Denis Lavoie, the former mayor of Chambly, was arrested on Tuesday by the Permanent Anti-Corruption Unit (UPAC) on suspicion of interfering with the administration of his town’s municipal court.
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The colorful 62-year-old former mayor has often made headlines, particularly for feuding with citizens in city council, but UPAC has been investigating him since 2018, or Quebec accused him of insubordination. Traditional norms.
In February 2019, his town was also put on security after police raided the town hall.
But this time, the ex-mayor has key appointments. He should face criminal justice. He has been charged with breach of trust and obstruction of justice for acts that allegedly took place between January 2016 and May 2019.
“He would have attempted to obstruct, divert or obstruct the course of justice in the municipal court of the city of Chambly,” explains UPAC’s spokesman Mathieu Calarno.
“Seven years of investigation to get to one event,” the former mayor joked in an interview Tuesday, when we reached him by phone hours after he left the police station.
“no handcuffs”
Convinced that he had nothing to blame, Mr. Lavoie was not stingy with comments. “They didn’t handcuff me there,” he said.
The former mayor, a former police officer, said Tuesday he went alone to meet with investigators after they called him. It was during this “two-hour” meeting that he learned of the charges he was facing.
According to him, the Régie intermunicipale de police Richelieu Saint-Laurent will be accused of persuading the Municipal Court of Chambly to no longer process criminal reports.
The events would have taken place within the framework of the negotiations for the renewal of Regi’s mandate in the territory of Chambly.
“I enforced the resolution of the city council that the police power in the city of Chambly has no legal status,” he argued.
Over the years, Mr. Lavoie wanted Chambly to have its own local police force. Later, he wanted to create a local post in his territory.
Although he was accused of breach of trust, the former mayor added, “No [eu] “Expectation” in exchange for the interventions he was able to make in the municipal court.
He vows that the charges he faces have nothing to do with embezzlement of public funds, which the Commission Municipal du Québec accused him of in a list of 45 violations in 2020.
A busy tenure
- Elected mayor of Chambly in 2005.
- Targeted since April 2018 by UPAC’s “parabole” investigation into allegations of breach of trust.
- His administration was targeted by UPAC searches in February 2019. On the same day, the Minister of Municipal Affairs placed the city under security.
- He resigned in April 2019.
- In May 2020, the Commission Municipal du Québec accused him of violating 45 protocols, including using public funds for his personal benefit, interfering with the granting of permits and acts of intimidation.
- The case ended in an out-of-court settlement in which the charges were dropped and Mr. Lavoie agreed not to engage in municipal politics for five years.
- Discontinued by UPAC on March 28, 2023
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