.

That level of confidence usually means but one thing.....

SOMEBODY ROLLED OVER

There's going to be a witness from the inside who will testify in exchange for immunity. If that's the case, they are all cooked!

 At any rate,  Montreal isn't the only Quebec city mired in corruption allegations.

This week, the small town of Mascouche is in an uproar with furious citizens demanding that their mayor step down in  light of his arrest over corruption charges.

Ashamed citizens of the town are rightfully outraged that the mayor has not given up and was to preside over a scheduled town meeting.
(Late news: Mayor Richard Marcotte has stepped aside. Link{Fr})

Read "Quebec town becomes the shamed face of corruption scandal after Mayor targeted for arrest"

It is unfortunately, the tip off the iceberg.
UPAQ, the fledgling police unit charged with dealing with corruption is rumored to be swamped with files and it's quite satisfying to see them nab so many big fish already.
Read an interesting timeline of their activities. Link

 So far this year, to quote Queen Elizabeth, Quebec has been going through it's annus horribilis.

Political instability, rising unemployment, a tanking economy, a student uprising, corruption scandals abounding and language militancy gone wild...

Can it get any worse?.....you bet it can, this is Quebec!

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The Student Uprising

Before I bid you adieu for the weekend, I'd like you to watch this video of UQAM's best known professor, the irascible Léo-Paul Lauzon who is about as famous as you can get as a UQAM professor.

The separatist economist employs his particular bizarre logic in defending violence in the student uprising.

For those of you who think that I am too hard on UQAM, I offer this video as evidence of how crazy the teachers over there are.

I haven't had the time to subtitle the video but for those without French take my word that through all the hemming and hawing, he lends support for violence in the student uprising.

The next day he went on the radio to defend his remarks and made an even bigger fool of himself.  Listen HERE in French

If this is what he says in public, I can only  imagine what goes on in the classroom. 

On Wednesday, UQAM was overrun by masked students disrupting classes.
Here's a YouTube page chock full of videos of the event.

Message to rioters......... keep it up!
I hope UQAM stays closed forever!

For your weekend reading pleasure, I've translated this article by Lysiane Gagnon who writes in La Presse.

If you read French, please do her the courtesy of reading the following in its original form. HERE

"In the student in crisis, there is a clear divide between the Montreal area, where most of the agitation has taken place, and the rest of the province. Even Cégep Limoilou, which has always been a hotbed of student protest, is functioning normally ...But there is another cleavage, more spectacular, and this one has somewhat divided the city into two. This is the one between Francophones and Anglophones.While the French institutions were torn to varying degrees by the conflict, the English side is calm ... and remains committed to studies. 

Dawson College, a downtown institution that is sort of the English version the Cégep du Vieux-Montreal, with its 4,000 students participated in a vote (secret) and rejected the strike. Same thing at John Abbott College, where the student association held a referendum (with secret ballots) that lasted all day. Note, the very democratic process that oversaw those decisions. 

At Bishop's University, the student association didn't even collect the 150 signatures required to hold a strike vote!

At Concordia, the popular downtown university that is the English version of UQAM which has a history of much social unrest, the courses were never suspended. Teachers that the strikers prevented from giving their courses, gave students online tests or work to do at home. 

At McGill, little disruption. At the height of the movement (around March 22), several thousand students participated in the boycott, including the School of Social Work, Poli-Sci and Arts. All that remains of the boycotters, according to the university, are about forty strikers concentrated in "Gender Studies" and in French literature. 

How can one explain the difference in attitude between the two language groups of same age, who live in the same city and share the same leisure and cultural activities? 

The first reason is political. Non-Francophones in general are against  the PQ, are not against the Charest government to the same degree as their francophone compatriots. This conflict is powerfully fueled  by the PQ student movement and  most young activists are influenced by QS and anarcho-communist organizations. 

Although there is a strong and ancient tradition of left-wing Anglos in Montreal, they hesitate to join movements which, as QS, are also promoting the independence of Quebec. Anglo leftists are at home in the NDP, which very intelligently separated itself from the student revolt.

The other reason is that the Anglo-old-stock Quebecers have always valued education far more than the French. It is also the case of allophones, who moved here for a better future for their children. You can find large numbers of them at home in Dawson and Concordia.

The French, as we know, are less likely to value education. In 2010, those aged 25-34 in Quebec, 24.8% of Francophones earned a university degree. This was true of 34.9% of Anglophones ... and 37.4% of allophones.

Of all Canadians, Francophones are those who read fewer books and get most of their news from the TV. They are not only more likely to dropout of school or to settle for an inferior degree, they are also more likely to take more time in college or university, earning that degree. Hence the reason that so many students have not hesitated to compromise their winter semester by boycotting their classes ... Oh well, it's just one more semester!"

Readers please have a very good weekend!