‘I BLEW A GASKET — OK, THAT’S IT’
Mayor Denis Coderre says he was angry when he called the city’s police chief about a journalist, but tells an inquiry that’s not why police started spying on journalists.
Despite admitting he “blew a gasket” when he learned a reporter obtained a copy of a traffic ticket he received, Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre insists his reaction was not what touched off a police investigation into the affair.
The mayor told the Chamberland Commission on Monday that he lost his temper and called then-Montreal police chief Marc Parent after learning that La Presse reporter Patrick Lagacé had received a copy of a $300 ticket he received in 2012 (before he was elected mayor). He said he sensed it was part of a series of leaks intended to distract or discredit him while the city was involved in contract negotiations that were not going well.
“I was furious,” Coderre said in reference to what he called “the third event,” when, in December 2014, Lagacé obtained a copy of the traffic ticket and asked Coderre’s press attaché if the mayor had paid it.
“It had reached a crescendo,” Coderre said, adding that he came to the conclusion that — over a sixmonth period — police officers had fed information to reporters. Coderre said he felt that Lagacé obtaining the ticket was “part of a pattern.” The pattern included, Coderre said, the incident in August 2014 when several firefighters stormed into city hall and disrupted a meeting. Montreal police officers turned a blind eye to what happened that evening, Coderre reminded the commission on Monday.
The pattern began, Coderre said, in July 2014, some media published reports saying he had received a police escort to a Corey Hart concert.
“That wasn’t true,” Coderre said, while also noting information about a ticket he received in September 2014, in Laval (the second event), became news a few weeks before Lagacé emailed his press attaché inquiring about the ticket he received in 2012.
Coderre said he called Parent because he was fed up. The call lasted “between two to three minutes and then I hung up,” the mayor said.
“I asked if it was legal (for someone to have sent Lagacé a copy of the ticket), is it normal. I said that I wasn’t happy.”
François Fontaine, a lawyer who represents Quebecor and Le Devoir at the commission, asked Coderre if he agreed that his call to Parent is what touched off the internal affairs investigation into how the ticket was leaked. Coderre replied that “there was no cause and effect” between his call and the investigation.
“Anything else is confabulation,” Coderre said.
Outside the hearing room, Coderre told reporters he does not regret having called Parent with a personal question, even though it was clearly one reason why the Chamberland Commission was assembled. It is an inquiry into how police forces in Quebec have spied on reporters in recent years. But part of its mandate is to determine if political influence was behind some of the investigations.
“Honestly, I don’t have a problem with exchanging information and to talk to someone in all confidence. And I have complete confidence in my chief of police. Anyway both (Parent and current chief Philippe Pichet) have told (the commission) there was no interference,” Coderre told reporters while adding later he doesn’t believe that Parent felt obliged to order an investigation after the phone call.
“I blew a gasket — OK, that’s it. But you have to look at the context of all the events after July 2014,” said Coderre, referring to the leak about whether he was escorted to the Corey Hart concert.
Projet Montréal councillor Alex Norris said Coderre’s testimony was proof he “does not seem to understand the principal of the separation of powers.”
“There is no one who has more influence on the nomination of a police chief than the mayor of Montreal. So when the mayor of Montreal calls the chief of police in anger, when he insists, when he uses an aggressive tone, the message is clear. It is an authoritarian message,” Norris said.
“We have seen a mayor who was on a power trip who was called to order today. (The call to Parent) was completely inappropriate. We clearly see that Mayor Coderre sees (the position of ) police chief as a subordinate to the service of his personal needs. ”
Coderre’s press attaché, Catherine Maurice, testified before the Chamberland Commission as well on Monday. She used the words like annoyed and aggressive while describing Coderre’s mood after he learned the reporter had obtained a copy of the ticket. In his emailed request, Lagacé said he had sources who claimed Coderre never paid the ticket, which was by then two years old. It turned out that the ticket had been paid, but that status was not available to everyone who had access to the police database the information was recorded in.
Coderre received the ticket on March 20, 2012, while he was driving at the intersection of LaSalle Blvd. and Desmarchais Ave. in Montreal. Something had drawn a police officer’s attention to Coderre’s vehicle and when she ran his plates in a database she noticed payment for his registration was overdue by less than a month.
Lt.-Det. Normand Borduas, a Montreal police internal affairs investigator, was assigned to find out who leaked a copy of the ticket to Lagacé. Borduas testified, weeks ago, that it appeared the Montreal Police Brotherhood was behind the leak, but he was unable to uncover evidence of a crime.
A report on Borduas’s investigation reveals how news of the ticket made the rounds among Montreal police officers. Borduas interviewed the Montreal officer who issued the ticket and she described to him how her account of what happened spread through the station she worked out of. At the time the ticket was issued, Coderre had yet to announce his intention to run for mayor and was still a member of Parliament for the Bourassa riding in Montreal North.
“Mr. Coderre mentioned to her that he would be her future boss while she was issuing the ticket, but she did not know who Coderre was at that moment. He was still not the mayor of Montreal,” Borduas wrote in his summary of the interview.
He also noted that the police officer told her boss about the incident afterward and that it quickly spread through the station.