Quebec construction industry tied to influence peddling claims
The RCMP is investigating claims of influence peddling related to the appointment of the new president of the Montreal Port Authority, the Globe and Mail reported on Monday. The issue revives a controversy from last May’s election, when then-PMO spokesman Dimitri Soudas was accused of leaning on board members to appoint Robert Abdallah, a former Montreal bureaucrat, to the post. According to Globe sources, police are now investigating whether members of the Quebec construction industry used Conservative contacts in a bid to influence the appointment. Despite Soudas’s intervention, Abdallah did not get the post. Soudas has since left the PMO for a job with the Canadian Olympic Committee.