MONTREAL - The Solidarity Fund QFL kicked off its attempt to keep the contents of certain recorded conversations out of the Charbonneau Commission, as it started making its case for the ban at a Superior Court hearing Friday.
Lawyer Jean-Claude Hébert argued that the law does not allow the use of wiretap evidence in civil matters and disputed the contention that the commission would have to shut down if it were to await for a court decision on the eligibility of the tapes.
Hébert argued that the commission could hear other witnesses until the court rules on the issue.
He also argued that the commission already knows the contents of the tapes and could proceed down avenues opened by that knowledge without actually making the tapes public.
The tapes, he contended, could cause irreparable harm his clients and if the Supreme Court were to subsequently deem them ineligible after they were already made public, his clients would have no legal recourse to seek compensation.
Judge Geneviève Marcotte raised the possibility of a publication ban on the evidence but Hébert said that such measures are unreliable.
The legal initiative was launched by the Solidarity Fund QFL, Michel Arsenault, who serves as president of the FTQ and president of the board of the Solidarity Fund and Guy Gionet who is former president of SOLIM, the real estate arm of the Fund
The tapes were made as part of a police investigation. No criminal charges were laid as a result of the recordings.
