One Former mayor of Laval, Gilles Vaillancourt slapped with gangsterism charges, one bad political party disbanded: all on the same day. The party that won Montreal’s last municipal election , the Union Montreal party, which has won every election in the newly merged post-2001 mega-city was dissolved .
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Finally Quebec’s anti-corruption squad, UPAC, added a new spin on fin-de-régime Thursday by busting the Former mayor of Laval, Gilles Vaillancourt, and the arrests of 36 Laval business people, former civil servants and political supporters. If convicted, on charges of gangsterism and money-laundering. Vaillancourt and others would receive longer prison sentences . The gangsterism charge alone, designed by legislators for biker gangs and mobsters, distinguishes the latest endeavour to sweep up municipal corruption from every other official probe of that sort of wrongdoing over the last century. Suddenly it sounds like the authorities are serious about ending — rather than merely stalling — the work of necktied-conspirators who’ve run amok in Quebec’s municipal world since at least 1905. It is time these and many other municipal government related criminals faced real jail time as well as returned the Money they stole from the taxpayer’s .. and when convicted they should also lose their pensions accrued on the Job.. Much more arrests are still need too. http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Gangsterism+charge+sends+clear+message/8363661/story.html
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The embattled former mayor of Laval, Que., appeared in court this afternoon to face 12 charges, including conspiracy, fraud, influence peddling, breach of trust and gangsterism. Anti-corruption crusader and Coalition Avenir Québec MNA Jacques Duchesneau says this is the first time in Quebec’s history that a politician has faced charges of gangsterism. One of the gangsterism charges Vaillancourt faces carries a maximum sentence of life in prison. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/story/2013/05/09/quebec-laval-mayor-gilles-vaillancourt-arrested.html
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Jacques Duchesneau, the one-time anti-collusion investigator who now is a Coalition Avenir Québec MNA, says some names are missing from the list of 37 people arrested Thursday on charges of gangsterism and fraud. Duchesneau called the arrests, and charges of gangsterism, “a great day for justice in Quebec,” but “a sad day for democracy.” UPAC has been criticized by opposition politicians because big-name arrests were slow in coming.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Some+names+missing+from+list+arrested+Jacques+Duchesneau/8360333/story.html
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Vision Montreal’s Louise Harel is calling for a restitution fund to oblige firms that bilked Montreal taxpayers of roughly $300 million to give some of it back. “Montrealers deserve to recoup the money that was stolen from them.”
http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Corruption+Harel+calls+restitution+fund/8362736/story.html
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so what is the RCMP and the federal government doing about all these vast corruptions even? Nothing again?
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and is this rather a diversion… the Parti Quebecois, suddenly, expresses serious concerns about Quebec corruption inquiry? The Quebec voters are watching, listening and they really now do not like the bad smell coming from the PQ. Premier Pauline Marois and her deputy are essentially now trying to tell a judge to “watch her step” when very damaging real evidence is also now being presented that shows that the PQ party itself is corrupt. So Premier Pauline Marois is basically falsely now saying, be cautious when it comes to testimonies that have anything to do with PQ. Premier Pauline Marois’s comments are POLITICAL interference. Premier Pauline Marois is attempting to steer the course of an judicial investigation. Premier Pauline Marois said NOTHING when Liberal were being attacked at the Charbonneau Commission, but now that the PQ are being attacked, it is a different story. Premier Pauline Marois has shown her bias as to what is being said at the commission. Premier Pauline Marois will interfere when her party is being attacked. This is not right. Premier Pauline Marois was the one who stepped out of line by essentially telling a judge to “watch it”., she here has damaged her reputation and the reputation of the PQ party. ” Typical PQ backtracking.. First they say they won’t interfere and now they are telling the commission how to proceed. Hmmm wonder why?” “The PQ’s were pushing for this inquiry when the Liberals were in power….. Now we have some “dirty laundry’ we want to hide ??? so back off ???? “ https://thenonconformer.wordpress.com/2013/05/03/it-seems-that-politicians-are-out-of-control-and-control-change-is-necessary-to-protect-us-from-these-people/
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Meanwhile A Senate committee report released Thursday recommends that Liberal Senator Mac Harb and Independent Senator Patrick Brazeau repay housing and mileage claims for the past two years, and that their expenses should be monitored for the next year. The report recommends that Harb must repay $51,000 for housing and mileage claims dating from April 2011, and Brazeau must repay $48,000. As well, Harb’s expense claims will be audited for a seven-year period before 2011. The report also noted that Conservative Senator Mike Duffy has already repaid money for housing expenses he submitted based on his claim that his primary residence is in P.E.I. The report explained that Duffy had written to the head of the Senate committee stating he “may have made a mistake” in filling out his expense forms. Duffy’s claims will also be monitored for the next year.. Harb, Brazeau and Duffy claimed tens of thousands of dollars in housing allowance claims in recent years. However, the Deloitte audit also found that Duffy improperly claimed expenses for a Florida trip. “Included in these claims were twelve (12) days of per diems during the period where Senator Duffy appears to be located in Florida, United States, for a total amount of $1,050.60 (12 days at $87.55 per day),” the audit said. In question period Thursday, Opposition Leader Tom Mulcair dismissed the Senate’s response to the issue as a “fraud.” “Even the bogus investigation by his handpicked cronies in the Senate found that Mike Duffy does not maintain a primary residence on Prince Edward Island,” Mulcair said in a question to Prime Minister Stephen Harper. A fourth senator, Pamela Wallin, is also being audited by Deloitte, but the firm has asked for more time to complete its report on her travel expenses between Ottawa and Saskatchewan.
But how many of the bad senators will even face any jail time? http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2013/05/08/pol-senate-audit-housing-expenses-thursday.html
Mike Duffy made secret deal with Harper’s chief of staff during audit Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s chief of staff secretly intervened to help Conservative Sen. Mike Duffy pay back tens of thousands of dollars in improperly claimed expenses while an external audit was still underway, CTV News has learned.Two months before the audit was released, Harper’s top advisor Nigel Wright had a PMO lawyer work on a letter of understanding with Duffy’s legal counsel.Sources told CTV’s Ottawa Bureau Chief Robert Fife that the deal involved Duffy reimbursing taxpayers in return for financial help and a promise from the government to go easy on him. But Liberals accused the Tories of whitewashing Duffy’s expense reports. They also questioned why the audit of Duffy’s expense claims did not mention that the Senate rules were clear about primary residence claims. That was mentioned in Brazeau and Harb’s audits.
Duffy, Liberal Sen. Mac Harb and Independent Sen. Patrick Brazeau were all audited over concerns about their housing allowance claims. Senators can claim an annual housing allowance of up to $22,000 if their primary residence is more than 100 kilometres outside of Ottawa. Harb has claimed as his primary residence a bungalow in Westmeath, Ont., but neighbours told CTV earlier this year that no one seems to live in the house year-round. He was ordered to repay $51,482, including interest, for the period from April 1, 2011 to March 31, 2013. Brazeau claimed his father’s address in Maniwaki, Que., as his primary residence, despite the fact that it is believed he lived in a home in Gatineau, a short drive from Parliament Hill. He must pay back $48,744, including interest. Both Harb and Brazeau have said that they will fight the Senate’s repayment orders.
Read more: http://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/mike-duffy-made-secret-deal-with-harper-s-chief-of-staff-during-audit-1.1282015#
and who says politicians are not dirty?
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