Seeking to get to the bottom of what an illegal scheme that allegedly existed for decades, Justice France Charbonneau heard from Laval city councillors on Monday.
The Charbonneau Commission revealed that all the Laval city councillors participated in illegal financing, but the councillors refused to speak, let alone acknowledge questions from taxpayers last week.
But at the commission, however, there was no way out.
Former Liberal MNA Benoit Fradet has been a Laval councillor since 1997, and admitted to changing dirty cash for cheques. The admission came only after repeated questioning, however.
“I was never given the option of saying no,” he said.
Fradet still sits on Laval's council, which is now supervised by a government-appointed trustee until the election in November.
Chomedey councillor Basile Angelopoulos admitted he wrote cheques to the PRO des Lavalloisparty in exchange for cash, but said he did it for citizens of his district, whom he described as immigrants uncomfortable with having to write cheques.
“My compatriots wanted to help the party, but they didn't want to write cheques and be identified with the party,” he said.
It's still illegal, but Angelopoulos said he didn't know that back then, much to Charbonneau's disbelief.
“You're a lawyer. It's not like you can tell us; that you didn't know it was illegal,” she told him.
“Well, factually, your honour, it is the case,” he said.
Former councillor Richard Goyer not only admitted to the scheme, he said the cash exchange took place inside city hall.
“We'd meet at city council; Bertrand would come to city hall. He gave me the money, and we didn't have to talk,” he said.
Goyer went well beyond contributing to the party to which he belonged, clearly carrying out illegal activities during election campaigns in Laval.
Goyer said paying volunteers out of hidden slush funds was commonplace, leaving the door open to the question: Just how corrupt was the political system in Laval?
