Anti-corruption unit raids McGill superhospital offices
CBC News
Posted: Sep 18, 2012 9:43 AM ET
Last Updated: Sep 18, 2012 11:26 AM ET
A UPAC spokeswoman said several search warrants were carried out Tuesday morning at offices connected to the MUHC. (CBC)
Related
Related Stories
External Links
(Note:CBC does not endorse and is not responsible for the content of external links.)
Quebec's anti-corruption unit executed search warrants at offices of the McGill University Health Centre on Tuesday morning, in the latest twist of the province's ongoing crackdown against questionable dealings involving the construction industry.
About a dozen officers with Operation Hammer carried out warrants at the MUHC's Guy Street offices and met with several people linked to the investigation.
A spokesperson for UPAC, the provincial anti-corruption task force, said fewer than five warrants were executed, but they are part of an "important operation."
She said few details about the investigation would be released at this time.
The MUHC confirmed that investigators with the anti-corruption unit arrived at its offices on Guy Street at 8 a.m. Tuesday looking for information related to the awarding of contracts for the Glen site of the MUHC's new superhospital.
The project, a public-private partnership, was awarded in 2010 to the consortium Groupe Immobilier Santé McGill.
The MUHC said it is co-operating fully with investigators and wouldn't comment further.
Other searches were carried out on the Island of Montreal on Tuesday, but UPAC personnel didn't say where. No arrests have been made so far as a result of the searches.
The 217,500-square-metre superhospital, being built near the Vendôme metro station in Montreal's west end, has been in the works since 2001, with construction finally beginning in 2010. The $1.3-billion facility was supposed to open in September 2014 but, according to a July report by credit rating agency DBRS, has been delayed until January 2015.
An international consortium headed by Montreal-based engineering giant SNC-Lavalin and British company Innisfree Ltd. is partnering with the Quebec government on the project. SNC-Lavalin's Montreal headquarters were raided by the RCMP in April, thought to be in relation to $56 million US in mysterious payments that the company made to undisclosed agents on two megaprojects. The company has refused to indicate the whereabouts of the projects.
Share Tools
Latest Montreal News Headlines
- Montreal council must pick new mayor after Applebaum resignation
- Montreal city council must select an interim mayor to replace Michael Applebaum, who resigned a day after being arrested by Quebec's anti-corruption unit. more »
- Hungary indicts ex-Montrealer on Nazi-era war crimes
- Hungarian prosecutors indict a 98-year-old former police officer for abusing Jews and assisting in their deportation to Nazi death camps during World War II. more »
- Canada to send peacekeeping troops to Haiti
- A handful of Canadian troops are about to take part in peacekeeping operation in Haiti, under the command of Brazilian forces, in a long-delayed mission that has been kept inexplicably low on the political radar. more »
- Quebec wants Haiti earthquake victims to stay in Canada
- The Quebec government is hoping Ottawa will allow thousands of Haitians who fled to Canada after the 2010 earthquake to stay in the country, many of them saying they have been living in limbo since arriving in Montreal. more »
Must Watch
Top News Headlines
- Half of First Nations children live in poverty
- Half of status First Nations children in Canada live in poverty, a troubling figure that jumps to nearly two-thirds in Saskatchewan and Manitoba, says a newly released report. more »
- Neil Macdonald: Washington's obsession with leakers
- Julian Assange and Edward Snowden are just the most prominent targets in an all-out legal and propaganda campaign that America's security apparatus is mounting against leakers everywhere, Neil Macdonald writes. more »
- Who's who in the Senate expense controversy
- Keeping track of the names popping up in the ongoing Senate expenses controversy — from the investigators to the four senators themselves — could be a difficult task for even the most seasoned political observers. more »
- Mixed reviews for Ottawa's new 'open data' website
- Treasury Board President Tony Clement is touting the federal government's revamped data portal as a "new natural resource." But that online window for previously published data arrives at the same time the government faces controversy over just how open it really is. more »
Most Viewed/Commented
- Montreal mayor resigns amid corruption charges
- Montreal council must pick new mayor after Applebaum resignation
- Hungary indicts ex-Montrealer on Nazi-era war crimes
- Quebec wants Haiti earthquake victims to stay in Canada
- Quebec premier says Montreal mayor should resign
- Construction strike halts major projects in Quebec
- Canada to send peacekeeping troops to Haiti
- Lawyer Mélanie Joly announces mayoral bid
- Quebec, Vermont make it easier to charge electric cars with new terminals
