Denis Coderre denies asking police to investigate leak of 2012 traffic ticket
Montreal mayor testifies at commission looking into surveillance of journalists
Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre says he was "furious" when he was informed of a journalist's December 2014 inquiries about a traffic ticket that he had been issued in 2012 — but he never asked police to investigate the leak.
Coderre testified at the public commission looking into the police surveillance of journalists. He said it was the third time information about him had been leaked to journalists, and he was upset.
The commission, led by Quebec Court of Appeal Justice Jacques Chamberland, is tasked with looking into police surveillance of journalists. CBC/Radio-Canada is a participant in the commission.
Coderre said he called the police chief at the time, Marc Parent, to express his anger over the leaks, but he said he never asked him to find the source.
"I was shocked, so I called [Parent]," the mayor testified. "You start to wonder: is it normal that someone should rifle through a computer and leak a ticket [to a journalist]?"
Should I have done that? Maybe not, but I don't regret doing it.- Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre
"There was no intention [behind the call] ... and no demand whatsoever."
Coderre said Parent told him it "wasn't normal," and the mayor said that was the extent of the call.
The call lasted two or three minutes, he said.
"Should I have done that? Maybe not, but I don't regret doing it," he said.
Coderre said he has no problem with journalists breaking news, but he did take exception with coverage that wasn't correct.
"It was clear — it was getting serious; tickets were being leaked to suggest that I was guilty of influence peddling, that because I'm mayor, I can get off from paying tickets," Coderre said.
A police report of the incident, tabled at the commission, indicates Coderre told the officer he would be her "future boss."
Coderre swiftly denied that version of events when they were later made public. He pointed out that in 2012 he hadn't yet announced his intention to run in the 2013 mayoral election.
Leaks pressure tactic in labour dispute: Coderre
Coderre testified that he saw the leaks as a pressure tactic in contract negotiations between the city and Montreal's police union, and he pointed to the trashing of City Hall by protesting city workers around the same time, when police officers did not intervene.
"When you start to look at the crescendo of events, you start to ask if there's not an operation in place [to defame me]," he said.
In testimony earlier Monday, Coderre's communications director, Catherine Maurice, described the meeting in which she informed him of the email inquiry by La Presse journalist Patrick Lagacé and his wanting to know if Coderre paid the ticket.
Lagacé's email said he had information from "police sources" that concerned possible "influence peddling."
"It's the third time, tabarnac," Maurice quoted Coderre saying, adding that he was "very annoyed."
The next day, Maurice received a call from Montreal police detective Normand Borduas about Lagacé's inquiry.
"He was asking technical questions — when he called, was it a landline or cellphone," she said.
Maurice said Borduas later asked her to forward any documents she received from Lagacé, including his emails. He also requested Lagacé's cell number, which Maurice gave him.
She said she did not tell Coderre about her communication with Borduas, although she did inform his chief of staff.
Police investigation followed call
Coderre's appearance Monday follows several days of testimony that revealed the mayor twice called the city's police chief about personal matters.
In his testimony before the commission late last month, Parent spoke to Coderre's call about Lagacé.
Parent served under four different administrations at city hall. That was the only time, he said, a mayor had called him about a private matter.
"I didn't see it as an inappropriate move on the mayor's part," Parent testified, even though Coderre was "emotional" when he called him.
Parent passed the concern onto the police department's internal affairs division, given that a police officer was likely the source of the leaked ticket.
It was as part of the ensuing internal affairs investigation that Lagacé had his phone monitored by Montreal police.
When pressed by Chamberland, Parent agreed that Coderre's phone call could be seen as having put him in an "uncomfortable situation."
Other phone calls to new police chief
Testifying last week for the second time since the inquiry began, Montreal's current police chief, Philippe Pichet, acknowledged that Coderre called him about a matter regarding his son.
The mayor reportedly believed his son had been the victim of identity theft. (Alexandre Coderre has since been charged with fraud.)
"I oriented him towards operations who took charge of the matter," Pichet told the inquiry. But he also said that it would be preferable if the mayor had acted differently "to avoid all sorts of misperceptions."
Unflattering portrait
Coderre is up for re-election this fall, and opposition politicians have used the commission's revelations to portray him a petty micro-manager.
Projet Montréal has accused the mayor of politicizing police operations.
Christian Leblanc, the lawyer representing a number of news organizations, asked Coderre if he thinks it's appropriate for the mayor to go through the city's police chief in personal matters.
"When it's a question of security, yes, you can't take any chances," Coderre said.
"When your actions touch the mayor of Montreal — the institution of the mayor — or his family, it's normal to have that relation or to call the chief of police."
Coderre said that contact is inevitable given the function's of his office, but has no impact on the separation of powers between the city and its police force.
"To have proximity does not mean interference in their operations and investigations," he said.
"I don't see a problem, personally, with making a call to the chief of police."
With files from Radio-Canada's François Messier