CITY HALL UNDER SIEGE
Ex-staffer tells inquiry Tremblay probably knew about illegal financing
FOR WEEKS, city hall has been under a cloud of suspicion as complex bid-rigging systems, kickback schemes and illegal political financing are outlined in detail in testimony at the Charbonneau Commission. And while Montreal Mayor Gérald Tremblay has sought to keep his distance from the persistent allegations, Linda Gyulai reports he could not stop the testimony of a former Union Montreal organizer from overshadowing what could have been his legacy budget.
For the first time since the Charbonneau Commission began its hearings in June, the mayor of Montreal has been named personally in testimony related to illegal political party financing.
During his second day on the stand, Martin Dumont — he was a fixture in the offices of the mayor’s party, Union Montreal, as a political organizer between 2004 and 2006 — testified that Gérald Tremblay did everything possible to distance himself from the uncomfortable reality but probably knew dirty money was paying some of his party’s bills and fuelling its campaigns.
Asked how he knew this for certain, Dumont told Justice France Charbonneau that he sat in on a meeting with Tremblay and Union Montreal’s then official agent, Marc Deschamps, two weeks before a municipal byelection in December 2004.
Dumont said he had witnessed cash being used to pay employees staffing the phone lines, and several incidents in the previous few months had made him suspicious about where the party was actually getting its money.
Deschamps listened to Dumont’s concerns, the witness said, then pulled out two sheets of paper and told him that one was the official budget for the byelection campaign, which Elections Quebec had capped at $46,000, and the other was the unofficial budget, which stood at $90,000 with two weeks left in the race.
At that point, Dumont claimed, Tremblay stood up and left the room, saying: “I don’t need to know this.”
“I wanted to call the police, but who would believe me?” Dumont said when asked why he didn’t report the incident to the authorities. “I would be attacking the administration of the mayor, the executive committee ... the system was so big.
“I should have confronted Mr. (Bernard) Trépanier,” the party’s financing chief, “and Mr. Tremblay. I didn’t do that. In hindsight, that is my greatest regret.”
Speaking to reporters at city hall as Dumont’s testimony unfolded, Tremblay denied the allegations and tried to shift focus back to the 2013 city budget, tabled Tuesday morning.
The alleged meeting with Tremblay and Deschamps would be the last straw for Dumont. He said that over the 12 months leading up to that day, he had several experiences within the party that “stunned” him.
One such incident, he alleged, occurred at a fundraiser in November 2004, organized by Trépanier to raise money for the party in the Mercier-Hochelaga-Maisonneuve borough. Dumont said the tickets were priced at $500, and he was tasked with standing by the door and greeting guests.
At one point, he claimed, he was approached by the head of Mivela Construction, Nicolo Milioto — pre- viously named at the commission as the alleged middleman between the Rizzuto crime family and Montreal’s construction bosses.
“(Milioto) said to me, ‘Come on, let’s go take a piss,’ ” Dumont testified. The two men went to the bathroom and, as they stood in front of the urinals, Milioto handed Dumont
“I would be attacking the administration of the mayor, the executive committee.”
an envelope, Dumont alleged.
“He told me it was $10,000 cash for Mr. Trépanier.”
Dumont said he dutifully handed the envelope, without opening it, to Trépanier and told him what had happened. Trépanier, he said, seemed unfazed. Over the course of the evening, Dumont claimed, he was approached by two other construction bosses who wanted to take a similar “bathroom break.” He refused to go with them.
By the end of the evening, according to Dumont, Trépanier had collected so many envelopes that he was having trouble fastening his coat.
A few days later, Dumont said, Trépanier called his cellphone and asked Dumont to drive to Laval to pick up $50,000 from former construction magnate Tony Accurso, money Trépanier told him represented the proceeds from “the cocktail fundraiser” for Tremblay. Dumont expressed reservations, he told the commissioners, and eventually Trépanier went himself.
After his meeting with Deschamps and Tremblay a month later, Dumont said he took a vacation to “reflect” on his future with Union Montreal. Ultimately, he did return to work for the party in 2005, just as city hall plunged into a municipal election campaign. During that campaign, Dumont said, his discomfort only increased. At one point, he said, he was approached by a student who had been hired as a receptionist at the party’s headquarters. The woman, he alleged, told him she had been asked to count $850,000 in cash for Trépanier, and that she was upset by it.
“I told (Trépanier) that if he wanted an accurate count of money, he should get a machine,” Dumont said. Trépanier did just that, Dumont added, and the “distinct” sound of the machine could be heard a few times a week through the walls of his office.
In 2007, Dumont ended up working in the borough office in Rivièredes-Prairies–Pointe-aux-Trembles. There, he said, he had perhaps his most chilling encounter with a local construction entrepreneur.
Dumont said he had called city hall to ask questions about an upcoming roadwork contract in the borough, which had been awarded to Mivela Construction, Milioto’s company. The price seemed too high, Dumont testified, and he was told that city officials “would get back to me.” They never did. Instead, he said, he got a visit from Milioto that same day.
“He told me two things,” Dumont testified. “First he said, ‘You know, Martin, my sidewalk foundations are very thick and deep’ … (then) he said, ‘You don’t want to end up in my sidewalk foundations.’ ”
Dumont would leave Union Montreal within the year.
Dumont was also asked on Tuesday to name any representatives from engineering firms he had seen entering or leaving Trépanier’s office during his time with Union Montreal. The former staffer, who sat a few metres from that office, testified he witnessed Yves Cadotte of SNC Lavalin, Charles Meunier of BPR-Triax, Michel Lalonde of Groupe Séguin, Jean-Pierre Sauriol of Dessau and Bernard Poulin of SM. Group International Inc., among others, enter the office to meet with Trépanier. He had no idea what the men discussed, he said, and never asked anyone about the visitors.