Police probe $25,000 cheque Coderre accepted while MP
Montreal mayor didn’t view funds as a ‘donation’
MONTREAL • Opposition party Projet Montréal is calling on Mayor Denis Coderre to hand over all documentation relating to a $25,000 cheque he received from a businessman and former Liberal party fundraiser while he was serving as a member of Parliament in 2012.
Coderre confirmed Monday the cheque was given to him by Laval businessman Jean Rizzuto (no connection to Montreal members of the mafia of the same name). But Coderre said because it was given by a longtime friend to help cover the costs of his private legal battles with a former National Hockey League player over alleged anti-French slurs, he felt the money constituted a “contribution” to his battle to protect the French language.
Which is why, he said, he never declared it as a donation, as was required under the conflict of interest code of the House of Commons at the time for any gift over $500.
“In my mind, it was a contribution over a personal matter, so it didn’t have to be declared,” Coderre said. “It was from a friend who believed the cause was just, and it’s a private matter, the House of Commons was not paying my legal fees.”
He said Monday that perhaps he should have declared it at the time.
Projet Montréal leader Valérie Plante said it was hard to believe someone who has been a politician for as long as Coderre — he was first elected to the House in 1997 — did not know a politician could not receive a contribution without declaring it.
“You need to declare it, that’s the law,” Plante said.
The Journal de Montréal reported Monday that Quebec’s anti-corruption squad UPAC and the RCMP are looking into the cheque. However, UPAC spokesperson Anne Frédérick Laurence told the Montreal Gazette the squad was not in fact investigating the matter. It had merely transferred the file to the RCMP.
Coderre and Rizzuto initially denied to reporters that a cheque was given, until reporters showed they had copies, the Journal reported.
Coderre said Monday he was suffering from an inflamed prostate and was on medication when reporters initially spoke to him, and couldn’t remember what was asked.
Rizzuto was helping Coderre pay for legal fees in his lawsuits with Shane Doan, Coderre said. Coderre had accused Doan of uttering anti-French slurs during a hockey game in Montreal in 2005, and tried to have him banned from Canada’s Olympics team. Doan was cleared by the NHL and sued Coderre for $250,000. Coderre countersued. The lawsuits were settled out of court in 2010.