Politicians, civil servants, police, unions — is there any aspect of public life unaffected by corruption or scandals these days? Seriously, how long before we hear that a local librarian has been secretly pocketing fines or that scalpers are selling course credits outside UQAM?
The latest crisis of public confidence comes as four former top brass in the Surêté du Québec are charged with fraud, theft and breach of trust. The accused are alleged to have tapped into a $25-million SQ fund that’s supposed to pay for confidential informants and drug buys.
The same day, we learned that employees and top managers of Bixi were paid $223,000 in bonuses less than a month before the bike-sharing service filed for bankruptcy protection. Bixi boss Michel Philibert, who received a cheque of his own for almost $15,000, says the money was part of a contractual employee-incentive program. But not even mayor Denis Coderre knew about the program until he received an unmarked envelope on Monday. Considering Bixi owes the city $38 million, you’d think Philibert might have mentioned it to the mayor himself.
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