A lawyer for Union Montreal had first crack Wednesday at cross-examining Martin Dumont, the man who said Montreal Mayor Gerald Tremblay was well aware of illegal fundraising.

Dumont, who used to work for the mayor's office as a campaign organizer, was quick to defend what he said on Tuesday concerning budgets, lawful and unlawful, for a byelection campaign in St. Laurent in 2004.

Lawyer Michel Dorval asked Dumont questions about the amount of money that was allowed to be spent, who was allowed to vote, and what Dumont's responsibilities were as a campaign organizer.

But after explaining minutia about fundraising breakfasts with $10,000 entry fees, and whether cheques were made out to the correct account, the questioning took what the Charbonneau commission judges and lawyers denounced as a sordid turn.

Dorval raised questions about a shoplifting incident from 1999 when Dumont worked at a grocery store.

Dumont received an absolute discharge after pleading guilty.

The Union Montreal lawyer then pressed Dumont on allegations that he had looked at pornography while on the job as a youth advisor to City Hall.

Dumont admitted that he had been caught looking at naughty pictures online, but said he had gone straight to his boss and offered to resign. That resignation offer was refused, and instead Dumont ended up working for the mayor's political party, Union Montreal. The new job came with a $15,000 raise in salary.

On Tuesday, Dumont explained how he became concerned about the campaign when he noticed expenses were getting very high. He said that when he asked his superiors about this he was shown two budgets -- one official and one showing what was actually spent -- while Mayor Gerald Tremblay was in the room.

 

Following Dumont's testimony and cross-examination, city engineer Luc Leclerc took the stand.

Leclerc has been mentioned by two prior witnesses, Lino Zambito and Gilles Surprenant as someone who took bribes.

Leclerc was fairly quick to admit that he began taking bribes, with the first being a contractor gave him $150 meal.

"My first contact with corruption dates back to 1995, when Mr Surprenant talked about our golfing trip with Rizzuto," said Leclerc.

He said a year later he received $1,000 from Tony Conte in a card.

Stephane Giroux is reporting live on Twitter.