{"id":3156,"date":"2009-07-12T08:54:27","date_gmt":"2009-07-12T12:54:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingmontreal.ca\/?p=3156"},"modified":"2013-01-21T11:13:25","modified_gmt":"2013-01-21T16:13:25","slug":"patronage-corruption-underworld","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2009\/07\/12\/patronage-corruption-underworld\/","title":{"rendered":"Patronage, Corruption, Underworld: the movie"},"content":{"rendered":"

Well, it can’t be ignored.<\/p>\n

Montreal City Hall sketchiness has reached such astronomical proportions that The Economist ran a piece about it on June 25th, under the headline “Municipal corruption in Canada<\/em>.”<\/p>\n

For any readers who have manged keep their heads buried in the sand during the recent cries of scandale!<\/em> in the local press, the Economist report<\/a> candidly sums up the most blatant instances of favouritism (the SHDM and Water Meter deal). I don’t doubt that for each “tip of the iceberg” that made the international press, there are more cases and more implications of this kind of abuse at home.<\/p>\n

If this is all starting to sound like the plot of a weird mafio-political drama, well, it is. Quebec’s favourite movie director, Denys Arcand, made that film way back in 1973:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

“Patronage = Corruption = P\u00e8gre” (“Patronage = Corruption = Underworld”): the tag line for Arcand’s 1973 film about Montreal Mafiosos, unscrupulous politicians, and expropriating home-owners to build a highway.<\/em><\/p>\n

Here’s an extract from the description of Denys Arcand’s film R\u00e9jeanne Padovani<\/a>, found on the Films Quebec<\/em> blog:<\/p>\n

<\/a>Histoire<\/em><\/strong> :
\nEn l’honneur de l’inauguration d’une autoroute, une r\u00e9ception fastueuse a lieu chez un gros entrepreneur montr\u00e9alais. Durant la soir\u00e9e, son \u00e9pouse le fait chanter.<\/em><\/p>\n

R\u00e9sum\u00e9<\/strong> :<\/p>\n

\u00c0 la veille de l’inauguration d’une autoroute dont ils ont orchestr\u00e9 la construction, quelques politiciens sans scrupule se r\u00e9unissent dans la demeure d’un parrain de la mafia, Vincent Padovani, pour c\u00e9l\u00e9brer l’\u00e9v\u00e9nement. …\u00a0 Ailleurs dans la ville, de jeunes militants pr\u00e9parent une manifestation pour protester contre les expropriations massives ayant d\u00e9coul\u00e9 de la construction de l’autoroute.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Sound familiar?<\/p>\n

Now back to reality, 2009…<\/p>\n

Naturally, what tarnishes the mayor’s party is a golden opportunity for the opposition (and in an election year!). Louise Harel, leader of Vision Montreal, called for a Provincial inquiry<\/a> – on top of the 5 police investigations already underway at city hall. More interestingly, a commentor<\/a> on the Economist’s online edition points out that the article may actually have been authored by a political consultant for Projet Montr\u00e9al.<\/p>\n

But if Arcand’s film was in any way inspired by reality, this kind of cronyism has been around for at least a couple of generations. You gotta wonder whether the opposition parties will be any better at resisting the offers of the allegedly-mob-affiliated contractors whose reign over the city predates the current administration. Can we vote our way out of this problem?<\/p>\n

The only remotely comforting thing is that, in spite of this political climate, Montreal seems to have raised – and adopted – a whole lot of people who none-the-less care about the city very much. But how can citizens be empowered when the system is broken?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Well, it can’t be ignored. Montreal City Hall sketchiness has reached such astronomical proportions that The Economist ran a piece about it on June 25th, under the headline “Municipal corruption in Canada.” For any readers who have manged keep their heads buried in the sand during the recent cries of scandale! in the local press,Continue reading “Patronage, Corruption, Underworld: the movie”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5022,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7836,7840],"tags":[8,73],"class_list":["post-3156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-headlines","category-politics","tag-city-hall","tag-headlines-a-la-une"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nPatronage, Corruption, Underworld: the movie - Spacing Montreal<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2009\/07\/12\/patronage-corruption-underworld\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Patronage, Corruption, Underworld: the movie - Spacing Montreal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Well, it can’t be ignored. Montreal City Hall sketchiness has reached such astronomical proportions that The Economist ran a piece about it on June 25th, under the headline “Municipal corruption in Canada.” For any readers who have manged keep their heads buried in the sand during the recent cries of scandale! in the local press,Continue reading "Patronage, Corruption, Underworld: the movie"\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2009\/07\/12\/patronage-corruption-underworld\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Spacing Montreal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-07-12T12:54:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-01-21T16:13:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/img.over-blog.com\/251x380\/2\/48\/65\/58\/Affiches-films\/Rejeanne_Padovani_petit.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Alanah Heffez\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Spacing\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Spacing\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Alanah Heffez\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2009\/07\/12\/patronage-corruption-underworld\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2009\/07\/12\/patronage-corruption-underworld\/\",\"name\":\"Patronage, Corruption, Underworld: the movie - Spacing Montreal\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2009\/07\/12\/patronage-corruption-underworld\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2009\/07\/12\/patronage-corruption-underworld\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\/\/img.over-blog.com\/251x380\/2\/48\/65\/58\/Affiches-films\/Rejeanne_Padovani_petit.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2009-07-12T12:54:27+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-01-21T16:13:25+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/#\/schema\/person\/d9708edcbf411e2f340ef5149d0c8e29\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2009\/07\/12\/patronage-corruption-underworld\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2009\/07\/12\/patronage-corruption-underworld\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2009\/07\/12\/patronage-corruption-underworld\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/img.over-blog.com\/251x380\/2\/48\/65\/58\/Affiches-films\/Rejeanne_Padovani_petit.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\/\/img.over-blog.com\/251x380\/2\/48\/65\/58\/Affiches-films\/Rejeanne_Padovani_petit.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2009\/07\/12\/patronage-corruption-underworld\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Patronage, Corruption, Underworld: the movie\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/\",\"name\":\"Spacing Montreal\",\"description\":\"Canadian Urbanism Uncovered | Montreal Architecture, Urban Design, Public Transit, City Hall, Parks, Walking, Bikes, Streetscape, History, Waterfront, Maps, Public Spaces\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/#\/schema\/person\/d9708edcbf411e2f340ef5149d0c8e29\",\"name\":\"Alanah Heffez\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2665e638603d91eaccfcb354cbb609da?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2665e638603d91eaccfcb354cbb609da?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Alanah Heffez\"},\"description\":\"Alanah is interested in place-making, education and stories, She was born and raised in Montreal, and mixes a passion for the city with the occasional jaunt into Northern Quebec.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/author\/alanah\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Patronage, Corruption, Underworld: the movie - Spacing Montreal","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2009\/07\/12\/patronage-corruption-underworld\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Patronage, Corruption, Underworld: the movie - Spacing Montreal","og_description":"Well, it can’t be ignored. Montreal City Hall sketchiness has reached such astronomical proportions that The Economist ran a piece about it on June 25th, under the headline “Municipal corruption in Canada.” For any readers who have manged keep their heads buried in the sand during the recent cries of scandale! in the local press,Continue reading \"Patronage, Corruption, Underworld: the movie\"","og_url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2009\/07\/12\/patronage-corruption-underworld\/","og_site_name":"Spacing Montreal","article_published_time":"2009-07-12T12:54:27+00:00","article_modified_time":"2013-01-21T16:13:25+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/img.over-blog.com\/251x380\/2\/48\/65\/58\/Affiches-films\/Rejeanne_Padovani_petit.jpg","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"Alanah Heffez","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@Spacing","twitter_site":"@Spacing","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Alanah Heffez","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2009\/07\/12\/patronage-corruption-underworld\/","url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2009\/07\/12\/patronage-corruption-underworld\/","name":"Patronage, Corruption, Underworld: the movie - Spacing Montreal","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2009\/07\/12\/patronage-corruption-underworld\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2009\/07\/12\/patronage-corruption-underworld\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/img.over-blog.com\/251x380\/2\/48\/65\/58\/Affiches-films\/Rejeanne_Padovani_petit.jpg","datePublished":"2009-07-12T12:54:27+00:00","dateModified":"2013-01-21T16:13:25+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/#\/schema\/person\/d9708edcbf411e2f340ef5149d0c8e29"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2009\/07\/12\/patronage-corruption-underworld\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2009\/07\/12\/patronage-corruption-underworld\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2009\/07\/12\/patronage-corruption-underworld\/#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/img.over-blog.com\/251x380\/2\/48\/65\/58\/Affiches-films\/Rejeanne_Padovani_petit.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/img.over-blog.com\/251x380\/2\/48\/65\/58\/Affiches-films\/Rejeanne_Padovani_petit.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2009\/07\/12\/patronage-corruption-underworld\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Patronage, Corruption, Underworld: the movie"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/#website","url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/","name":"Spacing Montreal","description":"Canadian Urbanism Uncovered | Montreal Architecture, Urban Design, Public Transit, City Hall, Parks, Walking, Bikes, Streetscape, History, Waterfront, Maps, Public Spaces","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/#\/schema\/person\/d9708edcbf411e2f340ef5149d0c8e29","name":"Alanah Heffez","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2665e638603d91eaccfcb354cbb609da?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2665e638603d91eaccfcb354cbb609da?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Alanah Heffez"},"description":"Alanah is interested in place-making, education and stories, She was born and raised in Montreal, and mixes a passion for the city with the occasional jaunt into Northern Quebec.","sameAs":["https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal"],"url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/author\/alanah\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3156","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5022"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3156"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3156\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17553,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3156\/revisions\/17553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}