Small city, big power: Mayor of Montreal suburb accused of threats, abusing authority

Benoît Girard has been working in amateur sports for 30 years, but he's never been chewed out by a parent quite like he was three years ago.

Girard is one of the people in charge of a Chambly's soccer association.

One day, he was on the phone with a father who was angry about the amount of playing time his 12-year-old daughter was getting. The father also said the girl's coach threw a jersey in her face.

Girard asked for two weeks to rectify the situation, but the father knew exactly what he wanted — for the coach to be fired.

"This isn't a negotiation, Benoît," the father told him. "When the police take him away, you'll watch him go. Do I make myself clear?"

Girard reiterated that he needed time to come up with a solution. Then conversation took a turn.

"Do you think the mayor of a city of 30,000 gives a f--k what you think?" the man says. "I'm going to settle this. He will be taken away by the police.The mayor has spoken."

Indeed, the man on the other end of the phone was Denis Lavoie, since 2005, the mayor of Chambly, Que., about 30 kilometres southeast of Montreal.

Girard, as well as former and current municipal employees, have told Radio-Canada's investigative program, Enquête, about Lavoie's alleged threats, bullying and abuses of power.

Girard recorded that conversation and sat on it for three years, but he recently decided to make it public, to expose the behaviour of the mayor, a trained lawyer and former police officer.

Listen to the full conversation, in French, below. The French transcript of the exchange is here.

As the two kept talking, Girard tried to explain that there are procedures his organization has to follow to deal with complaints about a coach. But Lavoie would have none of it.

"That's your problem," he replied, saying he'd bring the issue up with Chambly's city council.

'Ready for a war'

Lavoie said he was "ready for a war," and that he had proof the coach had threatened other children.

Girard replied that he wasn't looking for a fight — that he wanted to speak to the coach before making a decision.

"I've never seen that, a mayor using his political power that way," Girard said in an interview.

A few days after that conversation, the soccer club did fire the coach.

Lavoie refused to grant Radio-Canada an interview, criticizing Enquête's journalistic approach.

In an email to Enquête, he said the decision to fire the coach was made by the soccer club.

He posted a statement to Facebook Friday, saying he will fight to protect all Chambly's children, including his own, and that he would swear again if he had to.

When contacted, the fired coach denied having thrown a jersey at Lavoie's daughter and said he had done nothing to be ashamed of. But he wouldn't speak publicly about what happened to him, for fear of reprisals.

Lavoie did not provide Radio-Canada with proof the coach threatened other children, and the soccer association also said it had no record of other issues.

"It's an abuse of power, someone using their authority to intervene in another area of responsibility," said Rémy Trudel, a municipal affairs minister under the PQ in the 1990s who now teaches at ENAP, a graduate school of public administration in Quebec City.

A spokesperson for Municipal Affairs Minister Andrée Laforest said Friday that the minister will ask the Commission municipale du Québec, an administrative tribunal, to look into allegations about Lavoie that surfaced in the Enquête investigation.

Rough times at city hall

Allegations that Lavoie intimidates and bullies people in his sphere don't end with that incident. Several current and former municipal employees told Enquête the climate at Chambly city hall was borderline toxic, because of the mayor's bullying.

One of them described Lavoie's methods as "insidious."

"The mayor would make reference to other people he managed to fire, to show that you could suffer a similar fate," that person said. CBC/Radio-Canada is withholding the person's identity because they fear reprisals.

Claire Adam worked as a secretary at Chambly city hall from 1991 until 2016. For three of those years, her office was on the floor directly beneath the mayor's office

"Often, I could hear yelling, banging. It was unbearable. I saw people leave the office crying, completely devastated," she said.

In an emailed statement, Lavoie denied all the allegations against him, saying he attaches "great importance to creating a positive work environment."

"It's certainly possible that at times, I intervene with vigour, insistence and leadership to correct shortcomings or to make headway on issues with managers, but always with the goal of better serving citizens and never due to bad character traits, abuse of power or mean-spiritedness," he said.

Lavoie pointed out that there have never been any complaints lodged against him for abusive behaviour.

Chummy colleagues

There are close ties between the mayor and Anne Nepton, Chambly's assistant city manager, treasurer and head of human resources — so close that it makes employees uncomfortable.

Some are convinced the pair are dating. When asked about their relationship, both say they have a right to a private life.

"Private life stops when it becomes detrimental to your public functions," said Prof. André Lacroix, who teaches ethics at Université de Sherbrooke.

Lavoie said he consulted a lawyer, who told him he has no obligation — legal, ethical or otherwise — to report any relationship with a city employee.

"How can employees report a situation if the mayor's office, the finances and human resources are run by a couple?" asked someone with knowledge of the issues.

Last year, when he was called to testify in a case in front of Quebec's labour tribunal, Lavoie declared under oath that he was not dating Nepton but that she was a close friend.

City manager Michel Larose, who is Nepton's boss, has nothing but good things to say about the mayor, whom he calls his mentor.

"Continuing to claim that there is an unhealthy climate and one based on terror is harassment toward the city of Chambly," he said, adding that his door is always open to employees.

For her part, Nepton said in an emailed statement that the climate at city hall is stimulating, and that her door, as the human resources manager, is always open to employees.

She, too, pointed out there have been no complaints filed of any nature.

Lavoie said there are plenty of avenues available to employees who want to file complaints.

Trudel, the former municipal affairs minister, said there is the "appearance of a conflict of interest," which is as bad as if there actually was such a conflict.

Lawyer's letters over a Facebook post

Lavoie and Nepton's mutual desire to keep their private lives private hasn't done much to quell interest in their relationship.

In 2017, with a municipal election on the horizon, someone posted a photo to a Facebook group of Lavoie and Nepton at the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League draft, in Saint John, N.B.

Marie-Ève Jomphe-Bourdages started the page, Le vrai Chamblyen, with a friend, Céline Faucher. In the comments, Jomphe-Bourdages said people were asking questions about Lavoie and Nepton's relationship.

She said lawyers who usually represent the city approached her and Faucher on behalf of Lavoie and Nepton, asking them to take down the post because it concerned the pair's private lives.

The women refused, contending the matter was already public because it had been broadcast on TVA Sports.

At that point, they received a legal notice ordering them to remove certain people from the group.

Once again, the women refused.

"We're not going to become the city's right hand," said Jomphe-Bourdages.

Three other people received legal notices at the same time as the two women — they went out after the city adopted a resolution to allow its lawyers to take "all the necessary actions in order to protect honour and reputation of the city, its mayor, and its representatives."

Six of the eight municipal councillors voted in favour of that resolution.

They sent Radio-Canada a statement expressing their full and united support for the mayor.

"We wholeheartedly believe in sending legal notices to certain citizens who have gone overboard when it comes to civility, courtesy and respect of elected officials," said Coun. Jean Roy.

"It's like trying to kill a fly with a cannon," said Coun. Mario Lambert, one of two opposition councillors who voted against the resolution.

For Pierre Trudel, a professor of law at Université de Montréal, the use of lawyer's letter in this context is debatable.

"When someone uses public funds to silence its fellow citizens, we come pretty close to what happens in a dictatorship," Trudel said.

Lavoie was re-elected last November for a fourth consecutive term with over 56 per cent of the vote — his best result since 2005.