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Charbonneau Commission - corruption, criminals, and politicians
October 1, 2012 - 11:21am
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3% kickback went to Montreal mayor's party: Zambito
Mayor Tremblay just spoke to the media, saying he has no intention of resigning - he'll await the full commission report. Needless to say, both opposition parties are demanding that he quit immediately.
More popcorn, please.
Just to be more complete, Zambito testified that he regularly paid 6.5% as follows:
In other news, La Presse reports that SNC-Lavalin may have paid $22 million in bribes to secure the oversight of the massive McGill superhospital project, now under way.
[OD'ing on popcorn...]
Still need a sex angle, lagatta? I'm quite sure it's on the way.
yeah, this is sort of nuts. one of the most interesting things (the video is up on la presse's site right now) is when he says that it wasn't even like a few people in on it, it was known throughout the entire industry by absolutely everyone: this is how business is done in montreal. also sort of shocking was an anecdote at the end of the day directly tying accurso to vito rizzuto himself. not bad for a single day. the mayor better hope that noone from within his circle flips and offers testimony for immunity, at any rate, it seems pretty clear that this won't be as easy to get away with as the visits on yachts business last time around.
it's sort of weird too, like there seems not to be any real outrage about the city, it's as if people are treating this as entertainment, rather than linking it to the chronically terrible infrastructure and endlessly poor public services.
I am a little curious as to what effect this has on the provincial Liberal Party brand, and might it rub off on the federal Liberals.
How much do you want to bet that the Conservatives are looking at any possible way of tying former provincial Liberal cabinet minister Tom Mulcair to this?
Maybe this will be Rob Anders' next rant!
Corruption, kickbacks, Mafia, etc. doesn't necessarily add up to poor quality of work.
But you're right. No one seems outraged. But didn't we all know about this for ages, just as Zambito says, without perhaps knowing the ugly details?
For example: Do they need a Commission to determine who has controlled the importation of various foodstuffs (think cheese) into Québec for decades? I can save them the time and money.
three city employees suspended as the mayor and his gang try to get ahead of what could cascade very quickly into major reform.
a pretty calm day, by recent standards, except the revenue quebec (backed by the surety) raided a number of the offices belonging to quebec's mafia-backed construction titan, tony accurso.
Oooooohhhh... (/stocking up on popcorn)
Whatever happened with Serge Ménard's accusation that
GuyGilles Vaillancourt (mayor of Laval, whose home is being raided as we speak) offered him cash (cash cash) for his campaign? How do these things just go away quietly??Pass some of your popcorn, please.
ETA: Whoops, thanks for the correction, Bärlüer. I knew his name was Gilles, but I'm suffering from septic popcorn shock!
Gilles.
Possibly, in the Ménard case (and the other similar ones), they determined that the testimonial evidence of Ménard, uncorroborated by other evidentiary elements, wouldn't be sufficient to get a conviction.
The current investigation/search apparently pertains to contracts awarded by the city. Contracts -> eventually, material evidence. Material evidence = likey.
There's something so deeply satisfying about this news... It seems to me that rumours about Vaillancourt's, um, turpitude, have circulated for pretty much my whole life...
BTW, according to the newly updated La Presse story, there are about 70 policemen involved in the operation...
I like the quote about the city employees looking at the operation "with satisfaction"...
Laval City Hall being raided as well with police executing search warrants.
looks like our friend gladu down in longueuil may have been one of those to have exited once the police threat became too great. and into the mêlée steps, this week or next, the man himself, vito rizzuto. with everything going on - not just the charbonneau commission with could lead to a slew of tax evasion charges, but also a slow motion gang war involving dozens of acts of arson targetting his properties, a series of murders (including those of his son, brother-in-law and father) - one wonders is the strongman may not just abscond with his ill-gotten gains.
This has just entered "holy shit" territory: Radio-Canada journalist Alain Gravel just said on the news that according to his sources, the Laval/Vaillancourt investigation/search targets "large-scale corruption" and what is alleged to be massive transfers of money (read: millions) to a country that is probably Switzerland.
Update: here's the text version of what Gravel said that has been added to the news story's page:
well, marois is into the ring now, saying that tremblay should probably go and that the province could put montreal under trusteeship if the commission's findings warrant it - which i take to men something to the effect of - if the ruling administration is so saturated with corruption that they're unable to run the city properly, something i doubt we'll find. though if it did go down that way, it would be pretty amazing.
How about a sextant for measuring angles? Best I could do on short notice.
ETA: Observe the risqué "micrometer screw" above.
Ex-Liberal minister David Whissell denies allegations of illegal fundraising
Quebec cabinet minister given flowers, tickets, corruption probe told
i expect tomassi will pop up there pretty shortly and, if we go by unexplained resignations, i'd guess that line beauchamp's name might also figure at some point as well.
and here's line beauchamp: http://www.lapresse.ca/actualites/dossiers/commission-charbonneau/201210... so her partner at the time, the number 2 at loto-quebec was himself handling envelopes of money, hmm. i'm guessing there's still more - one thing we know about charest and his gang is that sudden resignations - whissell, beauchamp, normandeau, tomassi sort of - occur for things that are pretty bad, not just slap on the wrist stuff. i wonder about courchesne too.
also, 2.5% of contracts went directly to the laval mayor, not a bad slice of the action, all told, but certainly not as lucrative as the metro land sales scam, which will surely come up before everything is said and done. and returning to the montreal level, zambito personally handed over 30 grand in cash to help finance the largest opposition formation's mayoral candidate, benoît labonté.