Justice France Charbonneau is not mincing words, asking a witness point blank at the anti-corruption commission that bears her name if he was "an imbecile and incompetent" and if he was willing to lie under oath just to damage someone's reputation.
The testimony of Robert Marcil, the former director of public works at the city of Montreal, ended abruptly Wednesday, after Charbonneau decided she'd had enough with his answers.
The former civil servant continued to deny he was ever involved in collusion to hand out contracts, even after commissioners presenting evidence that he was giving insider information to contractors.
Marcil wouldn't acknowledge any of the evidence, claiming he was sacrificed by former Mayor Gerald Tremblay for political reasons.
Overwhelming evidence
Throughout his days of testimony Robert Marcil delivered vague answers to direct questions, and often tried to deny he had any close contacts with contractors, but the proof was in the phone records, bills, memos and other evidence.
The commission showed text messages and telephone calls that Marcil made using his city-provided phone.
Those records showed Marcil, who was not supposed to have direct contact with companies making bids for contracts, made hundreds of calls to company owners.
Marcil, who was supposed to supervise the department and had been hired in part to enforce a new code of ethics, received plenty of bottles of wine, free meals, and an all-expenses paid trip to Italy.
Marcil said all of those gifts were standard business practices.
"These are all contractors who do business with the city," said Marcil, at which point Charbonneau harshly criticized the former manager.
"You're a high-ranking civil servant. You have a head on your shoulders. You don't need a written document to know it's wrong!" hurled Charbonneau.
Marcil then agreed he had made errors in judgment, but continued to deny knowledge of any wrongdoing in his department -- until the commission also presented documents showing that Marcil passed insider information to construction company owner Giuseppe Borsellino.
Charbonneau doesn’t buy it
On Wednesday Marcil continued to deny everything, including micro-managing his department and influencing the committees that selected between competing companies, at which point Charbonneau denounced his 'see no evil' act.
"Are you admitting you're an imbecile and incompetent?" demanded Charbonneau.
“Well, listen, I don't think I'm an imbecile and I don't think I'm an incompetent. I'm not perfect, that we can agree on," replied Marcil.
Last month engineer Michel Lalonde explained that Marcil was directly responsible for choosing the membership of the selection committees, and said that because he knew who was on them, he was able to bribe their members to win contracts.
Marcil suggested that Lalonde was making the whole thing up, that Lalonde was angry because Marcil had turned down a job offer.
Marcil then said he might lie to the commission out of vengeance, then backtracked -- but not quickly enough to avoid Charbonneau's pounce.
"You were ready to lie to the commission just to harm someone's reputation. Is that what you said?" demanded France Charbonneau.
"Because I say nothing is impossible. I cannot put myself in Mr. Lalonde's shoes. I cannot place myself in that context," replied Marcil.
"No, no, no," retorted Charbonneau. "You just said you were prepared to lie to the commission to exact revenge."
Went to wedding of Mr. Sidewalk's daughter
Before lunch, the commission heard Marcil sat on the committee that hired Caterina Milioto, daughter of 'Mr. Sidewalk' Nicolo Milioto.
Marcil also went to Caterina Milioto's wedding, and said he sympathized with her inability to get a permanent, full-time job in the municipal department responsible for overseeing construction firms -- such as the firm run by her father.
Marcil and Caterina Milioto now work together at Groupe SM.
Straight questions could lead to perjury charges
Marcil was asked why he decided to reject the use of PVC pipes at the city of Montreal, after the manufacturer allegedly refused to pay a bribe.
“We came to the conclusion that the market would decide which product is best,” he said.
The commission didn't buy it, however. Prosecutor Denis Gallant decided to go with a direct question, instead.
“Did you participate in a system of collusion between; engineering firms to share city contracts with the help of Bernard Trepanier and Michel Lalonde?” he said Marcil.
Marcil first said, “No, I did not,” but finally admitted to breaking many rules in the Code of Conduct from the Order of Engineers.
But by then, Charbonneau had had enough.
“Mr. Gallant, how about we move on to another witness?” she said.
To which he replied: “Yes, absolutely.”
Marcil could technically face perjury charges due the many contradictions in his testimony, but for the time being it should be up to the Order of Engineers to discipline Marcil.
