{"id":1662,"date":"2013-10-16T23:00:00","date_gmt":"2013-10-16T23:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rf.podcastfixit.com\/index.php\/2013\/10\/16\/vaillancourt-le-bel-incident-raises\/"},"modified":"2015-06-01T19:41:34","modified_gmt":"2015-06-01T19:41:34","slug":"vaillancourt-le-bel-incident-raises","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newscoverage.org\/index.php\/2013\/10\/16\/vaillancourt-le-bel-incident-raises\/","title":{"rendered":"Vaillancourt-Le Bel incident raises questions"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b style=\"font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;\">By Genevi\u00e8ve April and Robert Frank<\/b><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.thesuburban.com\/\" style=\"font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;\">www.thesuburban.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p>A swirl of enigma enveloped Laval last week, in the wake of a series of shocking allegations that former mayor Gilles Vaillancourt is still trying to exert influence over city hall.<\/p>\n<p>First came the disclosure that Option Laval mayoral candidate Claire Le Bel had met Vaillacourt and recorded a conversation in which he allegedly appeared to offer to help finance Le Bel\u2019s campaign.<\/p>\n<p>Next followed a claim that thugs had badly beaten Lebel\u2019s campaign director Reny Gagnon, after forcing his car to a halt on Highway 40, near the intersection of Highway 25.<\/p>\n<p>However, in a dramatic turn of events, Quebec provincial police are now reportedly questioning Gagnon\u2019s account of the attack, and might instead be considering charging the political operative with criminal mischief.<\/p>\n<p>A <i style=\"font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;\">S\u00fbret\u00e9 du Qu\u00e9bec<\/i> spokesman declined to comment to <i style=\"font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;\">The Suburban,<\/i> indicating only that the investigation remains ongoing, and Le Bel cancelled a news conference slated for later that day.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe had to postpone our news conference on transparency because of a schedule conflict,\u201d explained Le Bel\u2019s spokesman Guillaume Houle, who declined <i style=\"font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;\">The Suburban\u2019s<\/i> request for the recording of her conversation with Vaillancourt.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe tape is not public,\u201d he replied. \u201cThe only news outlet that received it was Radio-Canada and it will remain the only one.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Gagnon has withdrawn from Le Bel\u2019s election campaign pending the outcome in the inquest and all calls to his cellphone went immediately to voicemail.<\/p>\n<p>Le Bel\u2019s opponent Marc Demers <i>(Mouvement lavallois)<\/i> questioned her judgment in agreeing to meet Vaillancourt in the first place, despite the numerous organized crime charges that he currently faces.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cClearly, given the circumstances, if anyone is seen with former mayor Vaillancourt, their election campaign is over,\u201d he suggested.<\/p>\n<p><b>Opponent threatened<\/b><\/p>\n<p>The retired Laval senior police officer alleged that Vaillancourt targeted him with threats in Le Bel\u2019s surreptitious recording. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cI haven\u2019t listened to it, but police related to me the gist of the recording and confirmed that it contained threats against me,\u201d Demers declared. \u201cIt entailed specific threats which, they said, included breaking a leg.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Demers added that he has filed a criminal complaint with police and has taken additional personal security precautions.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMr. Vaillancourt prefers to break my legs than to meet with me, which sums up our relationship,\u201d he suggested, and questioned why police never notified him of the alleged threat.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI find it odd that I only learned in October about something that happened in August,\u201d suggested Demers, who only received confirmation after he asked police about the reports. \u201cThe two-month lapse reflects a total lack of judgment.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He likened the Laval election campaign to a television crime drama.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt the very moment when Laval citizens have to choose who will represent them, we\u2019re instead in the midst of a soap-opera like the Sopranos or the Borgias. What\u2019s happening right now is first Godfather movies.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><b>Tip of the iceberg<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Independent mayoral candidate Jacques Foucher told <i style=\"font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;\">The Suburban<\/i> that he was stunned by the developments. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s becoming ridiculous,\u201d he said, after learning that the account of Gagnon\u2019s beating might have been contrived.<\/p>\n<p>He added that he recently had to spurn an illegal campaign-funding overture.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was approached by a Laval political operative who wanted to work with me,\u201d Foucher recalled. \u201cWhen the person said to me that, in politics, you have to use fake proxies, I was flabbergasted. I replied that I would never accept that, and conveyed the information to UPAC, which referred me to Elections Quebec.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPutting Mayor Vaillancourt behind us is just the tip of the iceberg,\u201d he warned, suggesting that political parties are the problem. \u201cThe iceberg is still there. I\u2019d like to say that [corruption and collusion in Laval] is over, but that doesn\u2019t seem to be the case.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In the wake of the debacle, Foucher said that he no longer attends private meetings alone.<\/p>\n<p>Another mayoral hopeful, Jean-Claude Gob\u00e9 (Action Laval), told <i style=\"font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;\">The Suburban<\/i> that he is fed up with the mudslinging.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn more than two decades in politics, I have never seen such a thing,\u201d he marveled. \u201cI want nothing to do with those people. We ought to be talking about the real issues that affect Laval citizens.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Like Demers, <i>Parti au Service du Citoyen<\/i> mayoral candidate Robert Bordeleau wondered why Le Bel had agreed to meet Vaillancourt in the first place.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe whole debacle seems to be a gimmick,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Asked whether he or any of his candidates had ever been contacted by Vaillancourt, Bordeleau replied with hearty laughter.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe answer is no,\u201d he said, once the mirth dissipated.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re doing well on our own. It\u2019s too early to say that we smell victory, but we\u2019re the only party with something to offer,\u201d he asserted.<\/p>\n<p>  (function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){i[&#8216;GoogleAnalyticsObject&#8217;]=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){<br \/>\n  (i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),<br \/>\n  m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)<br \/>\n  })(window,document,&#8217;script&#8217;,&#8217;\/\/www.google-analytics.com\/analytics.js&#8217;,&#8217;ga&#8217;);<\/p>\n<p>  ga(&#8216;create&#8217;, &#8216;UA-45892555-1&#8217;, &#8216;robertfrankmedia.blogspot.com&#8217;);<br \/>\n  ga(&#8216;send&#8217;, &#8216;pageview&#8217;);<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Genevi\u00e8ve April and Robert Frank www.thesuburban.com A swirl of enigma enveloped Laval last week, in the wake of a series of shocking allegations that former mayor Gilles Vaillancourt is still trying to exert influence over city hall. First came the disclosure that Option Laval mayoral candidate Claire Le Bel had met Vaillacourt and recorded<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1662","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Vaillancourt-Le Bel incident raises questions - Newscoverage<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/newscoverage.org\/index.php\/2013\/10\/16\/vaillancourt-le-bel-incident-raises\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Vaillancourt-Le Bel incident raises questions - Newscoverage\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Genevi\u00e8ve April and Robert Frank www.thesuburban.com A swirl of enigma enveloped Laval last week, in the wake of a series of shocking allegations that former mayor Gilles Vaillancourt is still trying to exert influence over city hall. 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