Real 'Donnie Brasco' to testify at Quebec commission

The FBI agent who famously infiltrated the New York mob under the fake name "Donnie Brasco" is set to testify as a witness at Quebec's inquiry into construction industry corruption, according to a media report Wednesday.

Radio-Canada said Joseph Pistone, who helped convict about 200 gangsters, will be among the first witnesses when the inquiry returns from its summer break next week.

The French-language network of the CBC says Pistone will testify on Monday — which happens to be his 73rd birthday.

Pistone, whose exploits were chronicled in the film Donnie Brasco, which starred Johnny Depp and Al Pacino, got inside the infamous Bonanno crime family for almost six years in the 1970s and built a case against them.

Donnie Brasco was the name he used while under cover.

The Bonannos have been alleged to have links to Montreal's Rizzuto clan. In fact, Vito Rizzuto has spent the last few years in a U.S. prison in connection with 1981 murders that were included in the Donnie Brasco movie. Rizzuto is slated for release in several weeks.

Quebec's Charbonneau commission is looking into organized crime involvement in the awarding of public contracts.

It was a key issue in the provincial election when Premier Jean Charest's opponents hammered him for waiting more than two years to call a public inquiry after allegations of corruption surfaced.

Radio-Canada reported that after Pistone, two crime experts are slated to testify: Carlo Morselli, a researcher at the Université de Montréal; and Valentina Tenti, an Italian who is completing postdoctoral work in Montreal on Italian organized crime.