Yesterday (October 1) at the CEIC commission inquiry into corruption in Quebec's construction industry, a former union executive--Ken Pereira--gave some interesting testimony.
The article I've excerpted about his testimony (see below) cobbles together elements of union corruption, the Montreal Mafia, and the Hells. In particular, Raynald Desjardins is depicted by Pereira as the real boss of the FTQ-Construction union, as Desjardins was the Montreal Mafia's point man; this makes you question the theories that Desjardins had distanced himself from the Rizzuto clan as far back as 2005.
Link:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/nati...article14653760Excerpt:
Mob, Hells Angels bosses had close ties to union, inquiry hearsBY LES PERREAUX
The Globe and MailPublished Tuesday, Oct. 01 2013, 11:54 PM EDT | Last updated Tuesday, Oct. 01 2013, 11:57 PM EDT
A whistle-blower from Quebec’s FTQ-Construction, one of the province’s biggest and richest unions, has told the Charbonneau corruption inquiry that senior Mob and Hells Angels bosses were woven into the fabric of the organization’s top echelon.
Ken Pereira, a union executive from 2005 to 2009, testified Tuesday that he always knew top union officials, including executive director Jocelyn Dupuis, were tight with Hells Angels. But it was a meeting in late 2008 or early 2009 at a Hilton in the Montreal suburb of Laval that he says he realized Montreal’s Mafia was really running the union.
Mr. Pereira, who had been complaining about Mr. Dupuis’s lavish spending on booze and restaurant meals, was summoned to meet with reputed high-level mobster Raynald Desjardins, who explained he was there to settle “the issue with Dupuis.”
Mr. Desjardins also explained that construction boss Tony Accurso and former FTQ-Construction president Jean Lavallée were now in charge of the union’s multibillion-dollar investment fund.
“I got scared,” Mr. Pereira testified. “I understood what he wanted to say was that at that moment, I discovered that Jocelyn Dupuis, who I thought was the boss, wasn’t the boss. Raynald Desjardins was the boss.” ....
