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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Harper's office drawn into corruption inquiry

By: Staff Writer

Posted: 10/3/2012 1:00 AM | Comments: 0

OTTAWA -- Why was the office of Prime Minister Stephen Harper so intent on placing Robert Abdallah at the head of the Port of Montreal?

The Conservatives have never answered that question, despite years of opposition hammering in the House of Commons, investigative news reports and parliamentary committees. Now the former top Montreal bureaucrat's name has popped up at Quebec's corruption inquiry, pushing the issue back to the surface again.

"There are names that keep coming up and we wonder what their interest was," NDP MP Alexandre Boulerice said Tuesday after raising the issue during question period.

"Why did the Conservatives want so badly to appoint Abdallah there... ? It will be up to the courts to shine the light on this. But we wanted the Conservatives to answer our questions. Unfortunately, they don't respond."

Former construction executive Lino Zambito told the Charbonneau commission Tuesday Abdallah was allegedly part of a kickback scheme inside the City of Montreal.

Zambito said he had been told through a go-between in 2005 Abdallah wanted him to use pipes from a particular firm while working on a sewer contract, even though they were more expensive. Zambito said he understood Abdallah would allegedly be pocketing hundreds of thousands of dollars.

None of the allegations has been proven in court, and Abdallah vehemently denied them Tuesday in a Montreal newspaper report. He did not return a call from The Canadian Press.

Abdallah was the Montreal's city manager in late 2006 when one of Harper's closest aides, Dimitri Soudas, began telling port board members the bureaucrat was the federal government's preference for president.

Mysterious telephone recordings, which surfaced last spring, purport to capture the voices of two construction bosses around the same time period discussing how Soudas could help them get their preferred man appointed to the port. Conservative Leo Housakos, who would go on to become a senator, is mentioned as a intermediary. Both Housakos and Soudas had worked in Montreal Mayor Gerald Tremblay's administration.

In another conversation purporting to be between Accurso and a man named "Frank," the pair discusses how ex- Conservative cabinet minister Lawrence Cannon had been told to appoint "Robert."

-- The Canadian Press

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition October 3, 2012 A9

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