Chicago of the North

The problem truly exists. It is even more troubling than we had thought, and organized crime has made itself at home.

"Of course we have to nab the crooks who are bleeding us dry, but we also need continuous action on a system that is constantly rebuilding itself. A public commission of inquiry is the only way to reassure the public and to correct problems that have become structural.

"For a lot of people, colluding, defrauding the government, increasing prices and shoving aside the competition, that's just the way business is done. Trying to prove it is an enormous burden." Jacques Duchesneau

Premier Jean Charest is vocal and confident in denying that there could conceivably be any government collusion in public institutions and big crime, in the Province of Quebec. Yes, it is unfortunate that criminal gangs have infiltrated the construction industry, but what has that to do with government? What it signifies is that crime has got a toehold in the province, and the police should be working harder to diminish their influence.

Government itself is unassailable for its honesty. It has only the welfare of the province, of its people, the taxpayers, at heart. It is nothing but scandalous that anyone could conflate the government with the working of organized crime. Government agencies and the province's elected politicians are beyond suspicion; corruption lies in the imagination of fevered minds prepared to see fault where they will.

There is not, however, complete consensus on this. Speaking before a committee of the National Assembly, former Montreal police chief Jacques Duchesneau, head of Quebec's anti-collusion squad, testified otherwise. The very individual whom Premier Charest had tasked to look into collusion in the highway construction industry has concluded that the very worst-case crime-and-politico-suspicion is justified.

"Organized crime is not simply a problem of public order. It is an economic and social phenomenon that has penetrated all of society, including the procedures in place at the Transport Department. Our investigators have understood well. Organized crime is not simply a parasite but a true state actor. Ultimately it is we, the taxpayer, who end up with the bill." Jacques Duchesneau

The bill spikes the construction industry, giving kick-backs to the election campaigns of provincial politicians, while enriching the coffers of the crooks who have taken administrative possession of the construction and transportation industry in the province. And the violence that occurs from time to time represents another aspect of challenges to law and order. Crime is violent, an affront to civil society, a threat and a palpable danger.

"It's not the little drug trafficker who is now pulling all the strings in organized crime. They are businessmen who try to give themselves a certain nobility in taking up all kinds of causes, and you all, each and every one of you, are inevitably going to see them at your party fundraising activities, whether you want it or not ... They are vultures who are going to try to get close to you, in every party."

Quebec is not yet Mexico.