Three elected Brossard counter-attack

The Journal

Monday, 16 October 2017 22:50

UPDATE
Monday, 16 October 2017 22:55

Look at this article

Three municipal councillors of the party Priority Brossard that are the subject of an investigation by the Commission municipale du Québec contest the violations they are accused of.

The Journal revealed on Friday that four elected in Brossard are affected by a complaint of ethics and professional conduct to have voted at the municipal council’s June 16, 2015 a resolution for the payment by the City for their legal fees.

The Newspaper published also the opinion of professor Danielle Pilette, according to which the four elected municipal officials would have had to abstain from voting.

Case law

However, the advisors Daniel Lucier, Pierre O’donoughue and Serge Séguin held to, by their lawyer, Rafael P. Ferraro, that this kind of case had already been decided by the superior Court of Quebec, and that it was ill-founded to claim that they would not have had to vote.

According to a 2001 decision, upheld on appeal in 2002, the reimbursement of legal expenses of councillors is considered to be automatic since it’s part of the ” conditions of work attached to [the] functions [of the consultant] within the municipality “.

“The elected municipal representative referred by a judicial proceeding may participate in the deliberations and vote on a resolution that provides for the payment by the City of its legal costs “, argued Me Ferraro.

Other advisor

This case law was also presented by the party Brossard as a Whole, of which the candidate Claudio Benedetti is also the subject of an investigation of the CMQ in the same case.

In two letters in which The Journal has obtained a copy, the Commission municipale du Québec confirms, however, that it investigated and that the prosecutor’s Julie Aragon is charged to investigate.