By now, even the staunchest defenders of Quebec and the famous Quebec 'model' must reluctantly admit that the province really is a cesspool of public corruption and malfeasance.Those who came down on Maclean's magazine for its article describing Quebec as; Canada's most corrupt province owe the magazine an apology for casting aspersions on the integrity and the validity of its reporting.
There are many editorialists who leapt to Quebec's defence, including Carole Beaulieu, the editor of L'acualité, Maclean's sister magazine. Then there is the then Quebec cabinet minister Nathalie Normandeau (herself later accused of a conflict of interest) and a current Quebec cabinet minister Jean-François Lisée, who all accused the magazine of bad faith and Quebec-bashing. The list goes on and on.
It isn't often that a journalist, an editorialist, a newspaper or radio station apologizes for getting the facts wrong or for offering the public an opinion or analysis that is completely wrong, especially when the cold hard facts bear out the error..
The long list of Quebec apologists isn't even restricted to the French media, the Montreal Gazette also piled on, calling the Maclean's article "gratuitously offensive."
In light of current events it isn't surprising that the Gazette has removed that editorial from its own website. When you are in the news and opinion business, getting it so wrong is a humiliating embarrassment.
Fortunately for us, it's not easy to bury errors, especially on the web.
Although the Gazette website has been sanitized, the editorial can read Here
"Could it be true? Did Maclean's prove its case? Or is the article just another in a long line of gratuitously offensive sorties against the one province that dares to insist on having its own identity, complete with European style state interference in the economy?Ha! could they get it more wrong?
If it were true, Quebec would have to change. There would have to be new rules for tendering and for making political appointments, including judgeships. More inspectors would have to be hired for road-building and other public works contracts. More police would be needed to investigate the slightest whiff of corruption at all levels of government.
But Maclean's is wrong. It didn't come close to making its case. The haste with which the magazine slid past the shortcomings of other provinces, while lingering on 80-year-old scandals out of Quebec, was remarkable"
But of all those who attacked Maclean's, one organization merits a special shaming, the not-so-impartial QUEBEC PRESS COUNCIL, for this jewel.
"Maclean's magazine has been reprimanded by the Quebec Press Council for a controversial cover last year that called Quebec the most corrupt province in Canada.Our precious Quebec press and its
Besides the headline, the publication triggered widespread outrage in the province by running a front-page photo of the beloved Bonhomme Carnaval snowman clutching a briefcase stuffed with cash.
In a March 18 decision that was made public Tuesday, the seven-member watchdog unanimously blamed the publication for the headline and "a lack of journalistic rigour." Link
If anything, the problem of corruption and crime in Quebec's public administration has gone beyond the pale, a bacchanalian orgy of greed and selfishness that transcends practically every public agency or organization that spends public money in Quebec.
If there is one thing that Maclean's got wrong, it is only in the fact that it understated the level of corruption that permeates the province.
For all those who attacked Maclean's it would be nice to hear an apology, but you know as well as I, it will never happen.
Even to a skeptic like me, the scale and the breadth of criminality is hard to digest.
For John Q. Public, it is understandable that the Maclean's article seemed too fantastic to believe. For the average Joe or Jane, punching a card, getting his or her taxes deducted at source, there isn't much room for corruption.
Not many of us would be so foolhardy to offer a cop a fifty to get out of a speeding ticket, or a ten to a meter maid/man to overlook a parking transgression. It isn't part of our DNA and at any rate, regardless of where you live in Canada, would you really expect a public servant to take the bribe?
At any rate for those living outside Quebec and those who haven't followed the story closely, if you have any doubts about the veracity of the Maclean's story detailing Quebec as the most corrupt province, let me give you a little review of events since the story broke.
It seems that entire civil administration of the City of Montreal has been shown to be nothing short of a kleptocracy. The mayor, Gerald Tremblay, has been forced to resign under pressure, claiming himself a victim, unable to combat the entrenched and powerful forces of corruption.
A once deputy mayor, Frank Zampino is indicted for corruption and the highest ranking members of the city's civil administration have admitted to taking hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes in exchange for approving inflated construction bills from companies who kicked back a percentage of the over-billing to the Mafia and also allegedly to municipal political parties.
The independent engineering firms, some of them powerhouses, are accused of organizing the various scams and also of feeding money back to political parties.
Police have raided the offices of just about all these firms that had dealings with public contracts, some of these firms publicly traded. Link
Laval, the third largest city in Quebec is practically under trusteeship after the mayor resigned under allegations of fraud. It is rumoured that when police opened his bank safe deposit box, hundreds of thousands of dollars was found. Two politicians have come forward swearing that the mayor offered them an envelope stuffed with cash as illegal campaign contributions.
In Quebec City, where we would have expected these shenanigans to be absent, a city employee was quietly let go in the face of corruption allegations. Link{fr}
The mayor of Mascouche, Richard Marcotte has already been indicted for corruption but refuses to vacate his post, much to the chagrin of citizens who want to lynch him. Link
At least a half a dozen towns and cities that we know of are under investigation for serious cases of corruption.
A chief fund-raiser of the Liberal party, Pierre Bibeau, is accused of accepting a giant illegal cash donation. Link
Now there is an allegation that senior members of Loto-Quebec abused their positions, an allegation made by a fired employee in a court case where he is fighting his own dismissal based on corruption. Link
And just yesterday, McGill University sued its old dean, Arthur Porter for allegedly absconding with about half a million dollars that the school loaned him. Link
That isn't the half of it, Porter is being investigated in relation to millions of dollars in alleged under the table payoffs that he is alleged to have received from SNC-Lavalin who won the contract to build the billion dollar mega-hospital. Link
The Université de Montréal is also under investigation as well, with the province's anti-corruption unit UPAC, looking into a real estate transaction where the university sold a building at quite a loss to a real estate mogul, Frank Catania, already under indictment for another alleged fraud involving the city of Montreal, which is said to have sold him land that was valuated at $31 million for about $4.4 million. Link{Fr}
Let's not forget the construction kingpin, Tony Accurso, twice indicted for a bunch of alleged frauds, including cheating the tax man, a charge in which his company has already pled out. Link
Remember, all this started when the Charest government was accused of 'selling' judgeships by his own ex-justice minister.
Things went downhill from there.
While none of this has been proved so far, some of the characters involved have in fact confirmed that they were indeed on the take.
Quebec's special task force investigating corruption is hard-pressed to keep up.
It reminds me of a story told to me by the president of a large Quebec retail chain of music stores.
It seems that he hired a mystery shopper outfit on a trial to test the integrity of his employees.
Agents would try to offer cash to employees to circumvent the register. After just one visit the agents phoned the boss and told him they caught the manager stealing.
Shocked he sent a supervisor to take control of the store. The same afternoon the agents called again with the same story in a different location.
The boss sent his vice-president down to the location and when the agents phoned again that evening, he told them to stop the visits, he had no one left to spare!!
And so Quebec is fast becoming the laughingstock and the butt of corruption jokes not only in Canada but around the world;
New York Times - Mayor of Montreal Resigns as Corruption Investigation Heats Up
Washington Post- Laval mayor becomes second Quebec mayor to resign amid corruption inquiry
Miami Herald- Corruption probe shakes Montreal, topples mayor
Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/11/08/3087973/corruption-probe-shakes-montreal.html#storylink=cpyThe Economist Corruption in Quebec
Le Monde - Mafia sicilienne et corruption gangrènent le Québec
The Guardian - Corruption probe shakes Montreal, topples mayor
It will be years until the mess will be cleaned up and it will have cost taxpayers billions.
Here's a good story on how Quebec should go about cleaning up its mess, taking an example of how its done in New York city. Link
In the meantime, all this talk of corruption has stolen media attention from what has become, in three short months, the most incompetent government ever to achieve power in Quebec.
In the National Assembly the ex-health minister Yves Bolduc was reprimanded by the speaker for calling the current health minister a clueless incompetent.
The outburst was sparked by the announcement by the Current Health Minister Réjean Hébert that the PQ will be freezing capital spending in the health-care field because of other PQ priorities, like increasing the number of $7 a day places in public daycare. Link{fr}
Perhaps we need Maclean's to do another article exposing the utter depravity and incompetence of the current PQ government and before the Montreal Gazette and friends calls such an article Quebec-bashing, perhaps they should check their facts.
Hiç yorum yok:
Yorum Gönder