Projet Montreal says there is a crisis of leadership in the Cote des Neiges-Notre Dame de Grace borough following last week's arrest and arraignment of former borough mayor Michael Applebaum.
Applebaum is charged with 14 criminal counts related to real estate deals that took place between 2006 and 2011, a time when Applebaum was the borough mayor and the head of the zoning committee.
At Tuesday's council meeting Projet Montreal Councillor Peter McQueen, who represents the eastern part of NDG, said the borough needs stricter conflict of interest protocols.
"Mr. Applebaum was mayor of the borough, president of the zoning committee and an active real estate agent right up to 2008. This is unacceptable," said McQueen.
Michael Simkin, who is running for borough mayorship under the Projet Montreal banner, speculates that Applebaum's arrest is just the tip of the iceberg.
"There has definitely been some light shed on a few of the files that have been handled in the borough but it seems to me like there is probably a systemic problem," said Simkin.
Meanwhile NDG councillor Susan Clarke says some of the actions of the province's anti-corruption squad should be re-examined. She is calling for a coroner's investigation into the suicide of Robert Rousseau, a bureaucrat who took his own life after being questioned by UPAC.
"I know now of at least 5 or 6 people whose doors have been knocked on at about 5:30 or 6 in the morning," said Clarke. "They've been taken off for questioning and they're told well you could have a lawyer but we really aren't going to be charging you with anything so why do you need a lawyer and then they question them for 10 hours at a time. To me that's not the way things should be done in a democracy."
That statement prompted Christian Arsenault, who will be running against Clarke this November, to demand a written apology.
The intensity of the debate in CDN-NDG is expected to increase over the next few months as more candidates announce their intention to run in the municipal elections this autumn.
