[QatzelOk]

Montreal Mafia controls 80 per cent of road contracts, whistleblower says



Radio-Canada hears of widespread corruption in the supposedly sealed bidding process for construction work
Les Perreaux and Rhéal Séguin

The alleged plans for fixing bids among Montreal construction companies known as the “Fabulous Fourteen” were passed along by telephone, often using a code based on golf.

“We'll start on the fourth hole, we'll be a party of nine,” an instruction would go. The code meant the contractor pretending to set up the game would submit the winning bid, just below $4.9-million. The losers would submit higher sealed bids and await their turn for green.

“The contractor who was getting the contract would be the one organizing the so-called foursome,” said François Beaudry, a former senior engineer at the Quebec Transport Ministry.

“But it's Montreal's Italian Mafia that controls what is going on in road construction. They control, from what we can tell, 80 per cent of the contracts.”

Mr. Beaudry, who spent years quietly tipping police to the methods of fixing bids, is now a high profile whistleblower.

The retired bureaucrat, along with several construction company owners, told of massive, widespread corruption in the supposedly sealed bidding process on the Radio-Canada investigative program, Enquête.

“There is a group that controls contracts on [Montreal] Island, passing them around, one after the other, we call them the Fabulous Fourteen,” said Paul Sauvé, a contractor who says he was threatened into making political contributions for a contract to restore the roof on Montreal City Hall.

Recent allegations of contract corruption have shaken the province, but the program aired Thursday night went further, suggesting most major road contracts in the Montreal region are fixed with prices inflated up to 35 per cent.

Circumstantial evidence supports the allegation. Quebec road construction and maintenance is vastly more expensive than anywhere else in Canada, according to Transport Canada.

One kilometre of road cost 37 per cent more to build in Quebec in 2008 than the average cost for the rest of the country, according to the study. Urban roads cost 46 per cent more to build in Quebec, while rural roads cost 26 per cent more.

The stakes are massive as Quebec continues a five-year, $42-billion program to rebuild roads, sewers and bridges.

The three main mayoral candidates in Montreal and opposition leaders in Quebec City have all called for a public inquiry into the construction industry. The Liberal government has refused, saying police must first complete criminal investigations.

The Parti Québécois and the Action démocratique du Québec say the government is trying to avoid examination of Liberal ties to the “Fabulous Fourteen.”

Mr. Beaudry first went to police with his allegation of Mafia involvement in a price-fixing scheme six years ago and nothing has been done, said PQ public security critic Bertrand St-Arnaud.

“What is the government afraid of? Is it afraid that certain embarrassing information could be revealed?” he asked. “The government has no choice. The allegations are serious and the entire public tendering system has to be examined, which is something the police cannot do.”

ADQ interim leader Sylvie Roy said an inquiry is necessary “to make sure taxpayer money isn't being hijacked.”

Public Security Jacques Dupuis was unavailable for comment. A spokesperson said the government has no plans for a public inquiry until police complete their investigations.

source

Which mafia runs the road construction lobby in your city?

[QatzelOk]

The reason this organized crime connection is interesting is because of an incident that happened a few years ago here.

An overpass collapsed, killing a few people, and paralyzing suburban commuters for a few minutes.

Now that the mafia connection is out of the bag, we can see how this "incident" might have been an act of organized crime violence. Why? So that the government would be "shamed" into spending billions and billions of dollars on roads. The mafia has the morality and lack of accountability (and personnel) to make this kind of act possible.

[Thunderhawk]

I havent kept up with the collapse, but I stand by my previous thought: shoddy workmanship (to much water in the concrete) plus Quebec's need for lots of salt (to deice the roads) led to corrosion which weakened the bridge and thus its collapse.

[Dr House]

Christ, must every thread in this sub-forum be a Qatz fucking anti-car rant?

[QatzelOk]

This isn't an anti-car rant.

It's an anti-organized crime rant.

It is my contention that North America is run by organized crime cabals - whether you're talking about media, big business, banks, or the road construction industry.

It's also true that a society that become completely corrupted won't last very long.

I stand by my previous thought: shoddy workmanship (to much water in the concrete) plus Quebec's need for lots of salt (to deice the roads) led to corrosion which weakened the bridge and thus its collapse.

These are your thoughts? What an amazing coincidence that this is exactly what the road construction lobby explained to commercial media.

Obviously, if the collapse was an act of vandalism by an industry horny for more government contracts, the man on TV would have told everyone. Right?

[Inexorable]

It is my contention that North America is run by organized crime cabals - whether you're talking about media, big business, banks, or the road construction industry.

You're not that far off the mark. I watched a Discovery Channel documentary that stated that the Italian Mafia in the USA makes about 500 billion dollars a year- that's way more than most of the richest people and companies in America combined! It's nearly impossible to defeat the Mafia in the US and most would rather work for them than against them. Yet the Mafia was almost driven to extinction by the Fascists in Italy and there is some suspicion that they heavily aided the Allied invasion.

As for the media, well, that's run by the big five corporations and of course, communists: www.discoverthenetworks.org

[QatzelOk]

So if you want to do something about global warming or income inequality or lack of good public education, first you're going to have to pay for an audience with some guy in a dark room smoking a big cigar.

I'm sure he can be convinced that our society has to evolve for the sake of the common good.

Organized crime are all about helping the common good.

[Inexorable]

I'm sure he can be convinced that our society has to evolve for the sake of the common good.

Organized crime are all about helping the common good

As sarcastic as that was, I'm sure there are at least some Mafia members who care about such things and at least give back to their own community, but probably not many.

Now that would be a funny movie: the Mafia is infiltrated by do-gooder lefties who end up robbing their communities through theft and bribery to only give back to the community in forms of school books and alternative energy!

[QatzelOk]

I was being sarcastic, but this isn't funny at all.

It's why our society is so retarded. It is poorly governed by posers who kiss organized crime ass.

There is no real order to it, it's all self-interest and lies.

This is why Canada walks out on racism conferences and burns as much oil as it can: because organized crime does the deciding, and our politicians smile and say comforting things while we go to hell.

Marx was right: it was insane to rationalize production without rationalizing distribution. Our "liberal" (meaning money-responsive) leaders are really head-waiters for organized crime syndicates. Though we have learned to call them by more respect-evoking names.

[Dr House]

This isn't an anti-car rant.

Which makes the fact it's in the CAR forum rather suspicious.

[QatzelOk]

Which makes the fact it's in the CAR forum rather suspicious.

Well, Sherlock, it's because our massive car infrastructure - which includes gluttonous suburban wastelands - was built by the mafia and commissioned by war profiteers.

Is there anything wrong with handing over decision-making and resource-allocation to organized crime?

Is that where the "love affair" for cars came from? Was "the love" in reality just another offer Americans couldn't refuse?

[Thunderhawk]

These are your thoughts? What an amazing coincidence that this is exactly what the road construction lobby explained to commercial media.

I had these thoughts and expressed them before the media did its shpeel. I guess that means the media is just copying me.

[QatzelOk]

If the mafia controls highway construction, wouldn't it be normal for them to sabotage one of the bridges in the system in order to force public opinion towards billions of dollars in new road work?

This is the MO of organized crime.

[Huntster]

It is my contention that North America is run by organized crime cabals - whether you're talking about media, big business, banks, or the road construction industry.

I agree.

And the organized crime cabal most responsible for blocking road building is the environmental industry.

[QatzelOk]

And the organized crime cabal most responsible for blocking road building is the environmental industry.

The environment is an organization that isn't human made, and it is on the outside of human understanding. That is why it has been so easy to dismiss the environment when making human-centric plans.

So if it somehow lucked into finding a gang to protect it, all I can say is Thank Allah.