Quote:
Originally Posted by chillibowl
actually what is more worrying then the student protest is the ongoing and widespread political/construction corruption scandal
...citizens of the city, the province, and even the feds may have some serious doubts funding a project that could include granting contracts to local companies which may have been involved.
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Chilli, that's a good point. The huge ongoing investigation into the construction industry could prove to be another barrier to getting the F1 deal done.
For those who haven't heard about this story, here's a link to a summary from the NY Times:
Latitude - Views From Around the World
Latitude February 21, 2013,
The Sopranos of Montreal
By FRANCISCO TORO
MONTREAL —
...For years, journalists had been picking up clues that a small syndicate of firms with links to the mafia were colluding to carve up lucrative construction and snow-removal contracts among themselves, forming an illegal cartel that jacked up costs at the taxpayers’ expense. Many also suspected the racket could only be sustained through kickbacks to well-placed city officials.
After years of stalling, the provincial government finally agreed to set up a powerful and independent commission of inquiry with broad powers to look into corruption. The Charbonneau Commission (headed by the retired magistrate France Charbonneau) has electrified the province for months now, its work unfolding like a movie, as it questions one gangland figure after another and links them to crooked municipal construction deals.
This week the commission released hidden camera footage of one construction entrepreneur calmly counting out piles of cash and divvying them up with Nick Rizzuto, the now-deceased godfather of Montreal’s Sicilian mob. The entrepreneur, Nicolo Milioto — now retired, himself born in Sicily — was nicknamed Mr. Sidewalk, for the lock he’d long enjoyed on municipal sidewalk-construction contracts...
For years, Montrealers had settled into a kind of learned helplessness when faced with stories of corruption at city hall: a feeling that the people involved just had too much power and too much money ever to be called to account.
The Charbonneau Commission is starting to change that by picking at the local mob’s mantle of invincibility. With power players facing the very real prospect of long prison sentences, the old fatalism is starting to lift.