UPAC Raids Home of PMO’s Favored Candidate to Head Montreal Port

This article was last updated on April 16, 2022

Canada: Oye! Times readers Get FREE $30 to spend on Amazon, Walmart…
USA: Oye! Times readers Get FREE $30 to spend on Amazon, Walmart…

Quebec’s permanent anti-corruption unit conducted an elaborate raid at the home of a former municipal bureaucrat, Robert Abdallah, who was extensively endorsed by the Harper government to take over the Montreal Port Authority in 2007. The anti-corruption unit known by its French acronym, UPAC, circulated more than 90 police officers on Wednesday morning to raid about 10 locations in the greater Montreal area.

Several sources have alleged that the investigation is related to Montreal’s plan to install water meters across the city in the 2000s. The expensive contract suffered a series of allegations of wrongdoing and was eventually cancelled due to them. According to a spokesperson of UPAC, the raids were conducted to obtain documents and data to help in an investigation. Furthermore, it was added that the anticorruption agency has not laid any charges as part of the ongoing investigation. The agents raided the home of the former director-general of the city of Montreal, Robert Abdallah.

Mr. Abdall was the Harper government’s favorite candidate to become the president of the Montreal Port Authority. At the time, Stephen Harper’s former spokesman, Dimitri Soudas, discussed Mr. Abdallah’s candidacy with many people in government, though they failed to sway the Port Authority’s board of directors. After Abdallah lost the job, Mr. Soudas alleged that “there was no interference whatsoever” because “we expressed a preference and made it crystal clear that the decision was ultimately for the Board of Directors of the Port of Montreal to take.”