A massive four-year public inquiry into corruption and collusion in Quebec’s construction industry has finally come to an end.
The Charbonneau Commission released its findings in a 1,700-page report on Tuesday morning in Montreal, with inquiry chair Justice France Charbonneau saying that even she was stunned by the depth and breadth of the corruption she uncovered.
“This inquiry confirmed that there was a real problem in Quebec, and it was broader and more deeply rooted than we thought,” the judge said.
The commissioners have submitted 60 “concrete” recommendations to the provincial Liberal government. Among them are calls to create a new law to protect whistleblowers in the province, to form a new body to oversee public contracts, and to place new restrictions on where and when politicians can talk about upcoming construction projects. Many of the changes require only a few tweaks to existing laws or standards. Others will translate into a lot more effort on the part of the province.
In the report’s conclusion, however, Charbonneau writes that “the commission considers it essential that all of the actions it proposes be implemented.”
According to Charbonneau, that is really only the first step, and the government must remain vigilant in the years to come.
“Journalists must continue their important work as watchdogs of democracy,” she added.
The Charbonneau Commission, which had the power to subpoena witnesses but not to arrest anyone or to lay charges, heard from nearly 200 witnesses during public hearings that stretched from May 2012 until November 2014.
Click here to see the full report (In French)
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The inquiry’s mandate was exceptionally broad, covering the infiltration of organized crime in the construction industry, the financing of political parties in the province and how that relates to the same industry, and the strategies used to infiltrate and take advantage of the system for awarding public construction and engineering contracts in Quebec.
During the hearings, the commissioners were treated to videotapes of alleged Mafiosos stuffing their socks with cash, tearful admissions of personal guilt from former public servants and defiant denials from construction bosses, politicians and high-ranking union bosses.
Monday’s final report was dedicated to Roderick A. Macdonald, a McGill University professor and the inquiry’s third commissioner, who died of throat cancer in 2014.
Some of the recommendations
- Create better mechanisms for assisting and protecting whistleblowers in the province
- Create a new authority to oversee the administration of public contracts
- Introduce a law similar to the False Claims Act in New York State. That act allows the state’s attorney general, local governments or any individual to file a lawsuit against any person or company that defrauds the government.
- Begin consulting with Quebecers about the possibility of imposing term limits for mayors in the province. The mayor of Laval, Gilles Vaillancourt, was allegedly at the heart of the collusion in that city and was mayor for more than two decades. He is now facing criminal charges including a charge of gangsterism.
- Modify existing laws, rules and ethics codes to make it clear that public servants and politicians (plus their staff) are forbidden from accepting any gift – no matter how big or small – from anyone doing business with the state.
- Forbid ministers and all members of their staff from soliciting political donations from anyone who benefits financially from contracts linked to that ministry.
- Abolish the offices of the provincial Ethics Commissioner and Lobbying Commissioner, and fuse them into one. Allow the National Assembly to appoint, by a majority vote of at least two-thirds, a single commissioner with a seven-year term.
- Forbid politicians from announcing new contracts, subsidies or projects during political fundraising events
- Require that provincial political parties record the name of a donor’s employer when accepting a donation (municipal parties are already doing this).
- Require that each financial report submitted by a political party to Elections Quebec be signed by the current party leader, as well as the head of the party organization and the party’s official representative to Elections Quebec.
- Require that any government body awarding public contracts report any known incidents of violence or intimidation on construction sites to the province’s construction commission.
A difference of opinion
In one section of the voluminous report, Charbonneau’s co-commissioner, Renaud Lachance, officially states that he disagrees with a conclusion reached by the judge. Specifically, Lachance says, he does not believe that there was a direct link between political contributions made by companies in the construction industry and the subsequent awarding of contracts to those companies. One did not necessarily directly lead to the other, Lachance seems to conclude, while Charbonneau writes that “it is possible to conclude” that a direct link did exist.
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