MONTREAL – Federal NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair acknowledged Thursday that he met with the former mayor of Laval, Gilles Vaillancourt in the 90s.
“In early 2011, I met with the police in order to help in their investigation,” Mulcair said in a statement. “I gave to them my account of a meeting I had with Mayor Gilles Vaillancourt dating back to 1994.”
The meeting came to light after French-language newspaper La Presse reported that Vaillancourt tried to tempt Mulcair with a bribe.
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According to the article, Mulcair met with the Vainancourt who offered him a white envelope, which he understood to be full of cash. The former mayor told him that he could help but Mulcair said the situation made him “physically uncomfortable.”
“I effectively and immediately ended the meeting with Mr. Vaillancourt,” he confirmed. “This matter is currently before the courts and I will therefore avoid further comment.”
At the time, Mulcair was the provincial Liberal MNA for Chomedy, formerly a city and now a part of Laval. The meeting came at a point when Mulcair began to become embroiled in a battle over the protection of wetlands, a fight that eventually led him to defect from the Liberal party to the NDP in 2007.
Dubbed “The Monarch” by some critics, Vaillancourt served as the mayor of Quebec’s third largest city for 23 years until he resigned in November 2012. He was the subject of investigations by Quebec’s anti-corruption unit and last week, the former mayor appeared in court to face 12 charges, including breach of trust, conspiracy, fraud, gangsterism and influence peddling.
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