Former Montreal executive committee president’s corruption trial kicks off

Five people faced justice 20 years after a corruption scandal shook Montreal city officials.

Twenty years after Montreal city officials and engineering officials allegedly put together a scheme to exchange city contracts for political contracts, five people faced justice Monday morning.

They include the city’s former executive committee president Frank Zampino, the city’s head of infrastructures Robert Marcil, and three former heads of local engineering firms: Normand Brousseau, Bernard Poulin and Kazimierz Olechnowicz, who laughed on his way to the court room.

“I’m just hoping that justice will be served,” said Oloechnowicz

Noticeably absent was Frank Zampino, who was allowed to follow the trial from home because he recently underwent surgery. He attended the trial via video conference, as did co-accused Bernard Poulin, who now lives in Dubai and claims he can’t travel because of a leg injury.

The prosecutor described Zampino as the boss of a scheme where engineering firms first had to pay between $50,000 and $200,000 to earn the right to bid on contracts between 2004 and 2009.

The crown also alleges these firms would take turns in winning bids through a system of arranged calls for tender. The firms would then pay 3 per cent of their contract value to the campaign coffers of Union Montreal, the political party of then-mayor Gerald Tremblay.

Tremblay resigned in 2012 when the scandal was exposed. To this day, the former mayor claims he had no knowledge of the system put in place to finance his election campaigns.

“There were three contracts that were awarded for approximately $60 million. And then after that period, up until 2009, there were some 30 more contracts that were a little bit less important. But came to a total of about $160 million,” explained prosecutor Nicolas Ammerlaan.

The trial began in 2017, but the charges were tossed by the initial judge over a legal technicality involving police wiretaps.

The court of appeal ordered a new trial.

Two of the accused decided to plead guilty, leaving five others to be tried.

The crown also wants to prove that some of these illegal dealings took place inside Zampino’s own home.

The trial is expected to last three weeks. And the main witness will be a former engineer who took part in the alleged scheme, who will now cooperate with the prosecution.