Incorrigibly Corrupt Quebec

"The other day I said, 'I'm really sorry I made a mistake. It's not 70% that's dirty money; it's 90%. People were not ready to hear the truth. It took many of the bad guys who came forward and decided to give the explanation.
"When you're the accuser, you're just by yourself.
"These big guys, because they wear a tie and they are presidents of companies, they think they can get away with it, but that's not my idea of justice. What's the difference between you being a CE of a company stealing money from all citizens, when we need that money to build hospitals and things like that, and the other guy who commits an armed robbery? The means are different, but you're still stealing my money."
Jacques Duchesneau, Justice critic, Coalition Avenir Quebec

"Montreal is associated with Canada. It will do reputational damage to the whole country.
"The thing with Quebec is that it just seems to keep going. It doesn't stop. As it's going, we're getting a very clear image. Municipal politics in Montreal appear to be corrupted to the very core."
Robert Hanlon, University of British Columbia's Institute of Asian Research

Mr. Hanlon is associated with the Anti-Corruption Research Network, which is the academic branch of Transparency International. His international contacts are now querying him: "What is happening in Canada?" He has been requested by the Berlin headquarters of Transparency International to prepare a report on the situation in Quebec. To enable them to have up-to-date information on corruption in Canada for their global ranking of countries' perceived corruption levels.

Canada currently is recognized as one of the least corrupt countries on their global index. "Our trajectory is in decline", said Mr. Hanlon. "There is a deep culture of corruption in Montreal, and possibly beyond, and until that culture is smashed, which could take years and years, it's going to be very hard to gain back investors' confidence.

"When we have examples from other parts of the world where corruption has been publicly known and has been a political issue for decades, we know very well that companies avoid going into those markets. Companies will spend a lot of time, hire specific law firms to carry out extensive due diligence on their local partners. So there's a major cost associated with business going into an environment that they presume to be corrupt."

As for Mr. Duchesneau, a former police chief who ran for mayor of Montreal in 1998 and who lost that election, he thinks of how his statements were simply not believed when he spoke of endemic corruption in Montreal. But even he didn't know the depth and the breadth of it.  The true test, he says, will arrive in November with the election of a new mayor in Montreal. The city's interim mayor faces 14 charges of corruption.

He replaced Gerald Tremblay whose level of corruption was revealed by much of the candid testimony in the Charbonneau Commission hearings now on hold until September. During the 2009 election, when it was well known that Gerald Tremblay was involved in corrupt practices at City Hall, voter turnout stood at 35%. "We'll know in November" said Mr. Duchesneau. "If people do not come forward and mark their ballots, then there's something wrong with democracy.

"That's the scary thing."