Called to testify in a lawsuit filed by a developer against the City of Montreal, former mayor Denis Coderre defended his management of the controversial Formula E issue on Wednesday, while taking the opportunity to shoot several arrows to the current mayor Valérie Plante.
“Everyone is going to talk about Denis Coderre, that’s why you have media today. I told them that I came to check the terraces,” the career politician immediately joked before Superior Court Judge Louis Charrette, in reference to the forced closures of terraces which plunged the administration of Mme Planted in embarrassment these last few days.
Mr. Coderre was called as a witness in the trial between businessman Alexandre Choko and the City of Montreal, concerning the Formula E race held in downtown Montreal in 2017.
Mr. Choko alleges that Mayor Coderre’s administration torpedoed his own project to bring Formula E to Montreal in order to leave the field open to the promoter and producer Evenko. He is seeking three million dollars in damages.
PHOTO FRANÇOIS ROY, THE PRESS
Promoter Alexandre Choko claims to have been unfairly excluded from the Formula E organization.
The lawsuit is based in particular on a report from the Office of Inspector General (OIG) which determined that the municipal administration had circumvented the rules for awarding contracts in this matter. Rather than organizing a call for tenders which would have allowed different developers to come forward, the mayor would have contacted evenko directly. An officially independent NPO was created to organize the event, but according to the BIG, it remained under the control of the mayor’s team and served as a transmission belt to transfer subsidies to evenko.
Acting as a matchmaker
Mr. Coderre denied having chosen evenko himself, describing himself instead as a “matchmaker” who had allowed the company to enter into contact with the International Automobile Federation (FIA).
“They were happy that evenko could do the event, but above all, they wanted to meet. My role was to act as a matchmaker,” explained the former mayor.
“Everything was done correctly!” » he insisted, in response to questions from Mr. Karim Renno, Mr. Choko’s lawyer.
“I think the important thing is relationships. There are some who talk about it, others who do it,” he also insisted about his time at town hall.
He explained that one of his assistants had recommended that he stay away from Alexandre Choko, who also wanted to organize the race, but who had been involved in a financial dispute in the world of boxing in the past. “She told me: don’t touch that with a 20-foot pole!” » said Mr. Coderre. The dispute was settled amicably, but Mr. Coderre had learned from this episode that Mr. Choko would have been the target of “allegations of fraud”.
“I can’t do business with someone who has allegations of fraud,” he told the court.
He said that all the elected officials at the time wanted Formula E to succeed. “It was unanimous. Even the Ville-Marie councilor at the time, whose name was Valérie Plante, agreed,” he said.
The event had little success and 16,000 tickets were given away for free rather than sold. “If I had to do it again, I would do it,” the witness said.
“There are some who played politics behind my back with this,” he lamented.
Once elected, Valérie Plante’s team decided not to repeat the experience, although it is normal for a first year to be more difficult with this type of event, according to Mr. Coderre.
“You have to understand that when you have a bail of ten million, the day you pull the plogue like Mme Plant, that means we have to pay ten million! “, he explained.
Sermoned by the judge
The witness’s digressions, his comments and his impatience to express himself without letting the lawyers finish their questions pushed Judge Charrette to lecture Mr. Coderre on several occasions.
“We are not in scrum, there. We’re in court! I have a question, I need an answer,” said the magistrate.
Shortly after, he returned to the attack. “Mr. Coderre, this is the last time I warn you. If you are not able to answer the questions that are asked, I will assume that you are not able to do so,” he insisted.
The testimony was ultimately completed within the scheduled time frame.