Montreal municipal councilor Marvin Rotrand made a request Friday for Quebec's Director General of Elections (DGE) to investigate loan guarantees made by Vision Montreal Leader Louise Harel, by 16 of the party's councilors and the party's director general.

The DGE sent citations to Harel, the 16 councilors and the Vision Montreal director general this week concerning illegal loan guarantees in advance of the municipal election in the fall of 2009.

Harel personally guaranteed a $240,000 loan for the Vision Montreal, while the other people included in the citation guaranteed loans of $20,000 apiece. The electoral law forbids loan guarantees above $10,000.

The fines for Harel, the 16 councilors and director general Soraya Martinez are for $500 each, plus $128 in administrative charges and a $10 contribution for a total amount of $638. The citations were sent on March 2.

The 16 councilors cited are:

• Elaine Ayotte (city councilor, Marie-Victorin district, Rosemont-La-Petite-Patrie borough).

• Laurent Blanchard (city councilor, Hochelaga, Mercier-Hochelaga-Maisonneuve).

• Caroline Bourgeois (city councilor, La-Pointe-aux-Prairies, Rivere-des-Prairies-Pointe-aux-Trembles).

• Etienne Brunet (city councilor, Sault-au-Récollet, Ahuntsic-Cartierville).

• François Croteau (borough mayor, RosemontLa-Petite-Patrie).

• Gilles Déziel (borough councilor, Pointe-aux-Trembles, Riviere-des-Prairies-Pointes-aux-Trembles).

• Benoit Dorais (borough mayor, Sud-Ouest borough).

• Véronique Fournier (city councilor, Saint-Henri-La-Petite-Bourgogne-Pointe-Saint-Charles, Sud-Ouest).

• Pierre Lampron (city councilor, Vieux-Rosemont, Rosemont-La-Petite-Patrie).

• Elsie Lefebvre (city councilor, Villeray, Villeray-Saint-Michel-Parc-Extension).

• Réal Ménard (borough mayor, Mercier-Hochelaga-Maisonneuve).

• Gaétan Primeau (city councilor, Tétreaultville, Mercier-Hochelaga-Maisonneuve).

• François Robillard (city councilor, Saint-Jacques, Ville-Marie).

• Hughette Roy (borough councilor, Saint-Paul-émard, Sud-Ouest).

• Anie Samson (borough mayor, Villeray-Saint-Michel-Parc-Extension).

• Lyn Thériault (city councilor, Louis-Riel, Mercier-Hochelaga-Maisonneuve).

When the matter came to light in April, 2010, Harel said the oversight was an honest mistake and that she was not aware of the electoral law limiting the amount of loan guarantees. She said she contacted election officials as soon as she learned backing a loan in that amount was illegal.

"No public funds were used and no private illegal contributions were accepted. (There was no) fraudulent attempt against the law," Harel said at the time.

Rotrand, the majority leader at City Hall for Mayor Gérald Tremblay's Union Montreal party, says he's not buying Harel's story. He says in a news release sent Friday morning that Harel has 30 years of political experience, that she is a former minister of municipal affairs and that it was under her reign in that position that many of these electoral laws were adopted.

Her experience, Rotrand says, should have triggered an instinctive call to a lawyer tro make sure the loan guarantees were legal.

"To hear that she wasn't aware of the law and that she acted in good faith is very difficult to believe," Rotrand said. "The DGE must undergo a thorough investigation of the behavior of Louise Harel and the other members of her party."