Sleaze, kick-backs, collusion, corruption make for great television and viewers in the province of Quebec are about to get their second installment as a public inquiry resumes today with testimony from union officials. The Charbonneau commission inquiry has so far featured mayors, city officials and engineering executives who have testified painting a picture of corruption involving the awarding of public contracts.
Illegal financing of political parties was apparently rampant as was collusion by engineering firms bidding on contracts. Organized crime was discovered to have had a chilling hold on the construction industry.
“Mr. Three-per cent” was a nickname given to one municipal party fund-raiser who was said to have extracted money from public projects. “Mr. Sidewalk” was the moniker given a construction boss who apparently made veiled threats about uncooperative people being buried under the sidewalks built by his company.
The mayors of Quebec’s two largest cities, Montreal and Laval, have been forced to resign amid all the recent revelations of corruption and citizens are waiting to see what happens next.
Members of Quebec’s powerful construction union are scheduled to testify as the inquiry resumes.
All the headlines might suggest Quebec is more corrupt than other Canadian provinces, but analysts say that’s not the case but rather that Quebec facing the problem head on by holding this public inquiry.
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