Quebec’s Charbonneau Commission investigating corruption in the province’s construction industry didn’t stop at Montreal’s city limits.

Claude Asselin was the general manager for Laval, a city with about 402,000 citizens and 12 miles northwest of Montreal.  The general manager would be roughly equivalent to a city administrator in Idaho.

Asselin, by the way, was arrested by the Sûreté du Québec or SQ, and the Unité Permanente Anticorruption or UPAC, Quebec’s special anti-corruption squad.

According to The Gazette newspaper article headlined Laval manager feared for job, when questioned about his role in the political influence, bid-rigging and kickbacks and asked why he didn’t do something to stop them, Asselin reportedly, “…told the commission Wednesday that he loved Laval and his job as general manager, so he didn’t want to jeopardize that by raising a red flag about the widespread collusion going on between construction companies and politicians”  The Laval Mayor decided which construction companies got the jobs, and Asselin said he was afraid of losing his job if he spoke up.  Hmmm.