to move up and down
Nearly 500 arrested in Montreal as protesters take aim at private club at centre of Quebec corruption inquiry
Hundreds of anti-capitalist protesters were detained and ticketed in Quebec as they tried to tie this year’s May Day demonstration to the theme of corruption.
The protesters tried to gather Wednesday outside a private club where politicians and construction executives have been known to meet.
Details of private rendez-vous at the exclusive Club 357C in Old Montreal have emerged from the province’s Charbonneau inquiry.
The probe has heard that construction companies created a cartel that drove up the price of public contracts and split the extra profits with the Mafia, corrupt bureaucrats and political parties. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan Remiorz)
‘The siege in Chertsey is finished’: Inmates caught after daring escape from Quebec jail by clinging to rope lowered by helicopter
A second inmate who staged a daring escape from a jail in Saint-Jerome, Que. on Sunday was back in custody early Monday.
Two men had staged a dramatic daylight jailbreak when they climbed a rope into a hovering helicopter, but their freedom was shortlived as police moved swiftly to track them down.
Just before 8:30 p.m. E.T., about six hours after the escape, police confirmed they had arrested Benjamin Hudon-Barbeau and two other suspects.
An hour later, police had located the second escapee, Danny Provencal, and had set up a perimeter around the area where he was found. (Graham Hughes / The Canadian Press)
Interesting day of reluctant testimony at Montreal corruption probe
TOP: Justice France Charbonneau, head of Montreal corruption probe, getting firm with hesitant witness Nicolo Milioto: MIDDLE LEFT: A Christmas party in 2005 at the headquarters of the Montreal Mafia attended by many construction company bosses and mobsters; MIDDLE RIGHT: Nicolo Milioto, known by the nickname “Mr. Sidewalk” because of his specialty in the construction trade, on the stand. Hewas described earlier in testimony as the middleman between the businessmen and the mafiosi; BOTTOM: Sonia LeBel, the commission’s chief counsel, questions Mr. Milioto. #CEIC #Mafia #Corruption #Montreal #Crime #Law
Here’s the backstory to today’s fascinating testimony at today’s corruption probe in Montreal:
http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2013/02/18/charbonneau-inquiry-mr-sidewalk/
Maple syrup mafia? Quebec police arrest 18 people after massive maple syrup heist
Quebec police are saying 18 people have now been arrested in a massive maple syrup heist.
The accused face a variety of charges including theft, conspiracy, fraud and receiving stolen goods.
Provincial police said in a statement today they are looking for seven more people in the case. (AP Photo/Toby Talbot)
Sovereignty ‘will happen when Quebecers are ready,’ Pauline Marois tells N.Y. audience
Quebec premier Pauline Marois reiterated her aim to move Quebec toward independence and said it values its relationship with the U.S.
“I hope that the people of Quebec will one day be a part of the concert of nations,” Marois said today in a speech to the Foreign Policy Association of New York. “This is an internal debate. This will happen when Quebecers are ready.”
Dangerous driving: Power pole appears smack in the middle of Quebec highway
Alleged corruption-fuelled cost overruns aren’t the only menace upon Quebec’s road network these days. Officials say they are dealing with the puzzling appearance of a utility pole — smack in the middle of a provincial highway east of Montreal. (Jocelyn Riendeau/Canadian Press/Sherbrooke La Tribune)
Week in review
Political cartoonist Gary Clement takes a look at the week gone by
The Rizzutos’ Sicilian roots: Tracing the ties that bind Montreal’s Mafia & Quebec’s corruption inquiry to Cattolica Eraclea
In this hilltop village, a slightly otherworldly place that retains an aura of the frontier, a full-sized car barely fits down the cluttered, claustrophobic streets until the road suddenly empties into an airy public square fronted by a marvellous clock and bell tower.
It is a decidedly rustic locale where one finds ground zero for both the Quebec corruption scandal and the unfolding drama of the return to Canada of the country’s biggest name in crime.
Despite making headlines in Canada, at the town hall next door to the clock tower, there is little interest in talking about the town’s most famous export: Vito Rizzuto, the once imperious Mafia boss.
Mr. Rizzuto left this village in 1954, when he was eight, and settled in Montreal with his family, a clan already entrenched in the Mafia of Sicily. His family went on to dominate the underworld in his new home.
Released this month from a prison in the U.S., where he served his sentence for three New York gangland murders, the embattled mobster was immediately deported back to Canada.
As he acclimatizes to freedom, his family’s affairs continue to be revealed at Quebec’s Charbonneau commission probing corruption in the construction industry. With each bombshell — about political financing, crooked business cartels and payments to the mob — the importance of the town of Cattolica Eraclea is never far away (Photos Adrian Humphreys/National Post; Postmedia News)
The French Objection: Some suggestions by Steve Murray to add more French to Quebec signs
Talking Points
Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Quebec Premier Pauline Marois are meeting for the first time tomorrow. Steve Murray has some suggestions of what to say (and not say)
Magnificent Aurora Borealis adorns starry sky in Quebec
On October 8 great geo-magnetic storm swept the earth. In this 52-minute long exposure taken from Lake-St-Charles, near Quebec City, photographer Francis Audet captured the long star trail, showing the Earth rotation as well as the Aurora Borealis.
The global strategic maple syrup reserve is secure! Police seize millions of dollars worth of stolen maple syrup at New Brunswick plant
Breath easy, pancake lovers, the global strategic maple syrup reserve will be just fine.
Quebec provincial police and the RCMP have seized an “important” amount of the $20 million in maple syrup that was stolen from a Quebec warehouse in August, the Montreal Gazette reports. (Postmedia News)
About 16,000 45-gallon barrels’ worth of maple syrup was siphoned off by the bandits and whisked away, most likely in a transport tanker. Police now say much of it travelled east to New Brunswick.
The Quantified Month: August
From the iPhone 5 to Gwyneth’s faux pas, Sarah Lazarovic looks at the month’s cultural highs and lows: in chart form!
