Coderre says firefighters ‘ stained house of democracy’

Megatrial slated for 65 workers accused of ransacking city hall

Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre said Friday he could not comment on the decision to hold a megatrial for the 65 firefighters and blue collar workers charged for taking part in a protest at city hall, because the legal world and the political are two separate jurisdictions. But he reiterated he had long warned there would be consequences for the events of that day.

“They ransacked city hall,” Coderre said. “They stained the house of democracy of the citizens of Montreal. And we will not let that go. Afterwards we collected proof, and the prosecutors’ office said we will have a trial. We will let that kind of thing happen. But we must not downplay the events that happened here on Aug. 18, 2014.”

Hundreds of municipal workers, mainly firefighters, broke past security and rampaged through city hall on that day during a council meeting, tossing papers and post- ing stickers to protest legislated changes to their pension plans. Some tried to break into the mayor’s office.

Afterwards, 54 firefighters and 11 blue collar workers were charged with mischief and illegal assembly. Six firefighters were fired by the city and 57 municipal workers suspended without pay.

Those charged will be tried at a megatrial to be held at the Gouin Courthouse, normally home to trials for members of organized crime, the Journal de Montréal reported Friday.

The trial will only take place in April 2018 and is expected to last three months, with 78 witnesses and dozens of videos to be presented. Lawyers for the defence said a megatrial was a questionable forum given the relatively minor gravity of the crimes.

Coderre made the comments following a meeting with Martin Coiteux, who was anointed Quebec minister responsible for the Montreal region, security and municipal affairs in the Liberal government’s late January cabinet shuffle. The two discussed the ongoing negotiations regarding Montreal’s metropolitan status that is slated to be hammered out by the end of the year, major events planned for 2016 and Montreal’s 375th birthday celebrations in 2017, improving the template for labour negotiations with public sector workers and how to trim red tape and bureaucracy from the system.

On the topic of public security, Coderre denied recent reports police managers were given bonuses based solely on how many tickets their officers handed out. He said performance bonuses were based on improving overall efficiency in multiple fields, including health and security, absenteeism and conflict resolution, and the system was agreed to by 90 per cent of police managers.