LAVAL -- Ex-mayor of Laval Gilles Vaillancourt appeared in in court Tuesday alongside 36 other co-accused suspects, set to face a slew of corruption-related charges.
Quebec’s permanent anti-corruption squad UPAC arrested Vaillancourt, construction magnate Tony Accurso and 35 other men on May 9, accused of being onvolving in a corruption scheme.
Vaillancourt has stepped down the previous fall from his post after 23 years as mayor amid a cloud of controversy about his involvement with a scheme.
The preliminary hearing has been set for June 30, 2014, for the 37 facing corruption charges in Laval. Judge Gilles Garneau was unyielding in his decision to set June 30 to Aug. 29 as the dates for the preliminary inquiry, despite the lawyers’ many protests about their workload and interrupted summer vacations.
Garneau was insistent that all suspects be present, and that proceedings move quickly and efficiently.
“For now they are all together and it's too soon to talk about a trial, because we are now at the preliminary inquiry step,” said Jean-Pascal Boucher of the Crown prosecutor’s office.
The former mayor is charged with 12 crimes which include conspiracy, corruption, and fraud.
Vaillancourt and two others are charged with gangsterism and running an extensive kickback scheme, while the other 34 men are being accused of having various degrees of involvement.
Vaillancourt's stint as Laval's mayor lasted from 1989 to 2012, where he served under the P.R.O. banner.
While he still held office as mayor, Laval's city council established a $500,000 legal fee budget, intended to be used for all of the city's elected officials that were summoned to the construction inquiry.
In August, following a request for input on behalf of trustees responsible for Laval's spending, Quebec's Municipal Commission decided that the city of Laval would not be footing the bill for the ex-mayor’s and others legal fees as they stand before the Charbonneau Commission.
Former Dessau Engineering executive Rosaire Sauriol, who testified at the Charbonneau Commission about taking part in illegal political financing schemes, is also among the accused.
Garneau said he won't tolerate any stall tactics from the defence. To get the process underway, the judge took the unusual step of ordering all the lawyers to another room to meet immediately behind closed doors.
“There was an ex parte meeting outside. I was not at this meeting, (but it was) with the courts, with defence lawyers and prosecutors and they talk about the future of the case - but to fix court dates, not to talk about the evidence,” said Boucher.
The defence lawyers will next meet on Dec. 19 for a disclosure session. They have still not yet heard the recordings from any of the 30,000 wiretaps police collected during the three-year investigation.
