[stratos]

http://news.msn.com/world/montreal-mayo ... ad-reports


Michael Applebaum, Montreal's new mayor, campaigned on ridding City Hall of corruption. Charges against him are not yet released.


TORONTO — Montreal's new mayor, who pledged to stamp out corruption at City Hall when he took office late last year, was arrested by Quebec's anti-corruption police squad Monday, numerous Canadian media outlets said.

Michael Applebaum, the French-speaking city's first anglophone mayor in more than a century, was arrested at his home early Monday morning by the Unite permanente anticorruption (UPAC), a police spokeswoman told the La Presse newspaper and other media outlets.

The charges against Applebaum were not immediately known, and police did not immediately return calls from Reuters. They are due to hold a news conference at 10 a.m.

The arrest is the latest in a string of scandals surrounding Canadian municipal politics.

Montreal's previous mayor, Gérald Tremblay, stepped down in November amid allegations he turned a blind eye to corruption and illegal spending by his political party. He denies wrongdoing.

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford has been in the headlines after two media outlets said they viewed a video that appeared to show him smoking crack cocaine. Ford says he does not use crack cocaine, and Reuters has not been able to verify the existence of the video.

In Quebec, Canada's largest province by area and home to big companies like plane and trainmaker Bombardier Inc, politicians at both the municipal and provincial level have been implicated in two years during a public inquiry over allegations of municipal contract rigging, kickbacks to politicians and illegal financing of elections.

Gilles Vaillancourt, the mayor of the Montreal suburb of Laval, stepped down in 2012 but denied allegations of corruption. Vaillancourt was arrested last month and charged with gangsterism, fraud and corruption.

Laval has since been placed under trusteeship as it grapples with allegations of decades of corruption in local government.

Reporting by Julie Gordon

[stratos]

If this has already been posted I missed it so my appologies if it has been.

[stratos]

$1:

Montreal's new mayor, who pledged to stamp out corruption at City Hall when he took office late last year, was arrested by Quebec's anti-corruption police squad Monday, numerous Canadian media outlets said.

I bet he did not mean to take it this far.

[raydan]

Not surprised... just happy they seem to be getting serious in catching these guys.

[Newsbot]

Title: Montreal Mayor Michael Applebaum arrested at his home this morning
Category: Law & Order
Posted By: QBall
Date: 2013-06-17 06:42:04
Canadian

[Proculation]

He faces 14 charges including fraud, conspiracy, breach of trust, and corruption in municipal affairs.

When will Bonhomme be arrested ?

[Jughead]

Related article with lots of specifics in The New York Times:

$1:

Montreal Mayor Faces Bribery Charges
By IAN AUSTEN, The New York Times
Published: June 17, 2013

OTTAWA — The mayor of Montreal was arrested at his home early Monday by a special anticorruption police squad, at the same time that a 20-month-old public commission has uncovered widespread corruption in Montreal’s construction industry linking politicians and organized crime.

The police said the mayor, Michael Applebaum, was facing 14 charges related to bribery involving hundreds of thousands of dollars. They declined to provide further details, saying that the investigation was continuing and that more arrests were likely.

Television networks showed Mr. Applebaum arriving in an unmarked police car at the Montreal headquarters of the Sûreté du Québec, the provincial police force.

A spokeswoman confirmed the detention of two of Mr. Applebaum’s former associates. One, Saulie Zajdel, was an unsuccessful Conservative candidate for Parliament who was given a created job that had no obvious defined responsibilities. He stepped down after a storm of controversy over his actions as an unelected but de facto member of Parliament.

Mr. Applebaum became the mayor of Montreal, the country’s second-largest city, in November, after his predecessor, Gérald Tremblay, resigned as the corruption inquiry began implicating his closest associates. Mr. Applebaum is the first English speaker to hold the post in 100 years.

On Monday, the police said Mr. Applebaum’s arrest related to two real estate deals between 2006 and 2011 in the largely English-speaking Montreal borough of Côte-des-Neiges-Notre-Dâme-de-Grace, a period during which he served as that borough’s mayor. The anticorruption police squad raided the borough’s offices in February.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/18/world ... html?_r=1&

[OnTheIce]

But more importantly, what did Rob Ford have for breakfast?

[DanSC]

stratos stratos:

Michael Applebaum, the French-speaking city's first anglophone mayor in more than a century, was arrested at his home early Monday morning...

Conspiracy theorists should have fun with this.