(The following story by Elizabeth Thompson appeared on The Montreal Gazette website on March 6.)
MONTREAL — Via Rail president Marc LeFrançois was fired yesterday after he failed to convince Transport Minister Tony Valeri that he had nothing to do with the sponsorship scandal that has rocked Prime Minister Paul Martin’s government.
“After careful consideration, we’ve determined in light of the finding of the auditor-general’s report (that) a change is necessary at the highest levels of Via management in order to restore public confidence and therefore we have taken action,” Martin said in a statement.
LeFrançois is the second top executive at the crown corporation to be fired this week. Via Rail chairperson Jean Pelletier was abruptly axed Monday.
Pelletier, who served as chief of staff to former prime minister Jean Chrétien before being named Via Rail chairperson, has retained high-profile lawyer Suzanne Côté at the Montreal offices of Stikeman Elliott – the same firm that counts former Liberal cabinet minister Marc Lalonde and former Chrétien confidant Eddie Goldenberg among its lawyers.
While Pelletier’s nomination by the government was “at pleasure,” he also had a contract containing dispositions his lawyer believes could form the basis of a lawsuit for wrongful dismissal.
Pelletier was fired after he publicly suggested former Olympic gold medalist Myriam Bédard wasn’t credible because she was a single mother and didn’t have a husband.
Bédard, who worked for Via Rail for a year, said she was pushed out of the company after she questioned bills from Groupaction.
LeFrançois also challenged Bédard’s credibility, questioning whether she was taking pills.
In an interview, Transport Minister Tony Valeri said the decision to fire LeFrançois was based on the revelations contained in auditor-general Sheila Fraser’s report into the government’s sponsorship program and had nothing to do with his comments about Bédard.
In her report tabled last month, Fraser found that officials used an elaborate system of accounting devices, false invoices and fictitious contracts to funnels tens of millions of dollars into the coffers of Liberal-friendly communications firms.
Fraser also revealed the authors of the complex web of transactions had used crown corporations such as Via Rail to fund projects, sometimes using fictitious invoices to pay them back.
LeFrançois was suspended without pay last week and given until Monday to present his case for not being fired.
But while he presented three binders of evidence and met with Valeri, he failed to convince the government he should keep his job.
Instead, Valeri yesterday appointed Paul Côté, Via Rail’s chief operating officer, as interim president and CEO of the crown corporation.
Valeri said the government will begin a search for a permanent replacement and will introduce a new system to allow parlementarians to scrutinize crown corporation appointments.
However, Valeri could not say whether there there will be enough time for that to take place before an election.
Meanwhile, Industry Minister Lucienne Robillard continued yesterday to weigh the fate of Business Development Bank president Michel Vennat, who was suspended without pay for his role in the departure of former president François Beaudoin from the bank.