Summary of year’s work issued in press release
Investigations by Quebec’s beleaguered anti-corruption squad resulted in 48 guilty pleas in the past year for criminal charges, including fraud against the government, conspiracy, municipal corruption and breach of trust.
“I recognize that some of our investigations are long, but our rigorous standards make it possible to obtain convictions, imprisonment, the blocking and seizure of assets and fines that are returned to the government’s coffers,” Unité permanent anticorruption (UPAC) commissioner Robert Lafrenière said in a written statement.
He added that UPAC has recovered $34 million since beginning its work in 2011. That is the same amount that Lafrenière announced in December 2016, indicating it has not recovered any additional sums this year.
UPAC received 780 tips over the past year. It carried out 77 criminal investigations and 24 active penal investigations, the statement said. It has 40 cases before the courts and 14 files have been submitted to provincial prosecutors.
Fourteen people and one company were charged with Criminal Code violations, of whom eight were accused in connection with municipal contracts and illegal political financing in Montreal.
There were 29 people or companies charged with infringing provincial construction laws, resulting in fines totalling $460,000.
Seven convictions for tax fraud resulted in fines totalling $440,000, while investigators laid 15 accusations of tax evasion.
Controversy has whirled around the anti-corruption unit since the arrest of Liberal MNA Guy Ouellette in October.
On Wednesday, UPAC announced that Lafrenière would not be holding his usual end-ofyear briefing for reporters on the unit’s activities. Instead, he issued a press release, embargoed until midnight, summarizing the results of its investigations over the past year. (Lafrenière did not speak with reporters Wednesday but did meet with the editorial boards of three French-language newspapers. UPAC spokesman Anne-Frederick Laurence said she did not think of including the editorial board of the Montreal Gazette.)
Lafrenière’s release did not address questions about the arrest of Ouellette, who has not been charged with an offence and was readmitted to the Liberal caucus on Nov. 21.
No charges have been laid against Ouellette, a former police officer who was apprehended in a sting operation.
UPAC has said it is investigating the leak of sensitive information to the Journal de Montréal about a long-running probe into political financing.
The anti-corruption unit is not the only Quebec police force to make headlines in recent months.
Last week, Quebec Public Security Minister Martin Coiteux suspended Montreal police chief Philippe Pichet following a damning report on the internal affairs squad, which investigates wrongdoing within the department.