Witnesses’ credibility questioned

Antonio Accurso’s lawyer called the credibility of several Crown witnesses into question while making his closing arguments at the Laval courthouse on Thursday.

The construction entrepreneur is alleged to have taken part in a system of collusion involving contracts awarded by the city of Laval.

Marc Labelle reminded the jury that some of those witnesses had to arrange for immunity if something incriminating emerged while they gave evidence against Accurso. He is alleged to have benefitted from a system of collusion organized by former Laval mayor Gilles Vaillancourt between 1996 and 2010.

Labelle cited the testimony of Gaétan Turbide, a former director general for Laval who said he wanted to fire Claude Deguise, the head of engineering for the city and a key player in the collusion scheme. Vaillancourt was reluctant to show him the door, Turbide had said, and all the entrepreneurs involved in the scheme wanted to keep (Deguise) except for Accurso, Labelle said. “Not only did Mr. Accurso want to get rid of the guy who ran the system, his opinion went against all of the others.”

Perhaps the most damaging witness presented by the prosecution was Gilles Théberge. He testified that in 2005, Accurso intervened when Louisbourg Construction (a company owned by Accurso and run by his cousin, Giuseppe Molluso) and Valmont Nadon Excavation (a company Théberge ran) were mistakenly awarded the same $4-million contract by Vaillancourt.